CLEVELAND, Ohio – Finally, it happened to me.

For years, I’ve warned Northeast Ohio travelers about the hazards of flying Frontier Airlines. Because they fly so infrequently to many of their cities, in some cases only two or three times per week, if your flight is canceled, you may face significant challenges getting to your destination. It’s not like you can just hop on a later flight.

Even understanding those risks, I fly Frontier often from Cleveland, both for work and pleasure, primarily because they fly where I want to go, and usually at a reasonable price.

In the five years since Frontier began its significant buildup in Cleveland, following the closure of the United Airlines’ hub, I’ve never had them cancel a flight. I’ve had major delays, rescheduled departure times – inconvenient, all – but never a cancellation.

Until last month, during a work trip to Charleston, South Carolina.

I had just returned to my hotel after a bike ride when I got the text. It came at 11:10 a.m., seven hours before my 6:13 p.m. flight home: “Your flight departing from Charleston has been cancelled. Please reference the email address provided when booking for further information.”

My initial reaction: expletive, expletive, expletive.

Then I got to work.

As much as I loved Charleston, I couldn’t stay another day. My daughter was finishing up her freshman year at the College of Wooster and I was scheduled to pick her (and all her stuff) up later that night. She had to be out of her dorm by 10 a.m. the next day. Extending my trip, even by a day, was not an option.

So how to get home?

The Frontier email gave me two options:

* Book my own way home, and have Frontier reimburse me for the cost, up to $400 per traveler. This could be via a flight on another airline, for a rental car, train fare, whatever.

* Book my own way home, receive no reimbursement, and get $450 in Frontier travel vouchers. Caveat on the vouchers: They have to be used to book a flight within three months (the actual flight can occur later).

Frontier also reimbursed passengers for the cost of the canceled flight and issued a $50 voucher to every traveler, for the inconvenience.

My first thought was to drive. I was already in possession of a rental car, which I figured I could extend by a day with relative ease and for a minimal price. But it’s an 11 ½ hour drive from Charleston to Cleveland, and I wouldn’t be starting until after noon. Frankly, that sounded pretty awful.

So I started looking into flights. There were numerous options to Cleveland from Charleston, all of them with at least one stop – on American through Charlotte, Delta through Atlanta, United through Washington Dulles. Most of these options would take at least six hours, with arrival times in Cleveland late at night. They were also expensive: $300 per person and up.

Then I looked at alternative airports. I remembered that Allegiant flies nonstop to Cleveland from the Savannah/Hilton Head Airport, about 110 miles south of Charleston. And Spirit Airlines flies to Cleveland from Myrtle Beach, about 100 miles north of Charleston.

There were no Savannah flights that day, but there was a flight on Spirit from Myrtle Beach, departing at 5:42 p.m. Fares were $142 each.

Perfect! I booked two seats, paid $30 for one suitcase, then debated whether to have Frontier reimburse me for the flights ($312.58 total) or take the voucher for future Frontier travel (value $900). I took the vouchers.

My husband and I checked out of our hotel, had one final meal in Charleston, then headed north to Myrtle Beach.

While we were driving, I emailed the media relations folks at Frontier to ask why the flight was canceled. (No reason was given in the email sent to travelers.)

Zach Kramer, Frontier’s manager of corporate communications, got back to me quickly and told me that the cancellation was due to maintenance.

I’m not going to argue against regular airplane maintenance, but this seemed like pretty lousy timing, given that this was just the third day of Frontier service between Charleston and Cleveland. Not a good way to build loyalty on a new route.

We arrived at the Myrtle Beach airport before 4, returned our rental car, and headed to the gate, where our flight was on time, despite some dicey spring weather in Ohio.

We landed in Cleveland at 7:30 p.m., an hour earlier than our Charleston flight would have landed, had it not been canceled. It all worked out fine.

Since then, I’ve been asked by friends and colleagues if I’ll fly Frontier again. My answer: Of course. After all, I have nearly $1,000 in vouchers I need to use.

Read more: Historic, food-centric Charleston an easy reach from Cleveland, thanks to new flights on Frontier, Allegiant

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