[Butch Cassidy Slept Here]

First, in your letter to Frontier, I would make it clear Frontier provided a hotel voucher to your son. The fact that this was done is, in effect, an admission of sorts that Frontier was (morally) in the wrong. I wouldn’t expect much beyond a “sorry for the inconvenience” and, maybe, a $50 flight voucher you can only use at 5:00 AM, on a Wednesday in February, and for a fee of $100---in other words a worthless piece of paper. The Frontier gate staff may have had a super-crappy personality, but it sounds like they had the rules on their side. The “Friendly Skies” died with deregulation and, while rules may be bent from time to time, you should always assume you will be dealing with an anal retentive rule follower. Connecting flight, or not, you must present yourself at the departure gate not later than the time the airline says. Otherwise you are at the mercy of Herr Kommandant!

Based on your comment about having to change terminals in Denver it looks like this was an inter-line connection, from United Express/Sky West, to Frontier. Frontier has always maintained all its gates, and commuter partners, in a single terminal in Denver (which is, currently, Terminal A). I don’t know how much ground time there was between the two flights as they were originally scheduled. However, if your connection requires a change of terminals, and you’re connecting to the last flight of the day, I would not accept a booking where the ground time is less than two hours. This should apply when you’re connecting at ANY major airport. I think you would agree that having to “overnight” (at your expense) in Denver would have been preferable to the insanity you and your son endured. Usually, if you book the first flight of the day, “overnighting,” en route, can be avoided but may involve an extended (5 hours plus) ground time at the connecting point. The moral: Just because the connection has a “legal” (minimum required) ground time that does NOT mean you have any chance in the world of actually reaching the departure gate, of your onward flight, in time. Airlines apparently have no problem in selling tickets which involve connections their customers can’t possibly make.

Another suggestion: Air travel to or through Denver, or elsewhere in the Rockies, can be prone to bad weather (snow) almost ten months out of the year with July and August being the exception. So it’s a good idea to familiarize yourself with the airport hotels at Denver and the Amtrak schedule and routes. Really bad snows can stop Amtrak. However, most of the time, Amtrak will run through weather that will ground a plane.

Frontier, and their Great Lakes Air commuter partner, serve two of the three airports closest to my home. So I’m familiar with this airline. I’m not excusing the attitude of the staff in Denver, but still, you could have done a LOT worse with another airline. If you ever travel with Frontier again I would recommend buying a “Classic Plus” (premium) fare. The ticket is fully refundable and, on mainline flights, provides seating with extra legroom (“Stretch Seating”).