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Frontier Airlines fires rude employees from viral video: justified, but …

Frontier Airlines fires rude employees from viral video: justified, but …

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In the past few days, tens of millions of people have seen a video about a confrontation at a check-in switch from Frontier Airlines. The airline has now taken measures, which seems appropriate. However, I think that the big problem that has the frontier in terms of customer service that is overlooked too often.

Frontier Airlines Check-in Agents assume the customer

There was widespread reporting on a tense exchange, which took place on Friday, May 2, 2025, between a customer and frontier Airlines representative at Raleigh-Durham International Airport (RDU). According to reports, a man reported about 50 minutes before departure at the airport for his flight to Boston (BOS).

He did not know that at Frontier people had to check in at least 60 minutes before departure because he had not checked in via the website or app. The agents offered to check him in for a fee of 25 US dollars, namely the standard airport assistant fee from Frontier (yes, the airline will help customers).

The man did not like the tone of the agents who told him that he should have known about it, but he agreed to pay the fee. While he was preparing for the payment of the fee, he said: “I never fly this shit airline again”, and then things became a little out of control and he started taking the following video.

As you can see, two border representatives start to film him. One employee repeatedly says: “And they thought they would get into their flight” while the other employees stand there and laughs.

In view of the public outrage, Frontier has spent an apology and explains that the employees no longer work for Frontier and that the man was refunded for his border flight and the replacement flight he had booked on Jetblue.

Look, the check-in agents acted completely inappropriately, no matter how they cut it into slices. It is possible that the customer does not match either, but the level of mockery, contempt and laughter they showed the customer is completely unacceptable.

It is clear to me that we are all people and have bad days, but that only exceeds the border. I would understand if they stepped back and basically say: “I can't help you anymore”, but they almost seem to get a thrill.

This lacks the bigger problem with Frontier Airlines Service

Larger picture, Frontier Airlines, has a real problem with unfriendly and not helpful soil agents. Sure, you can fire these two people, but this is not the basic cause of the problem.

Many people don't know that, but the border -Outsources practically all jobs in airport operation, even at Hubs. On this page you will find on which company to which they are classified at every airport. Obviously, this is a money saving train, so that the airline can pay the staff as little as possible without worrying that they are unionized, etc.

I do not know whether this is still the case, but historically, the airline gave the airport's employees a commission for ancillary income, including the review of bags that are above the permissible size (given the criminal prosecution of the airlines).

Of course, this creates a really roofed incentive system when it comes to offering good customer service. Delta gives his employees profit sharing, while Frontier gives his contract employee a commission for fees that you can extract from customers. In other words, Delta drives its employees to make customers happy while border stimulates its employees to make customers unhappy.

Then combine this with the really unfriendly guidelines from Frontier. For example, the assist fee of 25 US dollars from Frontier means that the airline calculates 25 US dollars if you need help from an airport agent, even if only one boarding pass is printed.

The airlines such as Frontier were able to get away from pre-pandemic because the airline had an amazing cost structure and Ultra were profitable. But times have changed. While Frontier has difficulty making a profit and trying to become more premium, it has still not thrown many of the guidelines that lead to an unpleasant experience. If the airline actually wants people to be loyal, pick up a credit card or fly the airline, even if it is not much cheaper, a lot has to change.

Frontier could change its service culture a little

Conclusion

A check-in interaction by Frontier Airlines became viral after two representatives mocked and filmed a customer who was frustrated. The airline has taken measures and the two people are no longer associated with a border. The customer was also refunded for his ticket and the replacement ticket he had to buy.

Frontier made the right movement here, although the airline had no choice in view of the attention that this attention had. The bigger problem remains that Frontier only uses contract employees for ground services, so that they are not properly stimulated to take care of customer service. On the contrary, at least historically, they were primarily incentives to find an opportunity to calculate customers. For them, unfortunate customers increased their salary checks!

What do you do from this Frontier incident?

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