re: Is a ridiculously low fare worth taking one of the trash airlines?

Have flown Frontier, Spirit and Allegiant once each, direct flights, no connections.

They are GREAT for saving money, but you gotta know what you are doing beforehand:

1. Yes, they charge like other airlines to check luggage, but also to check carry-ons. Answer: if this is a short trip, which it appears to be, you can carry-on (for free) a "personal item". Dimensions for Frontier personal items is 18" X 14" X 8"-- basically a backpack or bag like this:
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You should be able to pack for a weekend wedding trip using one of these. I can usually do a 3-4 day weekend with one. Also, I have never seen them be very strict on size or uses of these, so you can get away with (a) your bag being a little bigger, and (b) putting it in the overhead bin, which is supposed to be for larger dimension carry-ons only.

2. Print or phone-download your boarding pass, etc. in advance. Completely bypass the Frontier desk. Less interaction with staff, the better, particularly when dealing with carry-ons/personal items.

3. If you think you will get hungry or thirsty on the short flight, buy your own snacks or bottled drink at the airport before boarding.

4. Decide if you want to select your seat or not. Depending on location and flight, it can be as low as $16-17 per flight, or as much as $50 to select a more roomy row. You'll get a screen like this when purchasing:


If you don't care, you don't select a seat-- you don't pay extra, and you get assigned a seat at the airport. On some of my cheap flights, I had the whole row to myself, so you never know.

-- I found people on these airlines to be no more trashy than on other airlines. We don't live in the Mad Men days when men wore suits on flights and only the jet set could fly. There are trashy people on ALL flights on ALL airlines these days.

-- Not that it is necessary on a short flight, but the "tray tables" on Frontier ARE a joke; they are designed more for phones, definitely not a laptop or tablet:

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Is Frontier really worse than Spirit? I've never flown either I just had in my head it was a step up.

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Believe it or not, yes. The seats are even worse. And they don't have an equivalent to Spirit's Big Front Seat, which is not a bad ride. Price-wise, gotcha charges, and a nearly guaranteed bad experience if anything goes wrong with your flight getting canceled--about the same, maybe only slightly worse. But often even cheaper than Spirit.

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It’s fine if you spend some time reading the fine print ahead of time and don’t need much luggage.

If you can bring just a black (or dark colored/discrete) duffel bag that fits all your stuff, go for it.

I forget the exact measurements you’re supposed to conform too, but I’ve flown them before with a duffel that was about 2-3 inches bigger in each dimension and had no issues

Two hour or less flight…yes

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ATL to CMH? Just fly Frontier, its an hour flight, not worth the extra $200 for free water and crackers.

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I see what did there you racist frick

I didn't have an issue the one time I flew with Frontier.

They'll be ready for takeoff:

How long is the flight?

I flew To Denver and it was cheap as shite but the seat did put me in what the US Military would call a “stress position”

Probably not worth it in longer flights, but you should be ok.

Just be prepared for Pay for oxygen if the plain starts going down.

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$49 on Frontier.

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It's named Frontier for a reason. The Oregon Trail was substantially less fraught with hardship.