I offered last week that I wasn’t fond of Frontier Airlines, citing what were to me some profound failings in the service and comfort area. This week I get a chance to add a new one to the list. I’m beginning to realize its no accident that they have a goat on the tail of some of their planes.
In the old days of Midwest Express, the days of incredible service and on-board amenities, I left everything under the sun on the plane when I arrived back in Milwaukee: glasses, gifts, jackets, books, sweaters, you name it. The most potentially disastrous were my day-timer, today’s version of leaving your iPhone, and my client information binder, which contained key, and quite confidential, information about the company’s activities. I was toast if I lost either of those.
In each and every instance, I got the item back. Why? Midwest had a local office at Mitchell where all these items were delivered after the clean-up crews discovered them. They also had a local phone number that you could call and make your claim. The phone was actually answered by a real person. What a concept. Each time I was able to drive over and pick up what I left on the plane.
Fade to our most recent trip, when we flew Frontier, part of the company that bought Midwest, to Newark and back. It was Monday night and we were waiting out the two-hour delay for our return flight that I referenced last week. It got to be quite late, we landed in Milwaukee both tired and drained. Unfortunately we left an iPod in our seat when we deplaned, and realized it too late to go back.
We tried and tried to find a local number to call for Frontier lost & found, to no avail. After numerous trips to the Frontier web site and a number of calls to the main reservation number, there was no quick link or number to “lost & found”. It took an incredible amount of digging to figure out that you needed to either leave a voice mail on a main number or send an email to a main address, both in Denver! That’s right, we left something on a plane in Milwaukee, and had to try to contact Denver. Does this make sense to you?
The phone number was, not surprisingly, automated, and I was allowed to leave a voice mail in a “general” mailbox with details on the iPod and its last known location. I then sent an email with the same information, and this is the reply I received:
“Your E-Mail has been received by our Central Lost and Found Office. [We will see if it] can be cross referenced against the items that are turned in. We spend the majority of our time organizing and matching these items from the hundreds of voicemail and email requests we receive rather than returning calls when we do not have a matching item; so we hope you will understand why your call may not be returned.
If we do locate the item you may have lost or left on board our aircraft, we will call you immediately…
Thank you, FRONTIER AIRLINES, Found Property Team”
Well, the ONLY reason that there are “hundreds” of requests is that there is ONLY ONE mailbox. For an ENTIRE airline. One mailbox. Give me a break. How many cities does Frontier service? ONE mailbox. Maddening. And I understand why my item may not be returned; a member of the stellar Frontier cleaning crew is now enjoying the iPod and we’re left holding the bag.
We may still have to fly Frontier on some routes, to Raleigh for example where they are the only direct flight in town. But I assure you that if we have any possible alternative, we’re going to take it.
By the way, the name on the email from the “Found Property Team” came into my inbox as being from “LOST”. Now that is quite appropriate.
