Spirit Airlines Employee vs Woman
On Tuesday, April 9th, 2024 I was flying back from Fort Lauderdale, FL, to Louisville, KY, when I noticed a Spirit Airlines employee walk alongside the edge of the crowd of the passenger section lining up to pass TSA checkpoints. The employee had some words for a blonde passenger. The employee accused the passenger of having a filthy mouth and a terrible attitude. The passenger ignored her and the employee seemed somewhat defeated. A few moments later, I noticed that that same employee returned and walked into the crowd of passengers. She got in the blonde passenger’s personal space and looked incensed. At this point I started recording. Although there’s no expectation of privacy in public, I made sure not to secret myself. It was very obvious that I was recording. In fact, you can see in the 58 second clip that some folks get out of the way, while others make their presence known. Once the interaction was over, I even asked the blonde passenger for her thoughts.
I also provided some commentary while I filmed and a little humor from time to time. Many enjoyed my gasp after the airline employee told the passenger “fuck you, too.” In hindsight, my gasp may have been somewhat embellished, but if so, it would’ve been a subconscious effort. At the time I wasn’t expecting the employee to say anything like that. Everything she’d done up until that point had been combative, but at some point she must have felt that she had gone too far and when she was about to storm off, she couldn’t help herself and cursed the passenger out.
Whatever the passenger said initially, the airline employee chose to have a job working with the public. And on top of that, working with the public with a discount airline that charges for absolutely everything and has a notoriously unforgiving attitude towards any act of discretion. You either pay or you don’t get want you want. They could bend the rules, but they don’t.
That being said, whether you work for Spirit, Frontier, or Allegiant, customer service should still be the name of the game. Just because fares are cheaper shouldn’t mean that customers should get any less respect than say clients who fly Delta, American, or United. Do I think this would have happened with one of the mainstream airlines? I don’t. I just can’t something like this happening with JetBlue or Southwest, either. Those airlines pride themselves on going above and beyond.
I have been very fortunate to come into contact with some very nice Spirit, Frontier, and Allegiant flight crews. Although the tickets are way cheaper I’ve been blessed with very good customer service. Many of the folks who left comments on my now viral TikTok video (with over 8 million views to date) have stated that Spirit is the pits when comes to customer service. I would disagree, personally, but after seeing all of the comments on my platforms coupled with some recent news stories, my perception of the low-cost carrier is changing. I hope my video will inspire the airline to turn things around. My goal isn’t for anyone to get fired, rather, for corporate to make things better. This could be accomplished by more training, coaching, and oversight. Firing people should be the last option.
I also made this video for the passenger.
Christian Duque
Could you imagine if her ticket had been canceled? Could you imagine if Spirit Airlines banned her from future travel? Could you imagine if she was put on a No Fly list? And for what? Because she cursed someone out? Maybe she was having a bad morning. Maybe her bag was 1″ more than the limit for a personal item and she had to pay for a checked bag.
Spirit Airlines are among the strictest when it comes to that because they charge for absolutely everything. I’m not saying that it’s ok for passengers to be abusive of airline staff, but it happens. One comment on Tiktok said, if an F-bomb got the airline employee this mad she wouldn’t last an hour in healthcare. Apparently healthcare workers take quite a bit of abuse, but never face off with customers and never curse them out. Plus this employee didn’t just face off and curse out the passenger, she physically impeded her ability to walk away. This is beyond uncalled for. Nonetheless, I’m not advocating for her termination, either. She would be someone who could truly benefit from training and coaching.
But what about the passenger? Did she ever get to board her flight? Why was the airline employee so adamant about getting her boarding information? Imagine if she didn’t get to fly. And imagine if she tried to contact the airline. Without my video, does anyone honestly think the airline would have given her the time of day? Does anyone think the airline would’ve believed her recollection of what my 58 second video shows? I think not. My video, my social media platforms, and the great work the mainstream media will do by my story will ensure that what really happened is documented. Sadly, we may never know what the passenger said initially. There’s no doubt in my mind that the passenger does not have clean hands in this. That said, how this airline employee chose to deal with the situation was completely uncalled for. And if this employee was able to act in this fashion in front of hundreds, seemingly with impunity, imagine what she’s capable of 1:1.
And did anyone try to help her? Did anyone say anything? Sadly, they did not. But at least I had the good sense to record it and publish it. But in hindsight, I do wish I had something. I hope others in hindsight do too. This confrontation should never have happened.
