What Frontier Airlines just got very, very wrong

It was announced this week that Frontier Airlines would discontinue its customer support helpline opting instead to only offer only digital options i.e: No option for a conversation with a real person over the phone. None. The bean-counters at Frontier might be feeling good, but leadership made the inexcusable error of not understanding the business they are in.

Frontier thinks they are selling seats, when in fact, they are selling outcomes. They are selling the reunion at the end of the flight, the crucial business meeting that will close an important sale, a long-delayed family vacation or even a funeral for a recently deceased loved one. When we buy a seat on a flight, we are trusting (betting) that we will make the personal or business we desire. Any uncertainty about successfully arriving makes that purchase very risky.

Flight scenarios are unique from other transactions as time (speed) is a crucial factor. Flights leave when they leave. You are on that flight, or the next one, or you aren’t. Frontier believes that a lower price for the seat itself is sufficient to make us look past the risk we would take to book a seat on their airline. Or they assume that millennials who deftly navigate online options are representative of all their fliers.

In a time when a focus on reducing friction, complication and frustration is distinguishing the better companies from the less desirable ones, Frontier is astonishingly adding frustration. Mark my words, the backlash will be severe from this self-inflicted wound. Step back and watch the growing online chorus of furious passengers who couldn’t access support during their travels. The vitriol will be deafening.