Frontier Airlines CEO lambasted passenger over bag fees

[Indy Texas 🇺🇦🇵🇸]

I'm going to be very uncharitable and say this whole thing has White Girl Problems written all over it.

In a mere two generations, we have gone from a country where a 22 year old adult was more often than not running a household with children or in the military fighting in an overseas conflict or operating a family farm or small business to one where a 22 year old bursts into tears over a checked baggage fee. Something happened around 1985 or so that caused just about every white American female born after that point to go through life in an extended childhood where no remotely adult situation is handled without a parent, where she is the special-est of the special snowflakes and any rule can be bent and any situation tailored to her favor if she just says, "Pretty please" enough times.

Let us review what this girl woman did wrong...

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I have family members who work in the airline industry. And if a carrier has a two-bag policy for carry-ons, it would probably behoove you not to show up at the gate with three carry-ons. These people are trying to board upwards of a hundred people in a very narrow timeframe. It's not their job to investigate whose bag belongs to who and just take your word for it when you say the third bag is actually your brother's/friend's/mother's/long-lost-twin-you-met-at-sleepaway-camp's.

The gate agent saw her carrying three bags. What was so inappropriate about her inquiring as to why she was doing this when it was against policy? Was the gate agent supposed to be able to read her mind and know the third bag didn't belong to her?

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Again, what was this girl smoking if she thought the gate crew were going to disrupt boarding to track down her brother? I'm assuming they both had cell phones and since the plane was still on the ground those cell phones should have been on - why didn't she call him and tell him to get his @$$ out there and get his bag?

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Because it's totally the gate agent's problem that you made the decision to fly across the country without a credit card and with only a debit card for an empty checking account.

[Indy Texas 🇺🇦🇵🇸]

I'm sure the first class passengers on the Titanic had similar thoughts about the steerage as well, Grumps and IndyTexas.

It's public transportation done in the most shoddy, nickle and dimey way... and every time the airlines make it worse for the customers... the Gumps and IndyTexases come out and complain

"WHY CAN'T THEY JUST BE PERFECT LIKE ME AND ACT AS IF THEY FLY ALL THE TIME"

If it's so easy... then why doesn't it ever work that way?  And if it's so easy... why aren't you flying an airline that requires such smooth behavior in order to operate?

No no no... they want her money just as much as they want yours.

I was on your side IndyTX until I read what actually happened.  And what it sounds like is someone who was flying that isn't used to flying and probably doesn't fly often because it's mostly unaffordable to her... had to fly for whatever reason.  And she wasn't expecting to have to start throwing around $100 to please a miserable gate attendant (I mean.. if this girl 'should've could've and would've'... the gate attendant, having had to deal with people like this all the time, could've had the compassion to say "just please put the purse in the bag before you get on the plane".

HOW DARE SHE HAVE TO FLY WITHOUT HAVING TONS OF EXTRA MONEY TO DISH OUT ON THE FLY?

Now there's a rich white people problem.  Not understanding why people don't just have a hundred dollars to throw around... to bring a f**king purse into an airplane.

Get over yourselves first, then get over this.

So now it's a "class warfare" issue? What if it had been a wealthy woman in first class complaining about not being allowed on the plane with three bags?

There are many corporations and industries deserving of scorn in this country, but the commercial airline industry isn't one of them. These are people who have been providing a service thanks to capital investments that have generated a worse rate of return than any other business - in most countries, the government has to pony up money for unprofitable public goods; here, it's inevitably some investor who is convinced that "this time it's going to be different."

How about if you own up to your red avatar and have some sympathy for the worker in this situation? Airline employees deal with people at their absolute worst on a daily basis and have somehow managed to be one of those rare islands of large-scale private industry where employees are not completely walked all over. Most of the money in your airfare is going to the sheer amount of jet fuel it takes to get a large steel machine to get off the ground and stay off the ground long enough to get you where you're going. As physics suggest, the best way to reduce the amount of jet fuel needed to do that - and keep your fare from being higher - is by discouraging people from behaving in ways that contribute to the weight of the plane - like bringing lots of luggage. Why should a person with only one bag pay the same amount as a person who chose to bring three? Wouldn't it make more sense for the person with three bags to bear the cost of those extra ones via a fee than to make both of them pay more?

As the article stated, the rolling bag was too big and needed to be checked. If this girl wants to get mad at someone, she should get mad at her brother and sister-in-law for ditching her and leaving her with a bag that they should have checked and didn't.

How would the gate attendant know that the purse was originally in her other bag or that it even fit in her other bag? Is it really her job to advise people on ways to arrange their luggage such that they reduce the amount of revenue their airline brings in?

Whether she flies often or not, she handled the situation poorly. You know what the carry-on rules are when you buy your ticket. A 22 year old should not be yelling and crying over a luggage misunderstanding.

[Indy Texas 🇺🇦🇵🇸]

If anything it shows the importance of keeping a few hundred bucks in your checking account as a cushion when these things come up.

A good portion of poor people don't have checking accounts.

True, but what % of those people are spending $100's on airline tickets?

Not frequently for sure, but if we're talking about people who might not have access to a credit card or bank account with $1000 or more, we're talking about poor people or people with a weird financial set-up.  If we're talking about poor people, it's kind of silly to assume they can put away hundreds of dollars or have access to the same types of financial products as middle class and above people.

Could someone please explain why poor people can't be bothered to open bank accounts? The credit union I have my checking account at has accounts that have no maintenance fees and all you have to do is have an average account balance of no less than five dollars during a given month. Surely that's easier than paying all those check cashing fees and charges to pay bills with money orders and whatnot.