A Frontier Airlines agent seemed to take great joy in refusing to check in a man for boarding, managing to display both unprofessionalism and understandable annoyance at a late passenger demanding special accommodation but unwilling to pay for it. Regardless of the merit of any claims of racism, this is a black-and-white issue…concerning airline policy.
Denied and Derided: Passenger Misses Flight, Frontier Agent Loses Cool
A man showed up 30 minutes before his flight and asked to be checked in with the help of an agent. At Frontier Airlines, the check-in cutoff is 60 minutes before the flight, regardless of destination, which seems almost like a punitive way to deny people boarding. But this man was not just a few minutes late…his flight was departing in 30 minutes.
The video starts rolling later than we’d like, but it appears the agents might have been willing to check him in, but he pushed back on paying a $25 agent assist fee, another screwy feature of Frontier’s unbundled fare model that charges you a hefty premium to print out a paper boarding pass.
It appears that the passenger was rude and demanding to the agents, who had no duty to help him out…and met with this entitled behavior, decided not to. When it was too late, the passenger changed his tone, said he would pay the $25, then became indignant when told it was too late.
Unfortunately, the ticketing counter agent then became highly unprofessional, berating and mocking the man and even throwing the F-bomb. Regardless of how much of a jerk he was, a customer-facing airline employee has no business using such foul language.
A Karen named Lauren Witzke, who proudly calls herself a “Christian Nationalist” and is of the anti-Israel, anti-black, anti-immigrant wing of the Trump coalition, alleged on X that a “Black female gate agents at Frontier Airlines go on an unprofessional ghetto power trip. Denying a man the ability to check in, likely because he’s White.”
Sure, Karen. That must be it. There’s no way it could have been that he just checked in late and was a jerk…
But six million people have watched her video, so it is difficult just to ignore mentioning the racial issue.
The division in this country is already bad enough…stoking the racial flames over an issue that may not be racial at all is just absurd (if you watch the whole video above, the passenger was also mocked by a white Frontier employee as well).
CONCLUSION
You get what you pay for when you fly Frontier Airlines. Keep in mind that customer service stinks and that is by design…but with the app you can check in (for free) at least an hour before departure and that if you do not help, it’s better to be nice, or at least laugh, than be demanding (as my wife found out in Denver).
This Frontier employee was an unprofessional jerk. The passenger was probably too. Let’s stop there and save the “racism” charges, please…
“You get what you pay for when you fly Spirit Airlines.” – shouldn’t that be Frontier?
Yes, indeed! (with apologies to NedsKid).
I think we at the point where customer-facing airline employees probably need to wear police-style body cameras—if only for liability purposes.
Probably. I do think the passenger must have really been nasty before the camera started rolling. Who starts dropping F-bombs for fun in that manner…I suspect he demanded in the most demeaning way possible that they check him in.
Supposition, name calling and guesswork. Nice job kid. Came across this randomly after hearing about all of this and wow. If your intention is to get people to interact by being a window-shouting, match-flicking, boob then well done. I applaud your work. Hope it works out for you.
I don’t like entitled people who think the rules don’t apply to them, you see it all the time on You Tube videos in various situations.
Why couldn’t the agent check the unpleasant pax in,avoid a prolonged interaction and let the gate agent decide if pax was indeed late?
This is the solution.
“A Karen named Lauren Witzke, who proudly calls herself a “Christian Nationalist” and is of the anti-Israel, anti-black, anti-immigrant wing of the Trump coalition…”
Although the rest is a matter of opinion, I defy you to find an anti-Israel wing of the Trump coalition. That would be the hard left, the likes of the squad.
Candice Owens?
Her positions on many things (particularly this) are in disagreement with the Trump doctrine (if you wish to call it that). The Palestinian flag wavers are usually on the hard left, not the right. Supporters of radical islamism.
Nick Fuentes is mentioned here as well; another fringe individual. Hardly a coalition.
I find politics like a circle…you go far right enough and you end up on the left. Nazi Germany a perfect mix of an axis of left and right ideology merged into one facist govenrment.
Don’t forget Ann Coulter.
Nick Fuentes? Aka leader of the faction that proudly boasts “Jews will not replace us”
Additional context on the incident, since a reader of my blog and this post was the original source for the video https://viewfromthewing.com/never-flying-this-airline-again-watch-as-frontier-threatens-ban-calls-police-when-passenger-complains-about-25-fee-just-to-check-in/
The reader, who purchased via an OTA and not on the Frontier site, checked in late – hadn’t known about Frontier’s one hour check-in cutoff or about the airline’s fee for in-person check-in – and expressed himself poorly so the staff decided not to let him fly. He wound up buying a cash ticket on JetBlue.
Gary, I totally missed this. Thanks for the update. I’ll update the story as well.
What’s Jasmine Crockett up to lately?
Frontier agents handled this poorly. So poorly they should be fired. Period. End of story. Millions have shown up after the one hour or 2 hour cutoff. 30 minutes is plenty of time. They’ve all boarded…but this time the poorly trained agents were power tripping. Frontier. Fire them…apologize.
Another couple of under qualified and under trained DEI Hires.
You can play all of the training videos you want but you can’t expect trash to not act like trash the moment real customer service and resolution is required.
You can almost immediately expect this kind of behavior; and definitely from frontier.
Nice try on the “Christian Nationalist” smear. Her profile actually says ” … America First | Christian | Nationalist | Coalition Builder | Film Producer.”
Oh come on Ryan, she’s absolutely a Christian Nationalist (two words that sadly been misappropriated to mean those that deify Trump). A vile woman. And the fact that you see the “Christian Nationalist” label as a smear is quite telling.
Dude…grow up. Why is this even being discussed?
To be clear, you were mocking the “Christian Nationalist” label. It was a smear because of your implied tone. Sorry, some people disagree with your opinions.
You usually have a decently interesting blog. Don’t pollute it with nonsense childish political crap— that’s the province of the dolt with the other blog who commented above.
You’re free to disagree with my opinions, but I have a big problem with people who misappropriate the Christian label…that doesn’t make me a leftist.
Matt, you’re no journalist. You’re a joke. Spend some actual time watching the videos. The lack of professionalism is disgusting, maybe look into a career is washing dishes. Spend less time being the ultimate douche.
Hello Stephanie. If you bothered to read what I wrote, you’d see I wrote, “Unfortunately, the ticketing counter agent then became highly unprofessional, berating and mocking the man and even throwing the F-bomb. Regardless of how much of a jerk he was, a customer-facing airline employee has no business using such foul language.” In my conclusion, I said, “This Frontier employee was an unprofessional jerk.”
It’s okay, I forgive you. WWJD, Steph.
p.s. I’m a blogger.
*employee with a phone in the paying customers face when the video starts*
“And you thought you was gonna get on your flight. And you thought you was gonna get on your flight. And you thought you was gonna get on your flight. And you thought you was gonna get on your flight. And you thought you was gonna get on your flight“
But yes, the paying customer is the problem. White guilt is still strong with these LA native “journalists”
I said the trashy Frontier agent should be fired.
But Frontier’s check-in rules are clear…one hour is the limit.
I got to my Delta gate 2 hrs early. I had my ticket on my phone and then the WiFi started going in and out. I couldn’t bring my ticket up. No Delta ticket agent at two desks would help me(they were obviously short handed)I had to go back through TSA ( who were having a bad day and said rude things to me). I stood at the Delta desk and had to prove I couldn’t pull up my ticket.By now, I have 25 min to make it back through TSA. I barely made it and was chastised by the gate agent for being “late”. Someday, the train might be a better option.
Blacks suck, and you need to encounter more of them so your head gets out of your arse on this issue.
Wonder how different this article would have been if the agent was white and customer was black. “Agent with white privilege unfairly refused to help black woman who was trying to visit her terminally ill grandmother. She arrived 30 minutes before boarding but only because she was busy packing her things in a haste. Surely the white male should have shown compassion.”
Wrong.
But I will be updating this story with more details shared by VFTW.
If you’re gonna fly with these budget carriers you’re gonna have to follow their rules to the letter. Maybe the agent could have handled the situation a little better, but the passenger shouldn’t have expected special treatment. I’m sure the agents have heard it all before, one million times, and the answer still has to be “no”. Rules is rules.
Since the white nationalist stated this as a fact, not an opinion, it sounds like a libel suit to me.
And yet Matthew’s buddies accused me of being a doxxer. What else can you tell us about her politics and personal life Matthew?
How do you know she hates Israel?
Read. Her. Tweets.
A lot of rude Keishas contracted for Frontier. It’s worth it for $35 fares. I just deal with it.
Beep Delta. From the interior, to the exterior, you’ve got to get your posterior into one of these thick-ass planes.
When you pinch pennies and try to fly the cheapest possible airline, you get what you pay for. Probably should stick to road trips.
You read her tweets and…..? You missed the Newark story…the Jasmine Crockett story,,,,the Etihad story…the Teamsters dishing on UAL etc. etc. Yet you took the time to read her tweets.
Yours is Washington Post of airline blogs- you ignore everything that doesn’t fit your agenda and spin everything that does.
A guy who thinks he’s so smart is so narrow- and yet I used to think he was so smart.
Sad.
Ok, Carins. Once again, another baseless attack…for what? In defense of a RINO dotard like Trump who would make every Republican POTUS from Lincoln to Bush roll over in their graves? Gloves off, friend. Trump is not conservative and he’s not a Republican and I will not be labeled a “RINO” just because the lemmings hungry for power support an autocratic, impotent fool who puts himself and his cronies in front of the country. And of course, with Trump it’s personal, not just over policy. He screwed his workers, his business parners, and his prostitutes (cheating on his former wives and his current one). He’s garbage morally as well – and I think that matters. And yet I pray for him each night…I pray that it will not be as bad as some are predicting, because I do root for the USA and love my country very much. As I’ll reflect on tomorrow as we look back on the 80th anniversary of V/E day, America needs to be the shining city on the hill.
The Newark story? I wrote about it twice:
https://liveandletsfly.com/united-airlines-newark-slot-controls-trump/
https://liveandletsfly.com/united-ceo-newark-airport-slot-controls/
The Teamsters issue will be covered tomorrow.
The Crockett story? Not inerested in that trashy B.
The Etihad story? I have no idea what you’re talking about.
I write this blog for fun…I have a full-time job that I do and so I get to write four stories a day in my free time, not cover everything that a full-time blogger might cover. And I cover what I find interesting.
I don’t spend time thinking about how smart or dumb I am: I spend time learning and reflecting, listening to those who disagree and engaging with them, as I’m doing here. It’s a sign of respect toward you.
Maybe instead of trashing me every time you feel that I write something against Dear Leader, you reflect on why I feel the way I do, especially when I was such a harsh critic of so many of the polices of the Biden Administration. Listen to Bill Maher’s editorial from last week and let me know if you agree:
Literally don’t see any entitlement. When you work as the face of the company, you have to keep your composure and cool. Entitled or NOT. This is an entire lawsuit waiting to happen from two women berating a paying customer. Either remove yourself from the situation or don’t speak at all.
The entitlement was expressed before the video started. Even so, there is no excuse for the poor conduct of the Frontier agents.
carins – nicely said.
Matt – your TDS is showing. Might want to dial that back.
Bill, your TDS is showing. Trump Deify Syndrome. Very sad, very sad indeed.
No mention of Trump in this post…I’m sick of the snowflake victocrats.
Matthew do you think people are so stupid that you think you actually need to name Trump in order to diss those who might support him?
Who, in your own words, did you name as those who disagree with you as following a “Dear Leader?”
Try, just for a while, to report on airline/airplane happenings instead of exposing your rabid political self.
Cackles lost. Get over it and get back to airlines, travel and the like.
I can’t imagine Explora and the other vendors who back you would support these kind of views. Most of those who sell a product or service aren’t so stupid as to alienate half their audience.
You, apparently, are.
That’s what’s really sad. It’s easy to see who the real snowflake is.
As usual, you avoided every point I made and did not answer the questions I posed.
Take a look in the mirror.
You’ve been reading this blog for years and never expressed any complaints about me trashing the Biden Administration’s counterproductive COVID-19 policies or shameful vaccine mandates. Or calling out United for being “woke.” Never once did you say, “Try, just for a while, to report on airline/airplane happenings instead of exposing your rabid political self” until I dared oppose your side of the aisle.
You accuse me of being a snowflake, but it certainly appears to me that you are the one who cannot tolerate someone who disagrees with you. That’s the definition of a snowflake.
Every time you attack, I try to engage with you…and you just respond with more attacks. I looked back on your hundreds of comments over the years…so much agreement. So much praise. But now, I’m the enemy?
I didn’t support “Cackles” or her stupid sidekick “Tampon Tim.” But I do call issues the way I see them, which doesn’t neatly fit into the current GOP-Dem divide in this country.
Please continue to engage, but make it a two-way conversation, not just shouting past me…and no, this post wasn’t about Trump or blanketly dissing his supporters…but I was certainly dissing that particular moronic woman.
The guy mumbld under his breath that he’s not going to fly this s*** airline again. He didn’t criticize them or say anything mean to them. They were already going to check him in but once he said that they became ghetto trash and started cussing him out. Berating him and recording him and his face. Apparently there are third party to frontier and frontier terminated their contracts over this. Him mumbling under his breath while he was paying the $25 fee doesn’t warrant these two ghetto pieces of trash actting in the way they did. And nobody should defend their unprofessionalism. They already were smart towards him about the fee before he said anything smart. The cops got involved and even said he isn’t to blame for this and that this won’t be the last incident of the day these two will cause which means this is a common occurrence with them. And as far as racism goes it’s only racist if it’s the other way around. If this had happened to two black women and they were white employees it would be on every race batters talk show from Roland Martin to MSNBC. Remember when the white kid wore face paint to the Chiefs game and they said he was in black face. Race hustlers Make any interaction that’s white and black racist. But nobody calls them out. Nobody calls them Karen’s.
So you think that they refused to help him because he was white, not because of any words he muttered?
You use phrases like “Dear Leader” and then say you want a civil conversation? Really? It’s your rhetoric that’s creating the cesspool here and you’re too blind to see it. If you don’t think language like that isn’t an attack you’re dumber than I thought.
What offends you about “Dear Leader”?
Sorry you are wrong about this. The agents were rude righ5 off the bat. This has nothing to do with the color of people’s skin, but glad to see YOU made us aware. Yes he was late and he he got mad over the fee, but there was NO reason those agents had to act that way. I’m glad to hear they were fired.
I wonder why this never happens to me. I show up on time, obey the rules, and am courteous. Oh, wait, I know why this never happens to me.
Do you not know any Korean history Matthew? Do you really want to equate the President (as bad as he may be) with a Korean monster who murdered his own people by the hundreds of thousands? If not by the millions?
Surely you can’t be so devoid of historical knowledge that you don’t know who the term “Dear Leader” refers to. Much less what that dear leader did.
I refer to Trump as Dear Leader not so much to say he’s no different than Kim Jong Il, but because of the cult of personality built around Trump that I have not seen in my lifetime in US politics. Obama was the only one who came close, but it was a very distant second.
That’s an incredibly horrific and invalid characterization and I would think you’re smart enough to know that. Much less know what a trigger that kind go remark can be. But maybe not.
I never, ever heard you characterizing Obama as a dictator or monster- in any way. Quite the contrary in fact. If you did show us. And let’s face it- he built a personality cult- complete with posters- around himself.
I think you robbed that sort of “Dear Leader” BS off of MSNBC or the like. And know so little of those horrors you tossed it off and thought it appropriate.
That’s kind of disgusting IMO.
I don’t have a TV so I never watch MSNBC but unless memory fails me, Obama didn’t call himself a dictator or vow to put his enemies in jail (not that I defend Biden for also politicizing the DOJ). Trump is the one posting images of himself as king and pope and rattling on about a third term…it’s just a little different.
And I can show you research papers I’ve written on the Kim Dynasty in the DPRK. I’m keenly aware of the history of North Korea and used that term knowing exactly where it came from.