A reader was refused check-in by Frontier Airlines in Raleigh when they were trying to fly to Boston. They report showing up at the airport counter 50 minutes prior to departure, thinking that’s plenty since they have CLEAR for security and didn’t expect more than 5 minutes to the gate.
There were three things they weren’t expecting.
- Frontier’s check-in rules that require you to arrive at least one hour before departure (they booked through an online travel agency and didn’t know to look for this)
- That Frontier charges extra for a printed boarding pass at the airport
- And that Frontier staff are… a little different than what you find at most airlines. They don’t exude the usual professionalism other airlines expect.
The couldn’t use a kiosk and were told they had to check in at the counter. Initially the agents were happy to help – for a $25 fee. He pushed back, “I’ve never experienced that and they said it’s on their website. I said I wouldn’t have known to look at the website.”
Reaching for his credit card, he mutters under his breath that he’s “never flying this shitty airline again.” Big mistake. The agent helping him shut down, and refused to print a boarding pass. They even threatened to ban him from the airline, to help him keep his promise not to fly Frontier again. Police were called.
Ultimately the airport police arrived and they were extremely polite and professional. I ask them In private if I am being ridiculous And they both nodded their heads empathetically that I was not.
Most interesting to me is that they said this is not going to be the last incident – probably not even the last incident today with Frontier Airlines.
Now he’s stuck with a Frontier ticket he wasn’t allowed to use, and a new $500 charge for a flight on JetBlue 90 minutes later.
It’s interesting they were initially willing to check him in, since officially their policy is to cut off check-in 60 minutes prior to departure. So things started off well! I suspect these agents are so used to customer behavior going off the rails that they are a bit hair-trigger themselves. And Frontier staff do seem more informal anyway!
The passenger reports that he called Indigo Partners which owns Frontier Airlines: “They had a customer service person who works on higher level issues Call me. that person Was incredibly empathetic and professional, and he is looking into this and trying to resolve it.”
Frontier plays games. I flew them once, had a terrible experience, and decided to book a different airline for the return leg. They’re welcome to ban me.
I have no doubt this was frustrating for your reader, but I have to say… they aren’t coming across as particularly sympathetic here.
An aggressive comment when an agent is seemingly bending the rules for you after you miss the clear check-in cut off is not going to end well.
passengers must know that Low Cost Carriers are looking for any revenue they can find. Boarding pass, changing seats, baggage charges etc. To try to ban a passenger for being upset at surprize charges (not everyone spends 30 minutes combing through websites) is a terrible reflection on senior management, CEO and the Board of Directors at Frontier. They probably should not be in the people transportation business.
Very unprofessional but it’s what I’ve come to expect.
The fatigue is getting real for everyone.
I think a moral here is that when using someone else it’s a good idea to double check things. Recently I was at a check-in counter and at the next one over a man was refused a ticket to Colombia because he didn’t have an e-visa. He said his travel agent hadn’t told him he needed one. If he was a U.S. citizen he was probably right, but it doesn’t hurt to be certain. Things can get messed up; I once almost missed a trip to China as a guest of their government because somebody reversed my first and last names. I took the time to confirm the trip with the airline and they caught it, so Beijing was able to straighten it out.
The abuse of police calls by airline customer service agents and flight attendants for non-legitimate reasons needs to stop. There should be a per-event fine for any airline that calls the police for a non-safety, purely commercial dispute reason. Fine severity should be escalating in frequency (e.g. $1000 for the first time in a given year, $2000 for the second, etc). The police are given special state-given license of removal with the threat of force to protect the public from danger, not to act as airline “enforcers” when they are refusing to provide services for which customers have paid.
Frontier reports a quarterly loss and a drop off in bookings.
Has Frontier figured out that they may run out of customers to whom they give a terrible first time experience and who will never fly them again?
There are way too many awful experiences on Frontier which are far beyond just their fee model.
If he agreed to pay the $25 fee, just check him in
Spirit and Allegiant seem to be more professional than Frontier. The basic rule has to be try to fly on a regular airline (Big 4 plus Alaska and JetBlue) if possible. If those don’t work, then consider Spirit, Allegiant, Avelo but avoid Frontier. Do I have that right?
If you just show the actual footage of the employees of Frontier in 2025 and put a logo on it that says something like “Hood Rat Airlines” it would pass for an over-the-top parody on an SNL-type show in 1995.
Never flown or tried to book with Frontier. I have flown Spirit a few times. I have found their flight attendants and counter agents to be courteous, friendly, and professional. I have also never witnessed any arguments or physical alterations during these times.
I live in Denver. They have so many flights and others don’t that sometimes I have no choice. The airline is absolutely the worst. I can tell you stories but I would run out of room. I absolutely hate them. They are a downside of living in this area.
Friends don’t let friends fly Frontier Airlines.
I have banned Frontier Airlines and put them on my Never Fly list.
Another potential passenger who didn’t read the terms of his ticket as well as the requirements of the check in. I do not have a lot of sympathy for the passenger. Sort of penny wise and pound foolish. $25 for late check in should have been an easy yes. The only thing the agent didn’t do was charge an extra $50 for the snotty remark if the check in was still wanted. As it is, the passenger had to recover his trip for $500 on another airline. I wonder if he made any snotty remarks over there. Getting an education isn’t cheap.
We need a passenger bill of rights and a set of laws that ban unreasonable airline charges. My proposal:
-Airlines cannot charge additional fees to check-in, print boarding passes, board the aircraft, or for onboard water.
-An airline shall not call police when passengers complain or disparage the airline. This is their right.
-Airlines shall maintain adequate staffing at checkin counters. Lines longer than 15 minutes to clear are subject to fine.
-The aircraft door closes at departure time. Passengers cannot be denied boarding if they arrive at the gate prior to this time. The airline can recommend, but not enforce, earlier boarding times.
The Passenger was rude and insulting, and he’s surprised that the airline employees responded in kind. You reap what you sow. Stop acting like an entitled ashore and you’ll find people are nicer to you. No sympathy.
@Aaron — 100%. We need a passenger bill of rights that also includes things like compensation for excessive delays under the airline’s control, like EU261 or Canada’s APPR, though Congress would probably have to legislate it, which I don’t expect to happen anytime soon.
@drrichard — Well said. Moral here is definitely to double-check policies, especially if you don’t regularly fly the airline or route, arrive early, be patient, kind to others, expect games, power trips, unruly fellow passengers, and try not to lose our cool, because when things don’t go well there’s often little recourse, other than maybe a partial refund, sometimes after many weeks and months of trying and credit card disputes. Good luck out there everyone!
@Carl
They all have the same employees. They all work for contractors with the exception of Spirit in Fort Lauderdale and Sun Country in Minneapolis. At some stations, they work a Frontier flight and then go change clothes and work a Spirit flight.
Frontier issues $1,000 vouchers for Voluntary Denied Boarding, but when you try to book a flight using the voucher two weeks later, the voucher is worth $5. If your flight is $50, Frontier will charge you $5 for the flight and $45 for taxes and fees (most Frontier vouchers don’t cover taxes and fees). The voucher is worth $5 and the $45 comes out of your pocket. Frontier will keep the rest of the $950 because most of their vouchers are one time use.
I lost any sympathy for this guy when he said he was never flying this shifty airline again.