A New Frontier? Pluses and Minuses of Flying Out of Trenton

In November 2012, Frontier Airlines opened up service out of the Trenton-Mercer airport, a mere half hour drive from the Princeton campus. A Midwesterner searching for low airfares, I happened on Frontier’s low fares last month. I knew little about the airport, but I could not resist a $39 flight, so when I needed to fly to the University of Michigan, I chose Frontier.Here's a guide to Frontier:The fares can be incredibly cheap, but the dates and times are limited. My flight was the only one of the day to Detroit, and it left at 7 a.m. Buy your Frontier tickets from their website. If you get the tickets from another service, they may charge you a carry-on fee at the gate. Already there is a $25 fee for your first checked bag on their cheapest fares, which they refer to as Economy class. All information and fares are on flyfrontier.com.Once your tickets are purchased, the first complication you run into when flying out of Trenton is figuring out how to get there. Newark airport is an eyesore, but the train goes directly to the terminal. A trip to the Trenton airport on public transportation would involve a mile and a half walk down a road with no sidewalk and no shoulder. I recommend taking a cab or calling on the services of a friend. If you have a car, it costs $8/day to leave your car there overnight.Once you arrive, the airport consists of one counter to print boarding passes to check bags, two TSA scanners, two gates, and baggage claim. You must arrive 45 minutes before your flight leaves, or they won’t let you on (which is ridiculous because it takes about 10 to get through security). This is what baggage claim looks like:When they call you up to board, you walk out onto the runway and up a staircase to the gate - way more exciting than a jetway. And once you take off it’s like any other airline, except for the pictures of animals on the wings. Yes, it’s safe – the FAA and the TSA aren’t known for their relaxed approach to regulation.Upshot – Frontier has absurdly cheap flights (i.e. $40 or $50 to Detroit, Chicago, North Carolina), but Trenton is hard to get to. You're generally saving enough money to make the cab expense (or favor owed a friend) worth it. And it's a unique airport experience. For me it was genuinely enjoyable.Visit Frontier's website and the shockingly comprehensive Wikipedia page for Trenton Airport for more information.