Weeks After Flight, Mask Wearing Passengers Banned For Not Wearing Masks

Family received two year ban from Spirit Airlines over not wearing masks only the notice came weeks after the flight, and they say they wore masks and never had any words with employees over the issue.

The family “flew from a NY area airport to Florida in mid-January in a noneventful flight.”

The mom, dad, and their five children were masked as required by law, and had no altercation with any of the flight crew. They never left their seats, and sat in their assigned seats the entire flight. Not a word was said to the family about any mask issue or any other issues during the entire duration of the flight.

However “three weeks after their flight, the mother and father received two certified letters via FedEx stating that they since they were not in compliance with the mask mandate, they were now banned from using the airline.”

Usually it’s fairly cut-and-dried, people don’t dispute the facts or there is a contemporaneous incident with witnesses. Here there doesn’t appear to have been a social media maelstrom, and the family says this came out of the blue. There’s no due process involved. Someone could easily be banned by mistake, maybe a cabin crew member writes down the wrong row number by mistake or the wrong seats (right row, seats across the aisle). Were these passengers banned by mistake? Or are they just being coy, and know they’d done wrong?

Like the passenger Spirit banned for posting on social media how to evade their carry on bag fees, it’s a two year ban and then passengers can ask to be allowed to fly the airline again.

Unlike other airlines who have said mask bans last for the duration of the mask-wearing requirement, this one has a defined end time that is (hopefully) well-beyond how long airlines will require wearing masks, and how long the federal government will be imposing this requirement.

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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Comments

  1. This is a blessing in disguise. Banned from Spirit should be a premium feature that prevents friends or family from booking you on them.

  2. @mon yesss I was just going to comment the same thing! If I got that notice in the mail, I’d think “great news! I can’t fly Spirit ever again!”

  3. @Gary. I think you need to check your sources. Maybe it was for refusing a cage match on Spirit. Or maybe it was for WEARING a mask.

  4. Unfortunately, my past experiences with Spirit passengers pre-COVID-19 have been comprised of individuals who most likely have bad memories of their own poor conduct.

  5. Banned from Spirit, how will I ever survive? I’d rather take Greyhound than fly Spirit

Comments are closed.