A group of passengers at the Orlando Airport are claiming that the check-in counter line for their Frontier Airlines flight caused them to miss their January 16 flights, as reported by A View from the Wing.
The group claims that due to a lack of adequate staffing, Frontier tried to add on $99 flight upcharges to their flight back to St. Louis, and they believe they were subsequently delayed by the airline on purpose due to their flight being overbooked.
The group was coded as late (aka, a no-show) after not being able to check in an hour before their departure due to the long wait. They were then told they’d be charged for an additional flight instead of getting retribution for the one they’d already bought.
In a video shared on X, one customer can be observed having a disagreement with Frontier staff over printing his boarding pass. He insisted “My flight is at 6 o’clock” — though staff replied that he missed it already.
An additional passenger commented that they were also heading to St. Louis, while another noted there were seven or eight people in the same boat, saying they’d been in line for around an hour and a half.
Frontier eventually called the police to deal with the dispute, and did not provide the customers with compensation.
While the passengers followed Frontier’s guidelines of arriving two hours prior to their flight, they were not at the gate 45 minutes before departure because of a lack of counter staff and long lines.
While one agent reportedly told one customer that he should have arrived 3 hours earlier, it is not Frontier’s formal guideline.
“It’s always seemed a bit unreasonable to me that a passenger presents themselves in time for check-in but is bounced from their flight for not checking in on time because the airport staff are too busy to handle the queue,” said travel expert Gary Leff, the author of the View from the Wing blog post.
Leff added that it’s “even worse” in this case due to police being used as the customer service resolution strategy.
“Staff don’t clearly explain what’s going on, apologize (even if there’s nothing they can do),” said Leff. “Instead, they are basically telling customers to pound sand and talk to the cops. But that’s also outsourced Frontier. Not known for customer service!”
