A Frontier Airlines passenger reports that two employees tried to extort him for $50, pocketing the money for themselves. The active duty military member has gone public with the incident, which occurred on Veterans Day, where the airline gate agents were closing the door early and offered to re-open the door if he paid them.
- He was heading from Atlanta back to his base in Los Angeles on Frontier 3215.
- The flight was initially delayed, so the passenger got himself food before the flight. He made it back to the gate as the last passenger to board, but still before doors were supposed to close.
- As he showed up, he says that the gate agents closed the door to the jetbridge and demanded a payment $50 to “get nails done” and “buy weed.”
The lady closed the door, she said, ‘I don’t care who you report to if you want to get back on this plane, you have to pay me.
The serviceman recorded the interaction. “In the video, you can hear the employees ask Roach multiple times to send them the money via Cash App.” One of the agents told him “We normally charge $100 for this, but since you’re in the military, we’ll charge you $50.”
According to Frontier Airlines,
We take claims like this seriously, and our team is in the process of investigating the situation to determine what happened. In the meantime, we have offered the customer a voucher for $150 as a customer service gesture.
Airline agents soliciting bribes to ignore overweight bags is something we’ve seen before. And bribery in the airline industry reaches the highest levels. United Airlines actually lost a CEO in a bribery scandal involving Newark airport. More recently three of the airline’s executives engaged in a bribery scheme involving Newark renovations.
Fees paid to an agent create an opportunity for the agent to offer a discount, cutting out the middle man as it were. Some carriers align incentives by offering agents a commission, a cut of the action. But imposing fees and keeping them for yourself risks the job. Maybe a Frontier gate agent job isn’t something worth worrying about! And criminal liability here seems remote, though not impossible.
The best approach as a passenger seems to be just to hit the record button if you’ve ever faced with extortion of this kind. Still, a $150 voucher from Frontier for future travel hardly seems like appropriate compensation. ‘Come back and we’ll extort you again!’ The voucher is going to cover the cost of a flight, perhaps, but then there are all those fees to pay…
Atlanta is where an enterprising Frontier supervisor got a TON of frequent flyer miles when the airline stopped taking cash. No card? Oh I can take your cash and run my card…. Heard he manufactured about $50k in spend before getting caught, opening nearly a dozen airline credit cards.
A trash airline full of trashy people. This is what you get with $49 fares.
When I was a boy, I worked at the ticket counter at LaGuardia airport. There was an agent with about 20 years’ seniority who I know was selling upgrades at the First Class ticket counter — we had a coupon upgrade programme for “Premiers,” but she would take the bribe and just check them into a seat. I didn’t report it, of course, because who would listen to a kid who’s been on the job just a few months, and we know the powerful and well-connected do not answer for their crimes in this country.
They should have been paying him to fly on Frontier
@ George — Racist much? Always?
It is the culture of the airline’s management, the lack of proper vetting of new hire employees, the lack of employee training and enforcement of the rules (if the airline has any!) that breeds this action. Besides, giving the employees a “piece of the pie” for selling extra services makes that process ripe for fraud. And to this nutcase “Gene”, PLEASE point out EXACTLY what “racist” remarks George said. Pull the “race card” much? Always?, Gene?
A trash airline with thug and trash employees…nothing new here
@Gene…George is just speaking the truth…deal with it.
Sickening. Extorting money from a member of the military on veteran’s day. And frontier offers $150 ? Just a swell band of thieves all around.
While asking for money to open door is clearly wrong you stated one thing that showed he could be wrong as well. You stated the flight was delayed so he went to get food but was back before the rescheduled departure. As you know a delayed flight can be moved up and leave earlier than the revised time. IMHO never leave the gate area of a delayed flight since many things can happen (new gate, replacement aircraft, issue resolved more quickly, etc)
Our second Gilded Age is here! The US Supreme Court does not consider this a bribe; no, it’s a mere ‘gratuity’. You know, like what Mayor Adams did. So, under the law, there is nothing wrong, and this passenger should have either: 1) paid the ‘gratuity’ to board, or 2) decided not to fly. Remember, if we speak out, we won’t get any rations… Be sure to report on your neighbors! Privet, comrades!
1990, I’m waiting for King Don to reestablish the Stasi. The Proud Boys will be a good core for the Brown Shirts, but you need more organization. I’m sure the IT companies will gladly help in exchange for big contracts.
If the employee was/is found to be accepting such a “bribe,” that individual should be summarily, and quickly, fired “for cause.” The vet/passenger ought to receive a large compensatory gift from the airline, e.g., a year’s free travel.
@Gene if the soldier was African American I guess he was a “racist” to complain about a trashy airline ripping him off. You’re typical.
“I didn’t report it, of course, because…we know the powerful and well-connected do not answer for their crimes in this country.”
Ahem… The powerful and well-connected don’t work as gate agents in an airport.
Just sayin’.
I love how Gene calls George’s comment “racist”, but in doing so revealed their own blatant racism by mistake. George called Frontier a “trashy airline”, but never mentioned race. Greg saw that and his brain made the connection, “well if George calls something ‘trashy’ it must be because they’re black, and black people are trashy”… Hey Greg, do you see where I’m going with this? You just called the word “trashy” as a racist term. Implying you think anyone not of your race is trash.
You’re trash.
Happens all the time at FSC too. Just bribe the GA for the F/J ticket.
@ All the racists above — Why is this passenger at Frontier trash? Because he is black? That’s why you are a bunch of racists, and you know it. Never mind that he is an active duty soldier that may save you one day.
Simple solution. Pay the $50.00. Fly. Get off the plane and go to the nearest airline office. With your cash app transaction history.
@Gene,
Are you really that stoopid or do you pretend to be?
Asking for a “trashy” friend
A lot of my friends are trashy!
Please note that Gate Agents (who are the ones that close the Jetbridge door) are not Frontier employees. They are a third-party contractor (their company is hired by Frontier)
Hitting the record button would probably get such a demand for a bribe let go but would also probably not get you on the airplane. This soldier did it the right way. Notice all of this happened when the other passengers were already on the airplane and were not around to video the bribe request.
@Gene i think you are trashy.
@1990 – That only applies to politicians and agents of the government. Of course “free market companies” can do what ever they want and always could…
Drrichard,
Glad to see you commenting, I was worried King Don and the brown shirts took you away circa 2016-2020!
@Gene “Trash” is not a “race”. Now if you read into George’s comment and it pops into your head that there is a race that is trash, and fits what you think is going on, then maybe, just maybe you are racist.
So you know, trash comes in all colors. It’s generally based on behavior, not genetics.
@BillP
You can be a gate worker and still be connected. I worked with someone that loved getting people fired she did not like based on her word alone because she was the school friend of one HR rep.
Par for Frontier and its ground staff.
There’s a place where no methode of payment should be: At the gate. And commissions should never be part of someone’s pay. Also, no staff should be discussing with passengers what they want their pay to cover.
Airlines should put a flat fee for the expected flight durations to to cover the costs and profits of the transaction including expected meals, for all seats and all reasonable luggage.
They need to rearrange the seats so all are reasonably sized and comfortable with either no middle seats or spread out so wide-body airplane middle seats are separate from single armrest designs and with no hip / shoulder contact, no middle passenger breathing in the used air of two neighbouring passengers. Then everyone has one’s place, ticket fees are simple and space is allotted for carry-on and checked luggage.
The only different figures above that then are the airport fees and taxes which should always be figured in and explained so passengers don’t come to buy tickets short of the final funds needed, same for online payments people know what is being paid for, with both methods of payment being the same dollar figures.
Then for extra luggage over what is reasonable from history, that should be an extra fee, so if three suitcases per ticket usually got and they still fit as one carry-on and two checked and someone has an extra suitcase, box or bag, that is a reasonable extra charge for its size at the one-time payment, don’t bring an extra package of any sort not paid for unless having the funds to pay for it at the ticket booth. I think single people had three different sized suitcases, couples and families may have that for each person’s ticket just the same though some couples and families may have crammed things into less suitcases to fit into vehicles or to lessen what they carried. Suitcases came as a standard set of three like I had from the 1980s. I think they still are sold that way, though I see some extra large carry-on suitcases on wheels these days, maybe there needs to be a return to the old style square shoulder bag kind of carry-on bag even if it has the convenience of wheels built in.
Extra fees and extra places to pay are what now allow for the airlines and staff to cheat.
As for the soldier “bribed” on Remembrance Day, I have two things to say on that: No one, soldier or not, should be charged or bribed extra fees to the airline or its staff members. A new departure time scheduled in for a departure delay should be as stated, not sooner nor otherwise complicated by an unnecessary early jet bridge closure or airplane closure.