Police were called to Allegiant Airlines check-in at Punta Gorda, Florida last month. Bodycam footage shows why.
A passenger didn’t have a boarding pass, but had a reservation. They went to the check-in counter and were told about the airline’s $5 fee for printing a boarding pass at the airport. He claimed he ‘didn’t pay this fee last year.’ Frustrated, he tried to throw $5 cash at the agent. Allegiant counters are cashless – credit/debit only – so that wasn’t accepted.
Officers arrived and explained the policy. The man interrupts them repeatedly, calling this “a scam,” and demanding staff “say” he’s being denied travel for not paying $5. He insults the officer (“you’re an idiot…”) and refuses to sit where instructed. They warn him he’s now trespassing. He refuses to leave, and gets arrested.
- One Mile at a Time has sympathy for the airline’s staff and little for the passenger’s “level of ignorance.” It’s reasonable to assume the passenger’s behavior would have continued onboard, so it’s good he was prevented from traveling that day.
- Live and Let’s Fly says that the fee is transparent and reasonable. Ultra-low cost carriers have fees. Those are detailed on their website. You save money by conforming to their rules. It’s not reasonable to object when you’re subject to them.
That’s all right as far as it goes. And, indeed, European low cost carriers charge more to print a boarding pass at the airport. So do other U.S. ones!
The thing to remember about the business model is that these fees aren’t just about ‘scamming’ passengers for money, they’re about getting passengers to modify their behavior in ways that keeps the airline’s costs down. Fewer passengers printing boarding passes at the airport saves the airline on staffing costs (and paper).
Here, the passenger made a choice, that jail was preferable to.. downloading the airline’s mobile app. Staff followed written policies charging a published fee and accepting only credit or debit cards. They offered the passenger options, which were rejected. The officer gave multiple off-ramps. They weren’t arrested for refusing to pay the fee – they were arrested for refusing to leave when their behavior made them unwelcome.
Breeze Airways charges $3 for airport printing. Frontier actually charges $25 for agent-assisted check-in each way. In the spring Frontier threatened to ban a passenger and call the police after the customer complained about their $25 fee.
In Europe Ryaanir charges up to 55 euros and is moving to digital-only boarding passes starting November 3. Volotea charges €10 if you prepay “Airport check-in” online or €20 paid at the airport.
With these fees, the old adage rings true: there’s no such thing as a flight for 50p.
Gary is right. Just download the app, or stay home. And to those whining about having to have a frequent flyer account to access ‘free’ WiFi, again, you, too, have a choice. Sign-up, log-in, enjoy, or no WiFi. You do you.
On getting arrested for this, yeah, not great, but if you escalate to the point of trespass… you shouldn’t be surprised. Also, good luck getting ‘prosecuted’ for this. Lotta effort and resources for that. Probably spend a little time detained, removed, written up, then released.
Was just explaining to some yokels in separate recent comments how crimes are crimes… even the little ones… and, if we wanna have a society and ‘enforce the law’ (all of them), it’s gonna be a rough time for anyone who speeds (even 1 mph over), or if you receive a mere $20 and fail to report it as income, because both of those are ‘illegal.’ So, how many of y’all are ‘illegals’?
live and what? is that even a reliable source? I doubt it.
Five dollar fee probably not worth the hassle. However, these so called ancillary fees are getting a bit crazy. Just waiting for the announcement that they now have a fee for breathing on the plane and an additional fee in the event the Oxygen Masks drop and are used. And when are these nickel and dime Airlines going to put a box on the Lav Door to deposit money to use their Lav’s
Thanks to an out of touch CEO and a Predator, the last of the really Customer friendly Airlines, has now been corrupted.
That’s why I fly legacy carriers and avoid ULCCs. I prefer to be able to print my boarding pass at the airport, even if I already have one in the app.
while I find the fee high, the airline can charge what it wants to. The customer used some way to pay for his ticket and I would suggest that was a credit card. If he had kept his cool and asked, there is probably someone he could give the $5 to who would use their credit card to print the boarding pass (they would also get to keep their purchase receipt). It seems that he wanted to get arrested and he got his wish.
Jimmy, did I ever tell you about the time when I used to pay less than a dollar a gallon for gas. The daily newspaper was only a plug-nickel, and they’d deliver it right to the front door. And if I moved the antenna the right way, I could get the PBS station in the next state, and not just the three networks. Those shows sure looked amazing in black-and-white.
Hey buddy, it doesn’t matter what the policy was the last time, THIS is the policy today. And Gary, you’re 100% correct. This guy was given more off-ramps than there are on the highway. He was the cause of the ultimate results.
@Don G — You’ve never heard of Gary’s competition? Sorry, I mean, ‘peers.’ They’re each still better than the corporate shills over at TPG who couldn’t even handle comments.
The airline is WRONG.
Printed on U.S. currency is the statement “For All Debts, Public and Private”
The airline violated federal law. They should be considered a terrorist organization for
having the man kidnapped by the police.
If the clowns at the airline do not want to accept cash that’s their problem.
I hope the dude sues them for millions.
@Alan — And, they say ‘satire’ is outlawed… apparently not!
When I stub my toe on furniture, I blame my ‘terrorist’ chair, too.
Tell us how you really feel!
At what point does this site get renamed (Customers|Airlines|Hotels) Behaving Badly?
Airlines, customer service at it’s finest.
All airlines now charge for EVERYTHING because we put up with it, in addition to insanely cramped seating in “Coach” to get us to the front of the plane and pay four times more. “Yes, you have reserved a seat and boarded the aircraft, but in order to sit down in that seat, you owe us $10!”.
The only way to stop this fib of “low cost airlines” and the fee cascading in general is to force all airlines to post their price including everything except for in-flight purchases. A “$200” seat becomes $300 when you add on baggage storage under the plane, buying a seat in normal coach, printing passes, etc. But wait, that will get folks checking baggage to boarding and deplaning becomes the previous 5 minutes rather than the now 20 minutes with the storage and retrieval of a 40-pound “carry on” five feet over the seats.
the airlines/systems make a boarding pass essential. If only to keep the stress and hassles of ticket/gate agents down and not make scenes or bother police, build the darn cost of a boarding pass into the cost of the darn ticket. This is not rocket or airplane science! Just do it! I fear for the senior adults of which there are increasingly more of and will be even more who did not grow up with this insanity and don’t understand. In fact, clearly not their responsibility, but for all the cops that showed up to the scene, what if one of them might just have coughed up a credit/debit card, paid for the pass, and be done with it all, posting a nice video instead and getting some positive PR for the police dept, and showing the ignorance of the airline. The airline should create a compassion fund for such situations or simply waive it for senior adults. Enough IS enough! What if it all caused the gentleman to have a cardiac event? Alleg. should read Judge Frank Caprio’s book: Compassion in the Court.
Are there religious grounds whereupon you aren’t allowed to have credit cards? After all it is a type of loan. Maybe then you can sue for religious discrimination when confronted with cashless transactions! Just a thought.
@Ken – Several airlines in the Mideast (eg Emirates, Qatar, Etihad) offer ‘Sharia-compliant’ credit cards