Frontier Airlines severed its relationship with a pair of contractors after a viral exchange with a customer in which the two acted like absolute buffoons.
The footage — filmed by the would-be passenger — was posted to social media platform X Wednesday, showing two workers who taunt a man trying to check in at the Frontier Airlines desk.
Frontier Airlines worker refuses to let a man check into his flight, taunts him as he tries rushing so he doesn’t miss his flight.
Man: “I paid for a ticket.”
Worker: “You didn’t pay $25 for an agent assist fee. Hello? And you thought you was gonna get on your flight. And you… pic.twitter.com/A6m3rb1KsO
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) May 7, 2025
“I paid for a ticket,” the man could be heard telling the workers, who were also filming the exchange.
After a brief moment in which one of the workers and the man went back and forth about his late arrival and the resultant fee he owed, this worker lost all composure and any sense of professionalism.
“And you didn’t pay $25 for an agent assist fee, and you check in three hours later. Hello! And you thought you were going to get on your flight. And you thought you were going to get on your flight. And you thought you were going to get on your flight,” she said, childishly mocking the man.
As the other worker laughed, the man said again, “I literally paid for a ticket. I’m here 30 minutes before my flight, and they’re not letting me check in,” he said before being interrupted by the first worker, “And you’re not getting on your flight.”
“Make me check you in,” she said, challenging him.
Should these two be blackballed from working in every airport in America?
“You literally work for a company that I bought a plane ticket for,” he responded, almost in disbelief at how two people were acting on the job.
More mocking and childish behavior followed before the man told anyone watching after the fact, “I’m literally here at Frontier, I bought a ticket, and they are not letting me check in.”
WTVD-TV reported the man had arrived at Raleigh-Durham Airport 50 minutes before his flight to Boston.
He missed the check-in window, and was upset to learn there was a $25 late fee to check in with an agent. After some argument, he agreed to pay the fee.
The New York Post reported the ticketholder — who didn’t want to be named — was “a 45-year-old married father of three” who was returning home after a week-long business trip.
The man told the Post that the workers began berating him for not checking the airline’s website.
After he argued and finally agreed to pay the fee, he said he muttered, “I’m never flying this s***ty airline again.”
“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,” he told the news outlet.
“And my reaction was, ‘You will check me in.’ I think those were the words that I used,” he said.
“And when I said that, she completely just went — I don’t know if ‘ballistic’ is the word, but essentially she shut off completely and absolutely refused to check me in.”
Videos of the encounter went viral, with Colin Rugg’s post alone receiving nearly 14 million views within a day.
Frontier released a statement saying they had been in contact with the customer involved in the incident.
The Post reported the man ended up paying $500 to fly home on a different airline, adding that Frontier reimbursed him after he called the company to complain about the incident.
“The employees, who work for a third-party contractor, are no longer associated with the Frontier account,” a company representative told WTVD.
Although this passenger probably could have shown more self-restraint, this was absolutely not the way for the workers to respond
Customer service workers can sometimes encounter rude, callous, and downright disrespectful people, but dealing with such challenges is literally part of the job.
That’s just one aspect of customer service: maintaining composure when faced with circumstances that compel you to lash out.
If these two can’t manage that, they shouldn’t be anywhere near a job like this.
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