Airport Workers Reportedly Fired After Incident With Check-In
A pair of Frontier Airlines gate agents lost their jobs after video of their confrontation with a customer went viral.
The incident occurred last week at Raleigh-Durham International Airport and involved a 45-year-old man who was checking in for a flight back to Boston following a business trip.
The man told the New York Post he arrived at the airport 50 minutes before his flight, but was unable to check in on Frontier's electronic kiosk because he missed the airline's 60-minute deadline. When he went to speak with an employee, the man was told he needed to cough up a $25 fee to check in at the desk.
“They all kind of started chiming in, ‘Well, you should have checked the website.’ Like not in a professional or polite way. They were like, ‘It was your fault for not checking the website. Sorry, it’s on you,'” the man claimed to the Post.
After finally agreeing to reluctantly pay the fee, the man said he was "never flying this s----y airline again," which made things even more contentious.
“When I said that, the lady who I was talking to took a step back and gasped, and was like, ‘How dare you curse at me? I’m not checking you in. I don’t have to check you in.’ And my reaction was, ‘You will check me in.’ I think those were the words that I used,” the man said.
The man had already begun filming the confrontation, and at this time, two of the woman's coworkers began taunting the customer, saying "And you thought you was gonna get on your flight." The agents also began recording the exchange.
At the end of it all, the man bought a $500 JetBlue ticket and says Frontier eventually reimbursed him after he called to complain.
In the meantime, the workers were let go.
"We are aware of what occurred and have been directly in touch with the customer," Frontier said in a statement. "The individuals in question, who work for a third party contractor, are no longer associated with the Frontier account."