The September edition of Holiday Heat comes out on Sunday; click here to pre-order!

Since I unfortunately couldn’t attend Oasis this month, I wasn’t able to see my long-distance partner like I’d initially planned. I could afford the trip, but without a job it just wasn’t a sound financial decision. Instead, my plan is to visit her at some point before the end of the year, provided that I get a job before then.

I spent some time recently looking at plane fares to visit her. I usually only fly Delta or Southwest; Delta was $875 round-trip for nonstops, and Southwest was $460 round-trip with one stop each way (which is normal for Southwest). I don’t think $460 is too expensive — it’s not cheap, but it’s reasonable.

However, Frontier had flights available for as little as $133 (or $200 if I bought the package that includes assigned seating and a carry-on bag each way). My eyes went wide when I saw that; yeah, it’s Frontier, and from what I’ve read on the Frontier subreddit the odds of your flight getting cancelled or rescheduled are not small, but for such a small amount of money it’s worth it, right?

Except that the flights back are at least 21-hour affairs, because I’d have to fly from where she is to Denver (or Vegas, or San Francisco), and wait at the airport for at least 16 hours.

I don’t know about you, but to me that’s just not worth it. I’d rather pay twice as much and get where I’m going in a normal amount of time. The layovers for Southwest are between 45 minutes and 3 hours, depending on which flights I choose; the longest layover I’ve ever had was three hours, in Denver, and it was interminable. I don’t think I could handle 16 to 24 hours in an airport. Sure, the Denver airport is large and has a lot of places to eat, but I don’t think it has a capsule hotel. It does have a rest-and-recharge area, but that area is first-come first-served. There’s also a Westin hotel attached to the main terminal, but assuming a night at the Westin is between $100 and $200, there’s really no point in doing the Frontier option if, in the end, it’s going to cost me almost as much as just taking Southwest. Plus, I would have to pay another $30-$40 for a night of dog-sitting, and another $10 for my car at airport parking (unless I got someone to drive me to/from the airport). So in the end it costs just as much.

I know there are a lot of hardcore travelers who can sleep in an airport if necessary, but I am not one of those people. I can barely sleep on an airplane. No, I think I’ll stick to Southwest for the time being. It might be worth it to you to take Frontier, but it’s not worth it to me.

(It is cute how Denver Airport leans into the whole “weird things happen here” meme.)