Markets

Frontier Begins Offering "Productized" Fares

By Brett Snyder

Updated on: December 19, 2008 / 10:37 AM EST / MoneyWatch

Frontier President and CEO Sean Menke's roots are showing. Menke, who was previously with Air Canada, has brought that carrier's fare structure down south to his current company Frontier. The airline announced yesterday that it would begin offering three levels of fares: Economy, Classic, and Classic Plus. I've been a big proponent of this type of "productized" faring for years, and I'm glad to see it's slowly being adopted.

Instead of having me explain the structure, I'll just show it directly from Frontier's website:

My biggest problem with fees in general is that you have to pay for them individually as you go through your travel experience. This structure enables people to self-select what kind of ticket they want up front. This makes life much easier for the customer, and it gets them to consider an upsell very early on. It also has the benefit of clearly displaying what customers will get when they buy their ticket, so expectations are set appropriately up front.

Nice job, Frontier.