A Spirit Airlines employee was filmed last week at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport getting into it with a passenger, accosting her and dropping an F-bomb. The woman probably deserved it?
The check-in agent followed the woman to security. And as the woman advanced in line at the TSA checkpoint, she demanded that the woman show her boarding pass.
The passenger presented the Spirit Airlines mobile app. While showing the boarding pass, the passenger moved forward in line. The check-in agent moved with her, “I want to see the boarding pass!” And the passenger responds, “I will not miss my flight..”
The employee noted the passenger’s details from their boarding pass and then storms off with an “F- you, too.” Wow.
The person taking video of the incident adds, “This Spirit employee is very offended because this lady said something to her,” and “I think she’s taking it a little too far. … I think it’s a little bit of an abuse.”
@sightssoundsflavors Things you see when you travel as much as I do. The passenger definitely started it, but the airline employee lost the moral highground when she confronted the passenger for a second time. Initially she told her from the side taht she had a filthy mouth and embarrassed the passenger in front of 5-10 people. The passenger walked away and just kind of took it. The airline employee then came back and in a way wouldn’t let the passenger walk away. This is a very bad look for #spiritairlines but what do I know ♂️ I get passengers can be VERY rude but 99% of the people who saw this weren’t privvy to what tbe passenger may have initially said. I know I wasn’t till after the second encounter when the airline employee said the F-word followed by “too.” #sightssoundsflavors #airport #flying #fortlauderdaleairport #fllairport #hollywoodairport #flightattendant #rudepassenger #boardingpass #cantwalkaway #airline #airlines #viral #trending #foryou #4u #fyp #parati #omg #savetiktok #strengthaddicts #fl #fortlauderdale #hollywoodfl #bullying #payback #abuseofpower ♬ original sound – SightsSoundsFlavors.com
The only thing to add here is that the “too” suggests that the passenger said the same thing to the employee earlier. The employee claims the passenger had a “filthy mouth.”
- So was the employee on a ‘power trip’ as some observers suggest? It really depends on context that we don’t have, from before filming began.
- But responding ‘in kind’ to abuse makes it hard to act against only the passenger. The employee might have had the passenger banned for their own abusive behavior – except the need to throw in the expletive back at them loses any high ground.
Cursing someone out may feel good in the moment, but is almost never in your actual interest – whether you’re a passenger or an employee. Taking that shot is likely too costly, and revenge is better served up later. And dropping an F-bomb in front of other passengers? That’s a career-limiting move – even at Spirit Airlines, and even in Florida.
Doesn’t surprise me one bit considering the airline…typical crappy behavior from these employees. I lump Spirit and Frontier employees in the same category.
What’s the backstory? TSA doesn’t look at boarding passes anymore. Airlines can look up your boarding info themselves.
Nothing about Florida should surprise anyone anymore.
Gate agent on a power trip. As far as saying the “FU, too” is a response to a prior FU, that is not always true. The passenger could have said “and the horse you rode in on” (the FU is implied but not said).
At any business that values customer service, that employee would be dismissed. F-bombing any customer, under any circumstance is not acceptable.
Agree Ron. Never ever ok.
Bob
Wrong state, you confused Florida with that cesspool state commifornia.
Discipline the employee, ban the passenger from future Spirit travel, and require both of them to attend anger management training . . . together.
TSA was requiring us to scan boarding passes at SFO a month ago for me and the others in TSA precheck (don’t know about non precheck).
Absolutely unprofessional on the part of the Spirit employee regardless of what may have happened earlier.
We have no idea as to whether the customer should be banned. But regardless, the employee should be disciplined.
Here is my guess: Spirit actually has a setup at the entrance of the security checkpoint at FLL (other airiness fly out of the terminal but Spirit is likely the major player) and employees of Spirit will actually ask people entering the checkpoint area for their boarding pass, see if they’re flying Spirit and paid for bags, and then make them size their carry on, etc. They have computers and are ready to take payment if needed.
I fly Spirit on occasion and know my backpack is way too big to be a personal item, and have always had the opinion that once I’m ‘caught’, i would always pay. Really annoying to be caught by some random lady in the middle of the airport asking for a boarding pass, however, who I thought was asking for a security reason. Next time I’d likely refuse and I my guess is they follow you continuing to demand the boarding pass and is likely what started this ordeal.
yawn
1) it’s the shit hole that is Florida.
2) An employee speaks like that with me, congrats my mission is now not so much flying, I’m there all day, and I am getting your ass fired. Then we can how brave you are in the parking garage.
That’s the Spirit
The whole world needs a “hugging shirt”!
The competition between Spirit passengers and Spirit employees to see who is the worse trash continues…it’s almost unfair to let Floridians participate in such a contest, though.
Completely unsurprising. Spirit is a trash airline for trash people, both employees and customers.
The Spirit employee did not swear at – she responded in kind.