Flavor Flav Scores Spirit Airlines Gold Status After Airport Incident

by Gary Leff

Update 11/18/22: Flavor Flav has been given a refund and Gold elite status in the Free Spirit frequent flyer program.

Original November 14 story follows.

Yeah, boyeeeeee! Flaorva Flav lost it at the Las Vegas airport on Thursday night after missing his Spirit Airlines flight to Detroit.

Sixty three year old William Drayton, Jr. became a public enemy of Spirit Airlines after the doors were closed before he could get onto the aircraft. And he was captured on video unloading on the gate agent with some salty language.

Flavor Flav shares with TMZ,

Spirit Airlines shut the door on me while I was in line to board. I was upset and said some harsh words to the gate agent. I apologize to those who witnessed me acting out of character. I do not apologize to Spirit Airlines or the gate agent.

Flav’s people are spinning two separate (and, I think, mutually exclusive) stories about what happened.

  • Flav was “working on his laptop and chatting on the phone — basically, preoccupied” and noticed the boarding door close. He was right there, went up to the gate, but they wouldn’t open the door.

  • Flav was doing a public service, he “waits to board after everyone else because people want to take pictures with him … and he doesn’t want to hold up” the jet bridge. He was just trying to be a good passenger, in pursuit of an on time departure for everyone.

According to people in the rapper’s camp, Spirit “actually did reopen the door to let other passengers in…but closed it again on Flav and 2 other people.” That’s meant to sound, I think, like Spirit was singling him out for poor treatment. In fact it just underscores how late he was – they’d closed the boarding door, re-opened it for passengers and he still wasn’t boarding. So when he came up to the gate it was genuinely too late.

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

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Comments

  1. I’m still stickin to my own rules: I don’t fly on yellow airplanes and I only stay in hotels that have 24 hour room service. Am I supposed to know this alleged human? I don’t. ANd guess what Flav whatever, they don’t apologize to YOU either. Follow the rules. ANd if you’d acted like a decent person they might have still let you on.

  3. If he is such a “big shot”, why is he flying Spirit? Typical – if he does not get his way, he takes it out on someone who had nothing to do with what he did to himself.

  4. PREDICTABLE COMMENTS: privileged and prejudiced readers of Gary Leff will jump on this opportunity to throw shade at a financially and artistically successful Black man. Let me just send a message to these racist readers. If you were so successful, you would not be on this website.

    Shame on Gary Leff for race-baiting yet again with a story like this.

  5. I am a little surprised to see Flav flying NK on this route instead of DL with more frequencies and a more comfortable product. That being said, they wouldn’t have opened the door for a late passenger either, but they would have a had a few more flights going later that day to put him on.

  6. @Fauci – huh? Flavor Flav is a culturally important figure, or he was during my formative years. He’s in the Rock ‘n Roll Hall of Fame. He’s early reality TV. Genuinely don’t get where you are seeing this as an attack on someone because they are black. It seems like you’re inviting a race thing, and calling yourself ‘Fauci’ you’re clearly trolling.

  8. @ Gary Leff I’m saying your readers, many of whom are racist, will take this as an opportunity to attack a Black person. You have known the racist characteristics of your readers, so you should have refrained from posting and fanning the flames.

    I’m the real Tony Fauci.

  9. BE IT KNOWN, I AM NOT TAKING ANY SIDE IN THIS POST .

    FACT: Having been in the hotel industry all my life, celebrities and entertainers, do more damage than others. Being in the hall of Fame, does not, suggest he is not capable of causing problems. His fame is his talent, not his demeanor.

  11. If the Flav Clown, or the Fauci Clown, or anyone else for that matter is late to the gate, he can wait for the next flight. Boo hoo, poor little cry babies.
    No wait a minute, it must have something to do about race. There’s no way it could be anything about being a responsible adult. (eyes roll)

  12. Alan.

    Grow up! Don’t you have better things to do? Obviously not. It’s children like you, that keeps races divided.

    You are acting like a child. Go join a hate group. Or, join a few others.

  13. I don’t understand why people disparage him for flying Spirit. Maybe he got a good deal? Spirit has a lot of customers who are “successful” and “of means” who fly them like ambassadors from other countries, congressmen, any variety of television stars, Dennis Rodman (bad example).

  14. Hello fake Fauci ( the real one has class)
    I guess I’m prejudiced too I’ve been reading View from a wing since it’s launched lol lol
    Jerks and those with exceptionally bad behavior come in all colors and from every economic background.Success and or being in the public eye will never determine being a humble kind considerate human being.Unfortunately stereotypes exist in society for many different groups
    and it’s hard to change perceptions when any individual behaves poorly especially one that should know better.I’ve never heard of the guy and if I never do again it would be my pleasure from what I see which is just an angry man.That may be a one time thing or who he is generally
    Mel Gibson to Will Smith and beyond folks act out and show an unfortunate side..In society today everyone with rare exception is guilty of being a racist or some other….labeled thing
    What a complicated world

  15. Hilarious. I think that different airlines attract different personaliites. While I mainly fly DL, I”ve flown unique and more affordable airlines, and I”ve flown Spirit Airlines in both a regular seat and the Big Front Seat. I recall a few years ago flying on another airline, (I don’t remember which) and it was on a route that I usually fly DL. The flight attendant hollered at us passengers to relax more and enjoy ourselves, and that we’d been beat up too much by strict DL flight staff.

    I try not to judge passengers by the Airlines they fly; but, I still do.

  16. Once again we see the usual Trolls trying to make this and every other incident into a race issue. God it’s tiring! He was late the doors were closed. Suck it up and stop acting like a spoiled brat. Lucky he did not get arrested for disorderly conduct. Or maybe that’s what he was hoping would happen to boost his ratings.

  17. The gate agent shouting “Get away from the counter now” seems to have gone to the CPD “we have a warrant” school of customer service.

  18. Why is NK rewarding negative behavior and setting a precedent for potentially more of the same/similar shenanigans

  19. What a sh*t show…

    Mixing an article about a black celebrity with racist readers went just as expected.

  22. Wow so Spirit rewards this behavior by offering the offending customer a refund and Gold Status. They are as stupid as some of they’re customers! Just wonder if they would have done the same for someone else who is not an African American celebrity? Just another reason among many to never fly Spirit.

  23. CMorgan.

    Sit on it!! You are a racist. Do you get your rocks off, hammering on this same post?

    Get ahold of yourself dude. Smile. Maybe that’s your problem. You are going blind. And, you are making a complete a$$ of yourself.
    I understand your dog is black. Go kick it. You will feel better.
    Merry Christmas ‍⬛

  27. Chad.

    Tell us, how your statistics have anything to do with some guy being upset because he missed his flight?

  28. This article could have been about any celebrity. As a matter of coincidence, the celebrity happened to be black. That being said, Gary’s audience is what it is and, irrespective of the subject, some are looking for a fight. To this point, some are looking for a fight via comments that are wholly unrelated to the article’s subject. And, to give the impression that such sentiments are more widely held, at least one individual posts comments under multiple names. Think about these words.

  29. “People want to take pictures with him.” LOL LOL LOL
    They want pictures of the nutjob who wears a foot high timex wall clock attached to a fake gold chain
    around his neck.

Comments are closed.