As if you needed another reason not to fly Frontier Airlines, we have one: FAs may get huffy after eavesdropping on your private conversation.
A 70-year old man and his 25-year old daughter were kicked off a Frontier flight for expressing annoyance about a long flight delay…to each other.
Not surprisingly after a long delay, they were grumbling and seemed to take a little solace in the fact that flight attendants appeared just as miserable. Little did they know that a FA standing nearby was listening in and took offense to their private insult.
The FA allegedly leaned in toward them and repeatedly stated, “Do we have a problem?” before threatening to remove them from the flight.
Contacting ground staff, the FA stated she felt “threatened” and asked the father and daughter be removed. Another passenger recorded the interaction between ground staff and the Millers, who appear angry but under control. The passenger added commentary backing up the Millers and calling Frontier shameful.
Frontier claims the two were shouting profanities at staff members. I don’t believe it, but even if true — that’s probably not unexpected after an 8-hour delay without any compensation.
Our flight attendants are customer service and safety professionals who are trained to recognize situations that may impact comfort and safety of passengers and crew on board our aircraft. The behaviors and comments exhibited by these passengers prior to departure were inappropriate; and as a result they were asked to leave our aircraft. Safety and security of our passengers and crew is our number one priority.
Frontier refunded their tickets.
A local news station in Orlando interviewed the Millers–
I’d welcome a chance to speak to the FAs, but at this point I’m siding with the Millers…
CONCLUSION
Power-tripping FAs are nothing new. But I’m galled by the fact that these two were thrown off for having a private conversation. I’ve got news for FAs: if you don’t have a thick skin, you’re in the wrong business.
@ Matthew — I am very impressed by Mr. Miller’s composure. I would have likely lost my cool.
I don’t get the impression from the Clapping of the other passengers that he was whispering
Once again you have one side of the story that nobody’s checking out the other side and putting it down as gospel check it out guys this guy was talking really loud to his daughter about how unhappy he was
I was taught by my parents that eavesdropping is not a good manners. Maybe its different in the region where the said FA grew up. Maybe its different ethics at frontier’s company culture.
Tough reading aviation news its no wonder FA in US didn’t have any manners at all. Well, looking at the smear campaign against ME3, people will wonder if US people have any manners….
Manners aside, it seems that “Safety and security of our passengers and crew is our number one priority” can have a very broad interpretation.
Let’s say there’s a couple, ugly woman and goodlooking man. So handsome that the FA fallen for him. FA flirts with him, he said politely, sorry I already have a girlfriend/wive/fiance. FA look at her, she is ugly, FA felt offended. FA then remove the woman (and) the man from flight, citing standard phrase.
Am I overboard with example? Well, how can someone complaining about delays considered to be security threat then? Not to mention it was private conversation…..
What a disgraceful attitude of this FA. On situations like this I thank my skills of speaking 3 different languages so at least I can complain about the airline to my wife and the FA won’t understand a word. :)))) Well, not that would happen in a Frontier plane since I would prefer to catch a Greyhound bus than fly with them.
look at the FA! They are lucky they didn’t get stabbed by that creature!
They were being disrespectful to the crew and weren’t being quiet about it. That’s why everyone applauded when they were removed.
The person who posted the video on Facebook said passengers were applauding at the man’s remarks, not that he was thrown off.
Overzealous, power hungry, FA. She should be demoted but that probably won’t happen due to diversity.
How did the FA know the pax wasn’t covered by the American with Disabilities Act for mental/personality disorders?
The FAs operate as judge, jury and executioner.
When someone abuses their position of power in other areas, we call it Official Oppression.
Perhaps we should do away with the immunity flight crews have acquired. Too many obviously do not know how to handle such responsibility.
The gal confronting them is not a flight attendant but probably a gate agent called into the “fray”. Frontier dumped all their ground staff about 1-2 years ago and hired a third party vendor to provide customer service “agents”. The same vendor that would be hiring janitors, wheelchair pushers and checkpoint monitors (not TSA). This in turn would provide a caliber of people that are inexperienced and at the minimum wage with no benefits (ie., welfare to work program). Passengers have no way of knowing this. We have just become victims of the dumbing down/ major cheapening of jobs and employees with no experience, no talent, no social skills. More to come.
I think that in some instances, it is actually more pleasant riding the New York City subway to work, than having to deal with the trash which passes for ticket agents, gate agents, and so-called flight attendants. I’m old enough to remember the good old days, when commercial airline passengers were treated like royalty by the crew. Today, the animals in the cargo compartment, are treated more humanely, than the passengers. I remember several weeks ago, when we had a discussion on this site about flight attendants, several flight attendants (at least they claimed to be flight attendants chimed in). One of them actually stated “If you don’t like the FA’s on the American carriers, take the Asian airlines, where they are subservient to you”. Actually, she should have used the term “respectful”. The latter (respect), is something which is lacking on American commercial flight crews today. Years ago, we used to see the Captain of a commercial airliner, who looked like Capt. Sully Sullenberger, with gray hair. We always had the utmost confidence in their flying abilities. They would greet all of the passengers after the flight, and we always felt confident with them. Today, we have young pishers with limited experience, behind the controls. I can’t tell you how much confidence that gives me!
If that what passengers felt towards (american) air crew and gate agents, then imagine what the rest of the world felt towards american….
too much power with FA’s and GA’s it doesn’t take much