Long Lines And Lack Of Staff Made Them Miss Their Flight — Then Frontier Called Police To Enforce A $99 Upcharge

Passengers say that the line at Frontier’s Orlando airport check-in counter caused them to miss their flights. There wasn’t enough staffing, they couldn’t check in in time, so Frontier tried to upsell them $99 flight changes. The customers think they were delayed by the airline on purpose because their flight was overbooked.

They were flying Orlando to St. Louis back on January 16. Since the was so long, they didn’t make it to the front to get checked in at least an hour before departure. They were coded as late (no show) and were therefore told they’d be charged for another flight, instead of compensated for getting bumped off the one they’d purchased.

The customer can be seen arguing with Frontier staff about printing his boarding pass and insisting, “my flight is at 6 o’clock,” while staff keep saying he already missed it. Another passenger says they’re going to St. Louis, too, and one notes there are “seven, eight people” getting hit the same way. They all they they’d been in line for about 90 minutes.

Frontier called the police to deal with the customer service mess. Frontier gave them nothing, and the customer in the video says he spent over $400 on another airline.

• Frontier says to arrive at least 2 hours early. They did that here.
  
• However, check-in/bag-drop closes 60 minutes before departure, and you must be at the gate 45 minutes before departure. That didn’t happen because there weren’t enough counter staff, lines were too long, and they were waiting rather than checked in in time.
  
• For a 6:00 p.m. departure, the counter deadline was 5:00 p.m. They missed it, and the rules say they get charged.

One agent reportedly told the customer he should have come 3 hours earlier. How is he supposed to know this? It’s not the airline’s formal guidance.

Frontier Airlines overbooked several flights that day, not an uncommon occurrence on flights, but what they did next was crazy.
Instead of asking for volunteers to fly at a later time with compensation, they just began denying people seats and telling them that they were “late”… pic.twitter.com/UQhuLWNicT

— CeCe (@cecegkh) March 14, 2026

If this were actually about overbooking, and Frontier wouldn’t check them in because they had too many passengers, this is obviously being handled improperly. They’re required to solicit volunteers, and offer cash compensation to anyone actually involuntarily denied boarding.

• 200% of the one-way fare up to $1,075 if arrival is delayed 1–2 hours
  
• 400% up to $2,150 if the delay is more than 2 hours.

But that only applies to confirmed passengers checked in on time and at the gate on time. Here, Frontier’s position seems to be that they did not check in on time (and therefore weren’t at the gate on time, either). And so not only wouldn’t they be due compensation, they wouldn’t even get rebooked free either – it’s $99 plus any difference in fare (the ‘another $100’ in the video).

Compounding Frontier policies is clearly insufficient staffing. Frontier spends as little as possible. And they generally outsource their airport staffing, too. What’s more, at Orlando, it’s Menzies – that’s who you use when you’re looking to spend the least amount possible. It’s no surprise you’d run into terrible lines with this airline and at that airport.

It’s always seemed a bit unreasonable to me that a passenger presents themselves in time for check-in but is bounced from their flight for not checking in on time because the airport staff are too busy to handle the queue.

And here it’s even worse because police became the customer service resolution strategy. Staff don’t clearly explain what’s going on, apologize (even if there’s nothing they can do), instead they are basically telling customers to pound sand and talk to the cops. But that’s also outsourced Frontier. Not known for customer service!

• Last year I broke what became a big story, as Frontier threatened to ban a passenger and then called police over a $25 ‘check-in fee’ when the customer showed up late (not realizing the one hour cutoff, which is earlier than other airlines).

• There was also another Frontier check-in issue at Orlando that I wrote about last year as a passenger jumped the ticket counter and got into a hair-pulling fight with the agent. There I certainly understand calling the police (the customer was arrested). Naturally the issue triggering this was whether the passenger was actually late and whether Frontier owed rebooking or compensation.

• Then there was the Frontier agents caught demanding a $50 bribe from a soldier for ‘weed and nails’.

Frontier eliminated check-in counter service within an hour of flight in 2023, and they involuntarily deny more passengers on a per capita basis than anyone else.