Frontier Airlines passengers will have to pay $5 to book a ticket over the phone or in person at the airport as of Tuesday.
The change comes as Frontier tries to increase bookings through its website to cut back on costs.
Some airlines, including Southwest Airlines, do not charge fees for booking with a reservation agent. But many major carriers, including United Airlines, already charge fees of up to $20.
“It’s just a fact of life that passengers have to deal with,” said David Stempler, president of the Potomac, Md.-based Air Travelers Association.
Exceptions to Frontier’s per- ticket fee include frequent-flier redemption tickets; exchanges; tickets for groups, meetings and conventions; coupons or vouchers; promotional tickets; website outages; interline reservations; military, government or prepaid tickets; and Summit-level frequent fliers. Those booking paper tickets instead of e-tickets will continue to pay a $25 fee.
About 12 percent to 18 percent of Frontier’s tickets are booked by phone. The company wants to increase the percentage of tickets booked on its website from 30 percent to 40 percent now to 50 percent by March.
“It’s a behavior change” for customers, said Frontier spokesman Joe Hodas.
Booking a ticket through a call center can cost the company $12 or more, said John Happ, Frontier’s senior vice president of marketing and planning. A website booking might cost the company 50 cents to $1.50, he said.
Frontier waited to begin charging a fee until it improved its website. More improvements are underway, including a feature allowing frequent-flier mile-redemption bookings online, matrix pricing and a computer desktop program.
Hodas said Frontier will not cut back on reservation agents.
Other carriers have higher rates of online bookings. Southwest said in a February filing that its website accounts for nearly 70 percent of ticket bookings.
Southwest limits its forms of distribution, which helps drive bookings to its website.
“It’s just a different business model altogether,” Hodas said.
Staff writer Kelly Yamanouchi can be reached at 303-820-1488 or kyamanouchi@ denverpost.com.
