A Frontier Airlines gate agent acted erratically, yelling at passengers as she tried to board the aircraft before a flight from Denver to Norfolk, Virginia this month in a clip that’s going viral. When a passenger told the gate agent she was rude, the employee responded, NO I AM NOT YOU ARE!”
She was barking orders at passengers, but in this clip you can hear her explain the urgency – the flight was running two minutes late. They weren’t going to make a ‘D0’ exact on-time departure.
Last week I wrote about an American Airlines gate agent acting badly towards customers. If you ever encounter a Frontier Airlines gate agent acting this way and want to complain, unfortunately the ultra low cost carrier no longer even offers telephone customer service.
If I were to choose between this gate agent and falling tv screens on Delta, I would choose this gate agent
This is part of the Frontier experience. That’s how it goes.
I’ve said it before, and I will say it again. You get what you pay for.
UnionTHAT never EVER what you pay for the flight justifies such behaviour. You may be deprived of inflight movies, snacks, coffee or even water if it’s a relatively short hop because you pay $20 for your flight, but nothing justifies such attitude towards customers. People like you, making such statements, only normalise mistreating customers. Do remember, that this gate agents does not produce any active income, aka her salary is payed from what people pay for flight.
USA has a lot to learn when it comes to hospitality business.
most normal frontier airlines employee
Similar experience when fumbling for change while boarding public transport.
Case study in why we need more immigrants in our country. Less walls and more bridges. Otherwise companies have no choice but to tap into the trailer parks for Grandma who last worked in a roadside diner in 1978.
I recently flew out of Denver and this lady insulted almost every passenger and we were on time. Basically asking people who didn’t get their mobile ticket scanned on the first pass, if they know how to use a cell phone and if they understand what words like up mean. Meanwhile the lady in Cleveland just rooo the phone and scanned it herself to avoid this annoyance.
Happy to see my dead father’s bathrobe I donated to Goodwill has found a new home!
Whoever tried to “out” her via social media is a total a-hole. She’s clearly underpaid, over pressured and has a flight that could end of leaving late and getting her in trouble. Not to mention that the average Frontier passenger isn’t the crème de la crème of humanity either..
Don’t see what the big deal is. There can be absolutely no expectation of service when flying Frontier other than getting you safely from point A to B.. Other than that, zero.
She is abrupt, I can deal with that.. Nontheless you get what you pay for and Frontier in “my” opinion is a bottom of the barrel airline anyway..
Good thing I wasn’t there I would punch that cunt in the throat
Except this isn’t a Frontier employee, as all the workers in every Frontier station are outsourced vendors. They would outsource their pilots and flight attendants too if they could find a legal way to do it. You get what you pay for, both as a customer, and as a [horrible, terrible] company…
I kind of like this lady for real. Is that weird?
DO NOT, I reiterate, DO NOT fly Frontier, Spirit, Breeze airways! TPT( Trailer ParkThrash) that they hire to work for them. Remember cheap is good but Good is not always cheap!
I love her
One guy says it’s not right to say this is a “get what you pay for” situation, then proceeds to explain the situation and it turns out… This is exactly a get what you pay for situation.
Wouldn’t mind seeing this more at times when people boarding are FINALLY looking for their boarding passes at the gate agent desk. “Back of the line with you, find your pass and try again!”
Fronteir has become one of the most disrespectful disgusting airlines I have ever flown on. Everyone thinks the cost is cheap but not if you pick your seats and bring luggage. One suitcase is over 70 bucks now and carry on 99$. It is such a sham and the agents and flight attendants need to take a class in hospitality !! It’s the bottom of the barrel in airlines
This is news? This is standard behavior for people who grew up in the lower to middle class. Parents in these social strata speak to their kids in this manner. Kids take after their parents unless they have the right education to learn proper manners.
Irrespective of tone, worrisome is the agent’s gaslighting. To paraphrase, you need to hurry up because I am already late. Um, if I am late, that is my problem, it is not yours.
@AngryFlier said:
You are making excuses for bad behavior that gives our culture a bad reputation on the world stage. She could do well to take some time off interacting with other human beings. She needs to learn manners.
@Lars and @Phil respectively said:
I’m no psychiatrist, but this means your parents spoke to you this way and you have Freudian fixations.
@Alison,
That sounds about right. Thank you.
You are most welcome! (See, I didn’t forget my manners.)
@Regis: You write, “Don’t see what the big deal is. There can be absolutely no expectation of service when flying Frontier other than getting you safely from point A to B.”
You should know, sometimes Frontier Airlines does not get you safely from point A to point B.
https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/33705
https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/33684
https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/33600
https://fal-1.tripod.com/FL_Crash.html
https://arffwg.org/news/frontier-airlines-plane-overshoots-runway-at-reagan-airport-near-d-c-comes-to-a-stop-in-the-grass/
https://avherald.com/h?article=50323aa4
I kind of agree with Lars and Phil, but Maryland wins comment of the day!
Her job is to get boarding passes scanned and people on board- I have no problem with her asking people to hurry along, though agree there’s no need to snap at customers.
I’m just glad there’s no one filming me at work…
That’s me most days of the week.
@Ken
You do realize except for the last link, all those other incidents/accidents are from a completely and utterly different airline that has no connection to the current Frontier Airline. Kind of shows you as a dumba** not worthy of commenting on such subjects!
@Alison. I would have been considered lower class growing up. However, I was taught good manners. We in the south were taught to say ma’am and sir. I never felt unloved in our house. There was a lack of money-not manners.
Airlines put too much stress on employees for closing the door on-time. Though erratic, this agent’s behavior is a direct result of the stress her company has out on her. No one acts out like that for their own health.
I am really shocked at some of the snobbery displayed in the comments above, quite frankly, for I never viewed Americans, generally, as classist. I’m British and we’re bad, but I’ve never seen comments like this on UK-based sites.
To me it is obvious that, through outsourcing, employee groups are being diced up so that they have no support or sense of solidarity with others. This poor woman is probably worn ragged in a toxic environment. It’s a sign of the times I’m afraid.
@SosongBlue: You wrote, “You do realize except for the last link, all those other incidents/accidents are from a completely and utterly different airline that has no connection to the current Frontier Airline. Kind of shows you as a dumba** not worthy of commenting on such subjects!”
Sorry to hear you do not believe my comment was not worthy of publication. I was surprised the current Frontier Airlines would choose a business name that may create a marketing connection to the former Frontier Airlines, which had catastrophic and deadly airline accidents. The new Frontier Airlines has an excellent safety record even though their aircraft, with more than 150 people on board, overshot and skidded off the runway onto the grass at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA).
Using trade names of a previous business might explain why we have yet to see car manufacturers market their current vehicles using tarnished model names like the Ford Pinto (exploding gas tanks) and Chevrolet Corvair (Ralph Nader, Unsafe at Any Speed) or Ford Edsel (ugly, overpriced, overhyped, and poorly made).
Hopefully, the new Frontier Airlines will not spin off a future business venture manufacturing automotive airbags and name their new company “Takada.”
@Ken A
The new Frontier has an excellent safety record, customer service record not so much. The old Frontier (which was acquired by People’s Express which was acquired by Continental which was merged with United) did not have an overly bad safety record for the time as such nothing wrong with reusing the name marketing wise. All of the pioneering local service carriers as well as “Trunk” carriers of the 50s/60s and 70s had a dreadful safety record compared to the modern airlines. In fact until the late 80s/early 90s US fatal air crashes occurred quite frequently, usually multiple times per year. Heck USAir alone was loosing about one a year there for a spell. Check this link out and scroll through the 60s/70s.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fatal_accidents_and_incidents_involving_commercial_aircraft_in_the_United_States
Ken A,
The original Frontier was actually one of the safest “regional” airlines through its 36 year history totaling 3 passenger fatalities. You were way of base with your original and subsequent comments.
@Dan77W. I agree that the original Frontier having only three passenger fatalities over 36 years of operation, is a superior aviation safety record. Learning that Frontier pilot Dale Welling could land his DC-3 safely even after the aircraft wing ripped off while flying through a storm was even more impressive. I don’t know if the wing was ever located.
https://fal-1.tripod.com/FL_Crash.html
@Dan77W: The accident investigation report from the Civil Aeronautics Board reports that the Frontier aircraft wing damage occurred when the aircraft wing “struck a mountain ridge.” The report says they found the wing. Read the report. https://fal-1.tripod.com/PHX_Crash1957.pdf
Ken A,
Oh I’m well versed in the Frontier flight 7 incident. Again I was just countering your supposition that the original Frontier had a bad safety record, in your words :
“I was surprised the current Frontier Airlines would choose a business name that may create a marketing connection to the former Frontier Airlines, which had catastrophic and deadly airline accidents”
And that was after someone had to inform you that there was no connection between the current Frontier and the original.
In fact both airlines have/had excellent safety records.
The Frontier staff at baggage check and the gates are often in an ill mood and have a bad attitude unfortunately. That is except for when they make commission off of patrons bad or unfortunate experiences.
Look, I get that it is not ideal but trust me, passengers and humanoids behaviors in general are terrible and out of control. Understand this, flights are slotted in and out, as well as connecting flights for other people. It is not like getting in your car and pulling out of your drive way. These people show up late, act like everything is everyone else’s fault and think the airlines and TSA will “hold the plane” for them. News flash, no one cares about your excuses. Flights have a boarding and door closes time on the ticket. If you chose to think you are important enough to cause a delay, you are not. Act like a adult and get there early. Stop bitching when it is people like you that make these jobs so miserable. You act entitled and when you get push back, you act like whiney snowflakes. Take care of you and if you can’t, that is a YOU problem.
TBH, I fly so infrequently, that I often need help and direction when rules have changed. Working in customer service mean exactly that. There is no need for anyone to be so abrupt.
This is the same lady that charged me $99 for a backpack I’ve been travelling with for three years. I gave all my miles to a friend and quit flying Frontier after that trip.
We should all feel lucky that we may only have to deal with this “beast” if we Fly Frontier out of Denver.
Keep in mind that she goes home after work. Can you imagine what it’s like for those unfortunate souls that are blessed with her presence 24/7?
This is why you don’t cheap out and contract to third party for customer service agents. Why? Because they don’t give a
Alison…I take offense in your snarky remark about ‘lower to middle claas’ acting like this. For your information, I was raised & still am ‘middle class’ & I was never raised by parents like you talk about. I didn’t raise my child like that, either. Are YOU ‘lower to middle class’? I bet you are.
Not atypical of F9 @ DEN whatsoever. Gate agents spend so much boarding time putting bags into sizers and collecting carry on fees from confused passengers that by the time they’re on the last boarding group they frantically wave everyone through.
Remember the lady who was waved on to a flight to Jamaica without a passport recently? I think from PHL. I wonder if it was a similar dynamic.
It looks like for this gate agent, no good deed goes unpunished!Would it have been better for her to shut the doors and deny those late passengers boarding? She was gracious enough to put her position on the line and let those passengers board, something she was NOT supposed to do. Ignorance is not bliss!
Worst experience with frointer. My flight got delayed for 7+hours so I asked to cancel my ticket they just gave me slip and told that send a mail about refund. I did that but they never gave my money back. The reason is flight reached to destination unfortunately you didn’t joined flight. Everything Will not be same so I want to cancel but they did like this Waste of time and waste of money. Never and ever step into frointer anymore.
Back on October 4th, 2022, this woman tried to charge me $99 for an empty pillow case with a tiny travel pillowmy brand new Galaxy 5 watch inside. I didn’t want to lose it why so I carried it in a pillowcase.
She threatened to close the doors on me after already having frontier canceled the previous flight meaning I would have been at the airport for 48 hours. I panicked and gave her the backpack to throw away and she said to me “I’m not going to throw your shit away! Throw your own shit away!”.
I told her it would be demeaning to throw my own stuff away considering I didn’t feel like I should throw it away but in the end I threw it away to get to my children who I had to pick up from a dangerous situation.
Thanks to this video and to anybody else who has encountered this particular woman, it’s time for us to write frontier and let them know that we will get together and Sue now that this video is public.
Throw mama from the plane.
It’s so sad that paying customers are forced to expect and accept this kind of treatment from airline staff when flying on bargain carriers. It’s even sadder that the staff are so overworked, underpaid and down to the wire that they exhibit this kind of behavior. The budget carriers in Japan (JetStar, Peach, Etc.) are able to operate efficiently, while maintaining extraordinary grace towards passengers and in fulfilling their duties. I wonder what the major discrepancy is about. Do Frontier workers have it so much worse than JetStar workers, or is it more a cultural difference where American airline personnel feel more free to get ornery with passengers? I don’t know. Anyone have any insights?
She could have easily closed the doors since she was two minutes late. We have no idea if the passengers were late getting to the gate or not. If that’s the case and she kept the doors open for the passengers, then KUDOS to her for her kindness.
I guess it’s just easier to jump on the band wagon and slam people because, well, it just makes us feel so much better about ourselves in this messed up, entitled world we live in. Right?