Spirit Airlines Denied Boarding To A Passenger In Atlanta, So The Passenger Went Berserk

I probably could stop just writing “Spirit Airlines in Atlanta.” But what’s unique here is that there are some passengers who actually get denied boarding by Spirit!

A Spirit Airlines gate agent was assaulted by a passenger they’d just denied boarding to out of a belief that the customer was intoxicated. The story is just coming out, though it occurred May 11 around 9:40 p.m. The passenger tried to force her way onto the jet bridge, and punched the gate agent in the face when that didn’t work.

Fortunately the agent was fairly unscathed. The passenger was arrested and charged with assault.

A Spirit Airlines Atlanta fight went viral only a month ago. It always surprises me how long it takes for law enforcement to respond considering the number of different government agencies on site at the airport, and that there are cameras virtually everywhere.

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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  1. “Assault” arrests and charges are a blight in our criminal justice system. Every single person in our society is guilty of assault, even if it was a fistfight in the middle school cafeteria. The lower-income population, predominantly persons of color, are disproportionately taken in by our legal system for “assault.”

    If you cause bodily injury, you should be held liable, but mere physical “assault” should not be a crime.

  2. “But what’s unique here is that there are some passengers who actually get denied boarding by Spirit!”

    You just can’t get past putting in a dig at Spirit, can you? Spirit denies boarding just like everybody else and is held to the same laws and regulations as any other airline. Though I haven’t seen anybody get peed on or sexually assaulted on Spirit like on your precious legacy carrier frequent-flyer-pamper-flights.

  3. @Youngblood. Here’s hoping you get your a*s royally kicked, by a “disproportionate minority”. Then you can show up with a daisy, sing
    Kum Ba Yah, and explain to the DA why you don’t wanna press charges. From your wheelchair.

  4. @Youngblood

    What?

    Lots of people manage to go through life without assaulting other people. It’s called being a decent human being. I’m really sorry you had an abusive childhood.

  5. Low fares and the increase in government handouts over the past five years means more riff raff is flying. It does not help that liberals view civilized behavior as an oppressive part of white supremacist colonialist culture.

  6. If this keeps up; I suspect Spirit (and other airlines) are going to have major class action lawsuits brought by their employees for having to stand b/w the airline’s policies and harms way.
    Every gate is going to eventually require some security.
    This is not fair to these hard working, customer facing women and men, to have to go to work, be professional, AND be expected to physically fight people on the regular.

  7. Quit serving alcohol on planes & in airports! If you can’t go a few hours without a drink you shouldn’t be taking a plane!

  8. Spirit Airline should not deny intoxicated passengers entry so long as they retain their name. Just common sense.

  9. @Wesley the “oppressive part of white supremacist colonialist culture” is the fact that people like you who assume that lower income people of color are nothing more than “riff raff” and not entitled to do the things you do. And, if you are going to play the “government handout” card, VA, KY, NM and WV all get significantly more in “government handouts” that they pay in through taxes. In fact, VA…one of the 10 wealthiest states…gets twice as much back in federal dollars as it pays in taxes. So, by your logic, every single person living in these states is “riff raff” and has no business on an airplane.

    And you wonder why you folks may not align around your world view.

  10. ??? did anyone watch the tape before turning this into a racial/political issue. the perp, at least one of the arresting officers, and the reporter are all POC.

  11. SOBE ER DOC, these days *every* state gets more federal dollars back than they pay in taxes. A LOT more. The annual federal deficit is over $1.4 trillion dollars, or over $4,000 per person.

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