Frontier Airlines ditches $39 empty seats sale after heavy criticism

Frontier Airlines’ latest effort to drum up extra business during the coronavirus pandemic never got off the ground. The carrier Wednesday night pulled the plug on its “more room” sales offer, where a passenger could buy an empty middle seat on flights for $39 and up. The deal was heavily criticized, including by Congressional leaders. In a letter addressed to US Representatives, Frontier CEO Barry Biffle said his airline would rescind the more room pricing policy that was set to take effect on Frontier flights starting Friday. The letter was apparently in response to correspondence from the leaders earlier in the day. Biffle has been making the media rounds to promote the new program this week. “We recognize the concerns raised that we are profiting from safety and this was never our intent. We simply wanted to provide our customers with an option for more space,” Biffle wrote. “We will leave the seats blocked which were associated with this product and honor purchases made by all customers who bought the product up until now.” The “more room” initiative drew immediate criticism on social media this week with some referring to it as a cash grab playing on people’s fears of the deadly COVID-19 virus. <br/>