A traveller claimed that Frontier Airlines lost his luggage on his flight before an airline employee’s grandfather brought it to him.
In a recent video posted to TikTok, Cole, @madeleineandcole, recounted the “craziest experience” he had with Frontier Airlines during a trip from Denver, Colorado, to Hartford, Connecticut. He explained that when got to the airport, he had a personal bag for the flight and paid to check a bag.
He said that when he checked his bag and went through security at the airport, everything was “fine”. However, once he got to the gate, the airline workers started looking at passengers’ personal bags.
“They line us all up and they’re like, ‘We are checking everyone’s bag size,’” he explained. “And it wasn’t just like a little normal check…Someone tried to take a phone out of a bag and they’re like, ‘Nothing in your pockets.’ What?”
Cole claimed that when someone tried to put on a jacket, the airline worker said no and claimed that each person could only have “one jacket”. He explained that people continued to put bags into the baggage sizer, which is used to determine if personal items can fit on the plane or not. When people had bags with “straps hanging out,” he alleged that workers told them that the items couldn’t fit on the plane.
According to Frontier’s official site, each traveller is allowed one personal item on the plane, which has to be “14”H X 18”W X 8”D including handles, wheels and straps”. If the items are not this size, they will be charged an additional cost during boarding. Passengers can also check bags or have a carry-on bag when they board for an additional cost.
In his video, Cole claimed that workers proceeded examined passengers’ luggage before sending them to the counter to check their items.
“They sent everyone to the counter,” he claimed. “People were, like, filming. Some people were crying because they were being so sticklers, and people’s bags were, like, actually fitting.”
The TikTok user said that when he saw this, he put on “his jacket” and threw away some stuff before putting his bag in the bag sizer. He claimed that when an airline worker told him that his bag still “didn’t fit”, he asked to put in the bag sizer again. In response, she allegedly she said “no”.
From there, he claimed he “snuck out” of the line to empty more stuff out of his bag. When he got back on the line, he said that he got the bag to fit in the sizer because the airline worker was “dealing with someone else”. So, he was able to grab the bag and take it on the plane with him.
He continued on to say he asked an attendant for a bandage for a cut when he got on the plane, but claimed that the attendant told him no. He later got a bandage from a different attendant.
Once he landed, Cole claimed that he waited “20 or 30 minutes” at a baggage carousel to get the luggage he checked. After noticing that the information desk was closed, he said that he finally got to talk to a TSA person, who told him: “Oh yeah, Frontier doesn’t have a carousel right now.”
Cole said that the TSA worker told him that “normally an attendant would come down” and show passengers where their bags are. Instead of waiting, Cole decided to go home and return to the airport the next morning for his bag.
Upon returning the next day, Cole said his luggage was not in the airport’s baggage room so he had to “file a claim” about the missing bag. An airline worker also apparently told him that they couldn’t track his bag.
Cole said that he filed another claim with a Frontier bot before he was then transferred to “a human.”
“So I was like, ‘Hey, I’m sorry I’m being short with you. I’m not mad at you. I just can’t believe how helpless I feel right now. Because there’s literally not one outlet that has offered me any substance of information about where my bag is,” he explained of the ordeal.
In a follow up video, Cole shared an update on the situation and revealed that he did get his bag back moer than 48 hours after he landed.
He said that after the employees called him to say that his bag would be delivered, he got another call from Frontier about the person dropping it off.
“He’s like: ‘Hey, so just wanted to give you an update on your bag. One of our Frontier drivers is in the hospital, so I got it so far, but my grandfather is actually going to drive it down to you,’” Cole recalled. “And I was like, ‘Okay that’s fine’...but it seems weird that his grandfather would give it to me, but at this point I didn’t think I was going to get my bag.”
Cole then recalled that the grandfather had driven to the wrong town in Connecticut, which was “three hours north” from where the traveller lived. Still, the worker’s grandfather drove to his house and dropped the luggage off.
“He drove a bunch of extra time, this guy’s grandfather apparently, which is like so crazy,” he added. “I cannot believe that this Frontier employee was in a position where he was going to have his grandfather drive it.”
As of 7 April, Cole’s two videos have more than 539,200 views. Many TikTok users in the comments have been criticising Frontier.
“Honestly I feel like budget airlines in the end just cost more money and hassle,” one wrote.
“Frontier: you can’t have your bag on board with you, but also you can’t have it after you land. Good luck,” another added.
A third wrote: “These airlines act like passengers are inconveniencing them.”
Other people shared their reactions to the airline employee’s grandfather dropping off the luggage and asked more questions about the experience.
“The grandfather delivery,” one wrote, along with three laughing face emojis.
“I have sooo many questions but like what about everyone else’s bags??” another added. “Did grandpa drive and drop those off too??”
The Independent has contacted Cole and Frontier Airlines for comment.
This isn’t the first time that travellers have shared their difficult experiences with Frontier. Last month, the budget airline came under fire after a passenger claimed to have been charged $100 to check a bag which appeared to fit the size requirements.
Dyana Villa shared a video of her experience travelling with Frontier on TikTok, in which she and her friends can be seen fitting their bag into the baggage sizer. She later shared an update and claimed she was contacted by a Frontier Airlines attendant, who said staff are eligible for a $10 bonus for every passenger bag they check and collect a fee for.
A Frontier spokesperson told The Independent that the fee is “simply an incentive for our airport customer service agents to help ensure compliance with our policies and that all customers are treated equally.”
The spokesperson rejected Villa’s baggage complaint claiming that the traveller had brought a second carry-on bag.
“Each customer is allowed one free personal item that must fit within the smaller sizer box,” they said. “This customer had more than one bag and they were not able to combine them into a single bag that fit in the personal item box.
