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Frontier to charge more for e-tickets over phone

Chris Walsh, Rocky Mountain News

Published August 4, 2006 at midnight

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Frontier Airlines announced Thursday it will charge an extra $5 for electronic tickets purchased via telephone or at its airport counters in an effort to drive more customers to the company's Web site.

The Denver-based carrier said the change will help it control distribution expenses because the cheapest way for airlines to sell tickets is through their own online sites.

The new fee, which takes effect Monday, also will help Frontier offset certain transaction and handling charges incurred when customers book over the phone or at ticket counters.

Fares purchased on Frontier's Web site will be exempt from the new charge.

Aside from cost savings, the move will help "free up reservations agents to deal with higher-end customer service issues" as more people move to the Web site, Frontier spokesman Joe Hodas said.

Frontier, Denver's second-largest airline, is hoping to get at least 50 percent of its customers to book tickets on its newly revamped site. Just 35 percent of the company's customers did so when Frontier launched a new version of its site in May.

Currently, up to 18 percent of customers book tickets by telephone, the company said.

Members of Frontier's Summit rewards program are exempt from the new fee, as are tickets purchased for groups and conventions. The fee also doesn't apply to promotional tickets.

Frontier joins other carriers, including American, United and Continental, that charge from $5 to $20 for reservations made over the phone or at the airport, although some airlines don't charge such fees.

Carriers increasingly are implementing new fees as they battle high fares, which has led some observers to charge the carriers with "nickel-and-diming" consumers.

Other industry watchers, though, say adding fees for tickets not purchased on an airline's Web site makes sense.

"Self-distribution of tickets is clearly the least costly sales channel for airlines," said New York-based industry consultant Robert Mann. "It's a business reality now."

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