Frontier passenger says they checked in for seat 12D, then found seat 0 at the gate: ‘We were literally kicked off a flight we paid for’
They allege a gate manager offered a full refund and a $250 voucher, but two weeks later they say customer service marked them as a no-show.
A Frontier traveler says the airline gave away a seat they had checked in for, then labeled them a no-show instead of paying a promised refund and voucher. According to New York Post, the passenger described the experience in a Reddit post.
The passenger says they checked in online and held seat 12D. At the gate, they claim, the boarding pass showed “0” in place of a seat number after the airline’s system glitched and handed the seat to another traveler. They allege the flight was overbooked and about 20 customers were stranded. “We weren’t even allowed to board. We were literally kicked off a flight we paid for,” they wrote.
After about 30 minutes in line to reach a gate manager, the passenger claims they were asked, “Do you want to be rebooked, or do you want a full refund plus a $250 flight voucher?” The passenger took the refund and voucher option and says the manager assured them both had been processed.
The refund and the no-show label
Two weeks on, the passenger says, no refund or voucher had come through. A call to customer service to find out where the money was, they say, brought word that they had been marked as a no-show. The passenger questions how that could be, since they say they were at the gate, speaking with the manager. By their account, the seat was no longer theirs because the system had given it away, yet the airline claims they “didn’t show up.”
The manager, they allege, gave a false picture of where the refund stood, “just to get me out of her sight.” They also accuse Frontier of using the label as a way out of paying what was promised, and they urge others not to fly the airline. All details come from the passenger’s account in the Reddit post and could not be verified independently.
Similar oversold-flight claims have been made against the airline before, including by a pregnant passenger removed after boarding. Refund disputes have also surfaced, as seen with a traveler who says she was refused one after a Frontier flight diverted to Michigan. The U.S. Department of Transportation states that airlines oversell flights to a certain extent to compensate for no-shows.
Airlines must first ask passengers to give up their seats voluntarily in exchange for compensation. Volunteers receive whatever they negotiate, and there is no limit to the money or vouchers an airline may offer. If too few volunteer, the airline selects passengers to bump, which the department calls involuntary denied boarding. Compensation for it is based on the one-way fare and the arrival delay, and on a domestic flight there is none for a delay of up to one hour.
From there, compensation is 200% of the one-way fare for a delay of one to two hours and 400% beyond two hours. Airlines may cap it at $1,075 and $2,150. Passengers bumped involuntarily must also receive a written statement describing their rights.
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