Frontier Workers Fired After Heated Exchange With Late Passenger at RDU Airport: “Make Me Check You In”

A viral video from May 2025 of two Frontier Airline workers having a heated exchange with a late check-in passenger has resurfaced on X. The incident was filmed by the passenger who claimed that he was refused access onto the airplane because he was late for his check-in window, resulting in him missing his flight.

X is divided in the comment section, many bringing into question the passenger's conduct before the video began recording. While others said the Frontier Airline workers could've handled the situation more professionally. Sadly, a large portion of the latter were just plain racist commenters who enjoyed tearing down the airline workers because of their race.

The video begins with the passenger, a Caucasian male, recording one of the airline contractors, while she has her phone out recording him also. She said that the other passengers made their flight and he didn't, and despite him demanding to be checked in, she refused to.

The video also showed two other Frontier Airline workers behind the check-in booth, one older lady and another younger woman who also had her phone out recording the incident.

The first woman then said, "And you didn't pay $25.00 for an agent assist fee and you check in three hours later... And you thought you was gonna get on your flight?" She went on to repeat the last sentence a number of times, almost as if she was taunting the man. The man can be heard saying that he agreed to pay the $25, but she didn't seem to register his statement.

At that moment, the other airline worker began to laugh, encouraging the other woman's behavior. The third lady, who was noticeably older than the other two, tried to deescalate the situation by pulling on her arm, signalling for her to remain calm.

The passenger can be heard saying, "I literally paid for a ticket. I'm here 30 minutes before my flight." The New York Post reported that, prior to the start of the video on X, the passenger said, "I'm never flying this sh**** airline again" after he was hit with the $25.00 agent assist fee to check in.

The reason he was asked to pay the extra fee was because he missed his 60-minute pre-departure window by 10 minutes. The other woman recording him in the video even said, "Because it's a policy. We don't control that."

Could the Frontier Airline Workers have Handled the Situation Better? Or was the Passenger Wrong?

The passenger then said that the airline employees were about to let him check-in, but decided not to. The question is, if he offered to pay the additional $25.00, why was he still refused access? The woman again began repeating, "Make me check you in. Make me check you in."

Now, while her attitude toward this man is deliberate, it may be a result of what he said about never flying with Frontier Airlines again because of the agent assist fee, which is company policy.

The young woman then asked the passenger to leave the desk area, which he refused to do. She said, "Can you please leave, sir? You're in my personal space." The passenger shot back, "This is not your personal space. You work for a company. This is not your personal space." He continued to accuse them of not doing their job, after which she walked away from the counter.

The women were fired after the video went viral. ABC11 News reported that a Frontier Airline representative confirmed that, "The employees, who work for a third-party contractor, are no longer associated with the Frontier account."

The Daily Dot was unable to independently verify the events leading up to the confrontation beyond what appears in the viral video and publicly available reporting.