Police were called to Allegiant Airlines check-in at Punta Gorda, Florida last month. Bodycam footage shows why.
A passenger didn’t have a boarding pass, but had a reservation. They went to the check-in counter and were told about the airline’s $5 fee for printing a boarding pass at the airport. He claimed he ‘didn’t pay this fee last year.’ Frustrated, he tried to throw $5 cash at the agent. Allegiant counters are cashless – credit/debit only – so that wasn’t accepted.
Officers arrived and explained the policy. The man interrupts them repeatedly, calling this “a scam,” and demanding staff “say” he’s being denied travel for not paying $5. He insults the officer (“you’re an idiot…”) and refuses to sit where instructed. They warn him he’s now trespassing. He refuses to leave, and gets arrested.
- One Mile at a Time has sympathy for the airline’s staff and little for the passenger’s “level of ignorance.” It’s reasonable to assume the passenger’s behavior would have continued onboard, so it’s good he was prevented from traveling that day.
- Live and Let’s Fly says that the fee is transparent and reasonable. Ultra-low cost carriers have fees. Those are detailed on their website. You save money by conforming to their rules. It’s not reasonable to object when you’re subject to them.
That’s all right as far as it goes. And, indeed, European low cost carriers charge more to print a boarding pass at the airport. So do other U.S. ones!
The thing to remember about the business model is that these fees aren’t just about ‘scamming’ passengers for money, they’re about getting passengers to modify their behavior in ways that keeps the airline’s costs down. Fewer passengers printing boarding passes at the airport saves the airline on staffing costs (and paper).
Here, the passenger made a choice, that jail was preferable to.. downloading the airline’s mobile app. Staff followed written policies charging a published fee and accepting only credit or debit cards. They offered the passenger options, which were rejected. The officer gave multiple off-ramps. They weren’t arrested for refusing to pay the fee – they were arrested for refusing to leave when their behavior made them unwelcome.
Breeze Airways charges $3 for airport printing. Frontier actually charges $25 for agent-assisted check-in each way. In the spring Frontier threatened to ban a passenger and call the police after the customer complained about their $25 fee.
In Europe Ryaanir charges up to 55 euros and is moving to digital-only boarding passes starting November 3. Volotea charges €10 if you prepay “Airport check-in” online or €20 paid at the airport.
With these fees, the old adage rings true: there’s no such thing as a flight for 50p.
Gary is right. Just download the app, or stay home. And to those whining about having to have a frequent flyer account to access ‘free’ WiFi, again, you, too, have a choice. Sign-up, log-in, enjoy, or no WiFi. You do you.
On getting arrested for this, yeah, not great, but if you escalate to the point of trespass… you shouldn’t be surprised. Also, good luck getting ‘prosecuted’ for this. Lotta effort and resources for that. Probably spend a little time detained, removed, written up, then released.
Was just explaining to some yokels in separate recent comments how crimes are crimes… even the little ones… and, if we wanna have a society and ‘enforce the law’ (all of them), it’s gonna be a rough time for anyone who speeds (even 1 mph over), or if you receive a mere $20 and fail to report it as income, because both of those are ‘illegal.’ So, how many of y’all are ‘illegals’?
live and what? is that even a reliable source? I doubt it.
Five dollar fee probably not worth the hassle. However, these so called ancillary fees are getting a bit crazy. Just waiting for the announcement that they now have a fee for breathing on the plane and an additional fee in the event the Oxygen Masks drop and are used. And when are these nickel and dime Airlines going to put a box on the Lav Door to deposit money to use their Lav’s
Thanks to an out of touch CEO and a Predator, the last of the really Customer friendly Airlines, has now been corrupted.
That’s why I fly legacy carriers and avoid ULCCs. I prefer to be able to print my boarding pass at the airport, even if I already have one in the app.
while I find the fee high, the airline can charge what it wants to. The customer used some way to pay for his ticket and I would suggest that was a credit card. If he had kept his cool and asked, there is probably someone he could give the $5 to who would use their credit card to print the boarding pass (they would also get to keep their purchase receipt). It seems that he wanted to get arrested and he got his wish.
Jimmy, did I ever tell you about the time when I used to pay less than a dollar a gallon for gas. The daily newspaper was only a plug-nickel, and they’d deliver it right to the front door. And if I moved the antenna the right way, I could get the PBS station in the next state, and not just the three networks. Those shows sure looked amazing in black-and-white.
Hey buddy, it doesn’t matter what the policy was the last time, THIS is the policy today. And Gary, you’re 100% correct. This guy was given more off-ramps than there are on the highway. He was the cause of the ultimate results.
@Don G — You’ve never heard of Gary’s competition? Sorry, I mean, ‘peers.’ They’re each still better than the corporate shills over at TPG who couldn’t even handle comments.
The airline is WRONG.
Printed on U.S. currency is the statement “For All Debts, Public and Private”
The airline violated federal law. They should be considered a terrorist organization for
having the man kidnapped by the police.
If the clowns at the airline do not want to accept cash that’s their problem.
I hope the dude sues them for millions.
@Alan — And, they say ‘satire’ is outlawed… apparently not!
When I stub my toe on furniture, I blame my ‘terrorist’ chair, too.
Tell us how you really feel!
At what point does this site get renamed (Customers|Airlines|Hotels) Behaving Badly?
Airlines, customer service at it’s finest.
All airlines now charge for EVERYTHING because we put up with it, in addition to insanely cramped seating in “Coach” to get us to the front of the plane and pay four times more. “Yes, you have reserved a seat and boarded the aircraft, but in order to sit down in that seat, you owe us $10!”.
The only way to stop this fib of “low cost airlines” and the fee cascading in general is to force all airlines to post their price including everything except for in-flight purchases. A “$200” seat becomes $300 when you add on baggage storage under the plane, buying a seat in normal coach, printing passes, etc. But wait, that will get folks checking baggage to boarding and deplaning becomes the previous 5 minutes rather than the now 20 minutes with the storage and retrieval of a 40-pound “carry on” five feet over the seats.
the airlines/systems make a boarding pass essential. If only to keep the stress and hassles of ticket/gate agents down and not make scenes or bother police, build the darn cost of a boarding pass into the cost of the darn ticket. This is not rocket or airplane science! Just do it! I fear for the senior adults of which there are increasingly more of and will be even more who did not grow up with this insanity and don’t understand. In fact, clearly not their responsibility, but for all the cops that showed up to the scene, what if one of them might just have coughed up a credit/debit card, paid for the pass, and be done with it all, posting a nice video instead and getting some positive PR for the police dept, and showing the ignorance of the airline. The airline should create a compassion fund for such situations or simply waive it for senior adults. Enough IS enough! What if it all caused the gentleman to have a cardiac event? Alleg. should read Judge Frank Caprio’s book: Compassion in the Court.
Are there religious grounds whereupon you aren’t allowed to have credit cards? After all it is a type of loan. Maybe then you can sue for religious discrimination when confronted with cashless transactions! Just a thought.
@Ken – Several airlines in the Mideast (eg Emirates, Qatar, Etihad) offer ‘Sharia-compliant’ credit cards
@Ken — Maybe we shouldn’t be using fairytales to ‘get our way’ like that.
(Pardon, meant to say, of course, ‘yours’ is the ‘one true one,’ and we’d never dare mock it in any way. Specifically, @JacktheLadd, we’d never depict anyone in-particular. Also, Gary, if you practice, happy ‘new year.’ And, to the rest of you, happy ‘rapture’ day…)
I’m never on the side of these airline companies when it comes to these nickel and diming fees. They aren’t there to make travel easier. The entire model is to get as much out of the customer as possible. For $5, they could have just waived it. I do not think the customer is over-reacting either. The more customers put up with their crap, the more they charge. Look at how ridiculous it is now with the airlines???? boarding takes forever because of their so call tier system of economy class seats. The stupid part is that they have the audacity to state they are trying to lean six sigma the boarding process 🙂 There was never an issue to board from back to front, which was done in the past. Airlines = Greed and not for customers.
I’m not defending the passenger’s bad behavior, but he was likely in the right – he attempted to pay in cash. While no federal law exists requiring businesses to accept cash as payment for services rendered, a number of states, like California, are passing laws to require businesses to accept cash, especially as those who are at the lower end of the socioeconomic ladder mostly still use cash for day to day expenses. Florida House Bill 67 does the same for purchases under $200 for most businesses with the state. So… Depending upon which businesses are and are not covered in the fine print of House Bill 67, which went into effect on 7/1/25, Allegiant may have been required to accept the passenger’s $5 bill as payment for the boarding pass. Airlines are not specifically exempted in House Bill 67, but as federal regulations also govern airlines, the issue is whether House Bill 67 conflicts with a federal law or regulation. I’m not a lawyer so perhaps someone with more legal training than I could chime in after analyzing the issue.
I saw the video. What a moron. If he did not have a credit or debit card he could have downloaded the app. Another person that stopped at toddler stage including understanding the most basic of technology. Now he will need to hire a lawyer, which will cost more than $5 and won’t want to be paid in cash, or have some overworked PD take whatever the DA is offering, which may or may not be to his good.
I’m not defending the customer getting out of hand, but I do believe he’s justified, and he *did* begrudgingly try to pay, the airline just had barrier upon barrier. It is a fundamental requirement to need a boarding pass to fly, and to add obstacles to that in the form of fees is getting way out of hand.
I saw Gary’s comment that fees are more about “changing customer behavior” – that’s fine and all when there’s excess or optionality to an offering (say airlines only offer water rather than a selection of drinks; I’m not advocating for this, but at least that makes sense). Really…don’t most customers already use digital anyway? I’d wager the “cost savings” here isn’t as substantial as something that *every* customer does that incurs a cost to the airline.
At this point, I’m waiting for airlines to say “you have to pay with CC only; by the way, you’re also paying an extra 4% to cover our interchange fee (don’t worry about that not being our real cost, just pay it).”
The race to the bottom continues…
@George N Romey — I was fully expecting him to go full ‘sovereign citizen’… psh. Cluster B?
The first officer was a pussy for calling for backup for such a minor issue. The defendant did not resist his arrest, and the charges against him were patently absurd. His only crime was pissing off a police officer.
The $5 fee is annoying, but it should be ILLEGAL for a business to refuse cash as payment for in-person purchases. Cash is legal tender and the federal government should force businesses to accept it as such. Otherwise we are letting businesses choose their own monetary system, which is unacceptable in my opinion.
@Steven — Not practical to force every business in every situation to accept cash, make change, etc. Think of on-board purchases at 35,000 feet, going 550 mph, over the Atlantic Ocean. Card, preloaded to an app, etc. seems reasonable under those circumstances if applicable.
I just wanted to make an editorial correction. The article is totally fine except for this part:
“They weren’t arrested for refusing to pay the fee – they were arrested for refusing to leave when their behavior made them unwelcome. ”
This was one person involved. Only one. Corrected version:
“HE wasn’t arrested for refusing to pay the fee – HE was arrested for refusing to leave when HIS behavior made HIM unwelcome”.
There was no “gender” issue here. Seems pretty straightforward. Gary?
@1990. It seems like you feel the need to bloviate your comments to an extreme on this site.
It would be nice if Gary would limit you to one comment per article.
Different country of course, but I just returned from rural England, and it is very difficult to find people who take cash. Restaurants, stores, hotels, etc. Many places display signs to see as soon as you walk in the door to make sure you know.
@mrEditor — Ah, yes, time to get ‘worked up’ over pronouns… so 2023…
By purchasing travel from Allegiant Air, you agree to these Terms & Conditions, our Privacy Policy, and our Contract of Carriage.
https://www.allegiantair.com/terms-and-conditions
I felt this was a case of the airline being discourteous and inflexible towards an older flyer and showing absolutely no compassion. I mean give the guy a break. Everyone was digging their heels in and a situation that could have been averted by printing a boarding pass that would cost less than a tenth of a penny. This was a final straw for the guy. Sure he’s old, obviously with onset of some neurological disorder by the level of his shaking. So the right thing to do is further traumatize a sick individual rather than print a simple slip of paper and forget about it. What a mean spirited airline and what callous and uncaring people they all were. I bet they all were proud about sending some sick guy to jail rather than just be nice and let something insignificant slide. Wow. have we all forgotten how to be nice?
Did the Airline escalate or deescalate the situation?
The customer had paid for a ticket in full. He asked for a service which was necessary for boarding which was the issuance of a boarding pass.
The airline escalated the situation by charging an extra $ 5.00 fee. ( they could have waived it) Remember customer service?
The airline escalated the situation by refusing to accept US legal tender
The airline escalated the situation by demanding electronic payment.
The airline escalated the situation by asking for police assistance.
The airline escalated the situation by having the police arrest the customer.
The airline is clearly at fault.
“His only crime was pissing off a police officer.” I’d recommend you understand applicable law before you make decisions about things like this.
BTW, @Gary did you notice Ryanair is removing the charge for an airport-printed b/p in early November? You still need to checkin online/app at least 1 (2?) hours or pay €/£ 55 to checkin at most airport (some less).
@This comes to mind — Yeesh! €/£ 55 is more than most of their airfare!
I know it’s shocking, but some seniors can’t download an app to pay because they don’t have a smartphone, or even a cell phone. The airline definitely burned more than $5 in fuel while dealing with this issue, let alone the officers time. Petty.
One guy writes – That’s why I fly legacy carriers and avoid ULCCs. I prefer to be able to print my boarding pass at the airport, even if I already have one in the app. LOL I hope you enjoy paying $200 more on the legacy carriers so you can have a useless paper boarding pass when the one on your phone FOR FREE works fine 100% of the time
I know many many people that cant do anything remotely simple as a boarding pass or have phones or computers that print this.
@This comes to mind
Ryanair is removing the fee because the will be no option for airport checkin. All boarding passes will be digital. You must download their app or you cannot fly.
The peninsula effect is strong with this one.
There’s a 100% chance he has a red hat in his luggage.
“Not practical to force every business in every situation to accept cash, make change, etc. Think of on-board purchases at 35,000 feet, going 550 mph, over the Atlantic Ocean. Card, preloaded to an app, etc. seems reasonable under those circumstances if applicable.”
I disagree. I distinctly recall FA’s making change at 35,000 feet for things like alcoholic drink purchases. There were a few times when they had to ask passengers for help with breaking larger bills, but nothing crazy. If it was do-able 15 years ago, it is still do-able today. Airlines just don’t want to deal with the problem inherent in moving and tracking cash. I don’t blame them, but it isn’t impractical.
“By purchasing travel from Allegiant Air, you agree to these Terms & Conditions, our Privacy Policy, and our Contract of Carriage.”
It generally helps to read the terms and conditions beforehand before citing them. The applicable section reads, “Boarding Pass Printing – A $5.00 per boarding pass fee will apply to passengers who choose to have a boarding pass printed out at select domestic airport locations. To avoid this charge, passengers may check in online and bring a printed paper boarding pass to the airport, or use the Allegiant mobile boarding pass.” It says that the boarding pass will cost $5, but it nowhere states that it MUST be paid for digitally. That just isn’t in there. Since a boarding pass was capable of being printed at the airport, this was apparently a “select domestic airport.” The pax rudely tossed a $5 bill, true, but he did attempt to pay. The Allegiant personnel should have taken the $5, printed the boarding pass, and then sorted out the mess with their supervisors. Easy.
@1990
Don’t care. For thousands of years, people have figured out how to exchange physical currency when needed to make a purchase. If your business won’t accept USD, in physical forms, your business simply shouldn’t be operating in the US.
Refusing cash and insisting on card payment should be illegal globally. All countries STILL issue money and cash must be accepted because it offers a level on anonymity (OK, you are not anonymous at the airport unless you fly with fake documetns, but still, there are more and more shops globally that require card payment and that is UNACCEPTABLE).
I think that what Ryanair is planning ought to be illegal. The ability to live an analogue life and function completely outside of the digital world ought to be a basic universal human right.
Strange hill to die on. Bet his attorney fees will exceed that $5.00.
These instances demonstrate that the low low cost model is very questionable. How to piss people off is one description. Older people have trouble with digital accessories. These carriers should make small adjustments to their fare base and will get customers returning.
I tried the low cost model twice. One was a $20 fee to sit together after they had placed up apart at Res time. Another was the boarding pass issue. Never again.
Geesh, all this fuss over a boarding pass. Perhaps, all of this is avoidable if the airlines make these choices (print or app) available when the flight is booked so a person isn’t paying at the airport (i.e. stop the nickel & dime at every turn). If you’re going to have additional charges at the airport, accept the currency. Also, it is nonsense to have to load an app for every little thing. Enough fault on both sides here.
@C. McCary — Always fun to ‘both sides’ every issue, eh? Or, maybe, just download the darn app.