Dive Brief:

• Two U.S. budget airlines are making changes to their policies of charging customers often-hefty fees for making changes to flights. Last Friday, Spirit eliminated change and cancelation fees for all tickets, while Frontier eliminated change fees for most fares. 
• Frontier’s change fee announcement was part of a broader effort to rebrand with its “The New Frontier” campaign. The carrier also promised to offer clear and upfront pricing options and is offering new fare bundles.
• Frontier also brought back live phone support, which it had discontinued in 2022. Frontier will make its phone line available to customers with Elite status or any customers within 24 hours of their flight, and the airline will introduce a new callback service for other inquiries.

Dive Insight:

In an effort to stay competitive with legacy airlines, low-cost carriers are looking to offer customers flexibility.

“When it comes to low-cost carriers, they're competing for that same clientele, and so they've got to be super aggressive,” Katy Nastro, a travel expert at Going, told CX Dive. “It really is keeping up with the Joneses mentality.”

Low-cost carriers may not have the budgets to retrofit cabins, but eliminating change fees, or in Spirit’s case eliminating cancelation fees, is “low-hanging fruit,” according to Nastro.

“When you look at low-cost carriers, they're seeing that they don't have the budgets to grow to the extent that these legacy carriers, like a United, Delta or American, can, but they want to be able to compete in that playing field,” Nastro said. 

These airlines have settled on “rejigging their pricing,” she said.

The elimination of change and cancelation fees are an attempt to “appeal to a wider range of customers and remove some of the barriers that might prevent some travelers from flying with Spirit and Frontier,” Sean Cudahy, aviation reporter at The Points Guy, told CX Dive.

In announcing the changes, Barry Biffle, Frontier’s CEO, emphasized good customer service and transparency.

"Today marks the beginning of a new era for Frontier — one with transparency in our prices, no change fees and the lowest total price," Biffle said in a prepared statement. "This is 'The New Frontier' and we are committed to offering more than the lowest fares — we deliver the best price for all the options you want and the customer support you need, when you need it. No gimmicks, just really low prices and good customer service."

To Nastro, cutting phone support in 2022 appeared to be a cost-cutting move. 

“This is one aspect that they've probably heard a lot of frustration about and are looking to, ‘OK, let's make the investment back into having people on staff to man the phones and sort of see if that gives us not only brand loyalty but sort of attracts people back,” she said.