How to make the best of flying Frontier Airlines

I recently flew on Frontier Airlines and the experience was pretty interesting to say the least!

I won't bore you with all the details, but the TLDR is:
My return trip was cancelled, re-booked for next day, Frontier paid me for overnight Hotel and Breakfast, cancelled the flight again, I had to fly back on United instead on my own dime, got a refund from Frontier, got $900 in vouchers from Frontier, used all the vouchers, wife got to go to Las Vegas, and I never sat on hold for more than 10 minutes.  In the end I actually came out ahead on the deal.

I never paid for seats and everyone sat together. 

Compare that to your own Frontier story!

From what I read on Twitter and Facebook lately, your story is probably a lot worse!
Mine could have been as well, but I got creative. 

Here are my tips for you, and hopefully you will be able to survive a Frontier Airlines flight a little easier, and even beat them at their own game. 
1. Don't select seats. First of all, there is no guarantee you will get the seat you selected, so why pay and extra $25 just to be disappointed? Second, who really cares where you sit, you flew this airline to save money right? Here's the trick: When you are at the gate (after check-in), ask if they can switch your seat so you can sit with your husband/wife/mistress/kid whatever. They will either do it or not. They did for me.

2. If you are checking a bag or don't have a seat assignment, YOU NEED TO GET TO THE AIRPORT EARLY! This is a clear Frontier rule that if you are not checked in 45 minutes before the flight you are not getting on! Follow the rules. Don't whine about it on Facebook. If you don't want to wait in line to check in, then select your seat at on-line check-in and pay for carry-on luggage. Then you don't have to visit the ticket counter.  You must have your boarding pass PRINTED. They don't do smart-phone tickets. Don't whine about that on facebook either. Or paying for a carry-on. YOU ARE FLYING A DISCOUNT AIRLINE, REMEMBER!

3. Plan for the worst! Assume your flight will be at least 30 minutes late, if not 6 hours or could be cancelled. So make sure you have some FLEXIBILITY in your schedule. If you are going to a wedding or funeral the same day, DO NOT FLY FRONTIER. And don't whine about how you missed your wedding or job interview or the surgery to remove your son's extra pinky toe on facebook, nobody wants to hear it. You've been warned.

4. Track the Airplane BEFORE YOU LEAVE FOR THE AIRPORT, or the prior day, even better: Figure out where your plane is coming from, where it was before that, and before that, all the way back to Denver if need be. Use Flightstats.com Start tracking the plane as it goes from airport to airport. If its delayed, you will know before everyone because you're smarter than the Frontier website! If its seriously delayed, go on facebook and twitter and search for people complaining about it. Search twitter for #frontierairlines. Reply to their emails or tweets and find out the details. I had a woman tweet me pictures of the mechanic working on the plane, or more like with his hands in his pockets.
This way you don't waste your time huffing and puffing and bothering the gate agents, "I'm missing my vacation", you already know whats going on better than they do!

5. When the flight is late
If your flight is up to 2 hours late, you won the lottery! Enjoy your flight!
If your flight 2 to 4 hours late, you get a $30 voucher.
If your flight is more than 3 hours late you can cancel and get a refund, even for Economy flights.
If your flight is 4-6 hours late, you get a $75 voucher and a meal!
If your flight is 6 hours or more late or Cancelled, you get $150 voucher and a meal voucher AND you have the option to cancel your flight if you want and get a refund even for Economy tickets!
If your flight is CANCELLED here is where the fun starts. First of all, you are owed a $150 voucher for a cancelled flight. And you can get a refund. If it is cancelled for more than one day in a row, the $150 vouchers build up for every day it is cancelled and you don't cancel and ask for a refund. Once you cancel then you keep the vouchers and get a refund. Good to go, buy a ticket on another airline, of course for MORE MONEY, you're not going to find $21 or $79 or even $120 tickets anywhere else, this is the game you are playing, and there is risk.

You should already know the flight is going to be cancelled because you are following the plane on Flightstats.com website and facebook and twitter.
When they announce the flight is cancelled you get your ass to the ticket counter in the main terminal before everyone else because you don't want to stand in that line. You will be the first one in line to get the hotel voucher, or cancel your ticket and get a refund if you want.  Now if you can't wait and need to re-book on another airline, go ahead and do that from the comfort of a hotel room and relax. Then call frontier and cancel your flight. They will give you $150 voucher as well as a refund.

6. HOW TO CALL FRONTIER: Holy shit don't call the complaint number! If you do that you are a retard and please don't post on Facebook how you stayed on hold for over 3 hours and then were disconnected, what kind of idiot does that? Apparently a LOT.

Call the main Frontier number 800-432-1359 for reservations available 24x7.
Don't pick any of the first options on the menu. Go to the second menu. Pick some obscure option like "Problem with website" or "I lost my child" or "I found a very personal item in the seat pocket".  All the queues go to the same call centers, but the obscure ones have maybe 30 second wait time vs 45 minutes. All the customer service reps have the ability to help you, they all get the same damn calls like "My flight is cancelled you guys suck and owe me your first born". Don't do that. Be nice.
And if you get a message saying "Transferring you to Baggage Dept" thats not true! Its just to get people to hang up! Don't fall for it!
If you have 2 people sitting around in the airport or hotel, have both people call and use different options and see which one wins. What else you gonna do anyway, post another whiny post to facebook and complain to your neighbor?
If you choose to call, and need a new reservation, or want to use a voucher, they make you listen to all the rules and regulation details in a automated 2 minute recording after the person books it for you. If there is a hell, I imagine this recording is what you have to listen to before you get breakfast every day. Small price to pay though, don't give up!

7. DON'T CALL FRONTIER. If you want real help, post on facebook frontier website BUT NOT TO COMPLAIN!  Yes you will have to "Like" the site to post on it. I bet the 2 people that have the jobs to reply to customers on facebook get paid more than pilots (and most likely are related to the owners) because they answer those posts super fast and if you give them details on what you need help with they actually fix it super fast! Those 2 people ROCK! Love them! Don't complain in general like "My flight was cancelled and now I'm screwed. Never flying Frontier again" Nobody wants to hear that and it doesn't give them anything to do because it has no details. Tell them what you want! "My flight 1001 was cancelled today and I would like a refund. Could someone please do that for me today? Thank you." BOOM. Refund. Vouchers. Unicorns and Rainbows of skittles.
Try it.

IF you have a lot of time you can send an email to frontier customer service but it will take at least 10 days to get a response. They even tell you that in facebook posts! I wouldn't do that. Send an email to facebook@frontier.com first and I bet you get a response within 24 hours. Try facebook or calling with the tricks I wrote before.

8. How to redeem vouchers: Of course they make this difficult as hell. They send you an email saying there is a magical forest full of unicorns along with your Electronic Travel Certificate, but they don't give you the actual voucher numbers. Time to play hide and seek!
This is the part that took the longest time for me. To get the numbers takes multiple steps. Follow the steps in the email they send you. It won't work though if you have a middle name. Seriously. If you have a middle name then you have to get them to remove the middle name from the Electronic Travel Certificate because I bet someone in IT quit and they can't find the source code. Try contacting them through one of the methods I described above and they can fix it for you. You can do it! Don't think they didn't send you vouchers, its part of the legal Contract of Carriage and they won't fuck around with that. http://www.flyfrontier.com/customer-service/faqs/contract-of-carriage-faqs

9. Purse, carry on, or checked bag? Seriously, do you need ALL THAT STUFF? Learn to pack LIGHT. This is my pet peeve of travelling in general. People bring too much stuff. I pack extremely light. No more than a backpack for a week. You can't take a backpack on a Frontier flight though, have to pay minimum $30 for that. Cheapest way to go is a laptop bag. They don't charge for that. But don't bring a purse also or you will get charged! If you can put one change of clothes in the laptop bag and layer up on your body, you are good for a weekend. More than that and you are better off checking a bag. Its only $15 at online check-in. Good to go. If you are repeating your destination multiple times stash clothes there and next time don't bring any. Don't take a carry-on, unless you want to spend $30 each way. May as well fly Southwest then.

Bottom line, if you are a person with a quick temper, on a tight timeline, or haven't traveled since before Sept 11, 2001, pick a different airline. If you LOVE A GREAT DEAL, and can FOLLOW THE RULES, you can "beat the house" at their own game and come out ahead!

Stop posting your whining to facebook "I can't believe they charge $30 for a checked bag! I am so mad! I will never fly Frontier again!" Then don't, pay more, and leave the seat for me.

2010 - 2014 Audi A4 B8 Brake Pad and Rotor replacement

Replace Front Disc Brake Pads and Rotors
2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 Audi A4 Quattro B8

Tools needed:
Large C-clamp
21MM Socket, 2 Inch extension, breaker bar, ratchet
T30 Torx screwdriver or bit (use the one in the trunk toolkit)
Screwdrivers or pry tool
Large rubber mallet
Brake Cleaner Spray
PB Blaster penetrating oil
Disc Brake Quiet/lube (comes with the brake pad set but you may need more)

Parts Installed:
2 Brake Rotors from Autozone: Duralast 45600 $33.99 each
Brake Pad set from Advance Auto Parts:
Akebono Euro Ceramic Brake Pads with Sensor EUR1322 $81.99

Total Cost: $149.97 vs. Dealer $650

Only issues I had were removing the outboard pads. They are glued to the caliper at the factory, which meant I needed to really pry them off. I ended up using a c-clamp to pry them off.

Also the passenger side rotor was stuck on, but after some PB Blaster penetrant oil, it came off with a couple whacks with a rubber mallet.

See the video here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i00ZIJSOA8w

Monroe 58648 Sensa-trac rear shocks for 2008-2014 Chrysler town and country, Dodge Caravan, Volkswagen Routan

Just installed rear coil-over shocks on my 2009 Chrysler Town and Country minivan.
Bought them at rockauto.com

See the youtube video of the installation here:
http://youtu.be/Swu86ELl2xU

MSG in beer! Among other things...

I get headaches from MSG aka Monosodium Glutamate. I consider myself a MSG detector at this point in my life.
I recently detected MSG in Miller 64 beer.
I can drink 4 Guiness in 2 hours and get absolutely no headache.
One Miller 64 or Miller light and I have a pounding killer headache for 24 hours!
So after several attempts at this (and thinking it was something I ate, not the light beer) I Googled "Miller 64 MSG" and there you go! It has MSG in it.
Yeungling regular, no MSG. Yeungling Light, yes it has it.

Here are a few other things that have MSG that you may not consider.

Most of these are from my own experience, or combination of that and I read it on the ingredients after I got the headache.
Doritos. If I eat just 3 of these chips I get a headache for days.
Most sausages, like Italian or Bratwurst. Johnsonville is packed with MSG.
Campbells soup, especially cream of mushroom. Even the ones that say no MSG added, yeah, it has it. Cream of mushroom soup is the main ingredient in "Green bean cassarole" at thanksgiving. Stay away from that.
Movie popcorn butter. Usually just the popcorn is fine, just don't add the chemical laced butter.
Most frozen dinners.
Taco bell. Especially the nacho cheese, and hot sauces in the packets. The ground beef has a small amount. Good to go at Moe's and Chipotle. Tijuana Flats I have gotten a headache from once, but could have been the hot sauce I put on it.
Chinese take-out, duh. If you ask them to not use MSG, keep in mind usually it is in the soup because that is made in a batch, and the egg rolls also. Otherwise they can skip it when they make your food.

Also, I can tell you MSG allergy/headache is inherited. My dad has it (mom does not), I have it (wife does not), my daughter has it. My brother does not have it.

Hope that helps you if you get a headache after one light beer!

Leaking heater hose on 2009 Chrysler Town and Country minivan

If  you have a leaking heater hose on a 2008 2009 2010 2011 Chrysler Town and Country, Dodge Caravan, or VW Routan, check out this youtube video on how to fix it.
See the video here!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DBNyZQD9LD8

Changing Struts on a 1996 Toyota Camry with Monroe QuickStruts

I changed the struts on a 1996 Toyota Camry with monroe Quickstruts ordered from Amazon.com. At least I was successful in replacing the front struts. It was not as easy as you might think, it took 2 people, as to put the new strut in, you have to basically jump on the lower control arm to get it far enough down to get the new strut to line up. No doubt it is easier than taking the strut apart though, and much cheaper than taking to a shop. Unfortunately the rear struts were unable to be done due to the stabilizer link nuts being completely rusted on, and unable to turn. I had to take the car to the shop to get the old stabilizer links torched off. Then they finished the job for $300. So grand total to replace all 4 was $150 x 4 = $600 - $150 rebate = $450 + $300 shop = $750. Which is still cheaper than having the shop do it.

Kohler Wellworth Toilet Flapper

One of our toilets was flushing on its own. Needed a new flapper.
Kohler Wellworth K-4620-DA toilet.

Kohler part number 85160 you can find it online.
Amazon link:
https://amzn.to/2XnxmeY

I went to TrueValue and got Korky Plus Adjustable Premium Flapper and it worked just fine.
Korky 2004BP

Amazon link:
https://amzn.to/2U24zLa

On the package it said "Fits most brands including Kohler and American Standard Toilets".
5 year warranty and made in Burlington WI, USA.
So there you go.