Frontier Airlines stops charging customers a ‘COVID recovery’ fee
Frontier Airlines has stopped charging customers a hard-to-notice COVID recovery fee.
The fee was widely reported on earlier this week and the airline said the extra $1.59 went toward PPE for ticketing agents, pilots, flight attendants and other employees, as well as sanitation and cleaning on planes and at gates.
“The charge, which was included in the airline’s total promoted fare versus an add-on fee, was meant to provide transparency and delineate what portion of the fare was going toward Covid-related business recovery, including repayment of a CARES Act loan from the U.S. government,’' spokesman Zach Kramer told USA Today. “However, to avoid misinterpretation, the airline will discontinue the practice of breaking out this category within its overall promoted fares.’'
According to travel blog Miles to Memories, Frontier will receive a total of $150.2 million from the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021. As part of the CARES Act in 2020, the airline received a $574 million Treasury loan.
The fee fiasco is the latest incident to call into question Frontier’s business practices.
In September 2020, the Colorado Attorney General started an investigation into Frontier’s alleged pandemic behavior which included keeping customers on hold for hours when they tried to rebook flights, not refunding COVID-canceled flights, charging customers extra to keep middle seats empty and assorted website issues.
