A ‘sanctimonious’ Frontier Airlines gate agent deliberately made a partially deaf passenger miss his flight after he told her that he could not hear her through the face mask that she was wearing, a new lawsuit against the Denver-based low-cost carrier alleges.
Ivaylo Dodev was looking forward to traveling with his wife, Nikolina, to celebrate her 55th birthday with a six-day all-inclusive holiday in Punta Cana, although the travel agents ended up booking their flights with Frontier Airlines for the trip from Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport.
Ivaylo says in the lawsuit recently filed in an Arizona district court that neither he nor his wife had never flown with a low-cost airline so when they turned up at the gate on November 5, 2022, ahead of their flight, they didn’t realize that Frontier had very strict hand luggage rules.
As the approached the gate to board their flight, Ivaylo says in a 30-page complaint that the pair were stopped from boarding because they had two carry-on bags that would need to be paid for at a separate counter.
In fact, the Dodev’s weren’t the only passengers who had made the same mistake so they headed to the next counter to pay the fee.
As they approached that counter, Ivaylo says the agent initially tried to engage them in conversation from behind a perspex screen while wearing an N95 face mask.
Partially deaf in his left ear and normally reliant on lip reading when he struggles to hear words, Ivaylo says he couldn’t make out what the gate agent was saying so simply told her: “I can’t hear you”.
This simple comment allegedly made the gate agent’s demeanor turn “pugilistic” almost at once. The lawsuit claims the gate agent snapped back, “Are you insulting my mask?” although Ivaylo tried to reassure her that he just couldn’t hear her.
At this point, the gate agent told the pair to step aside and give her ten minutes before she processed their payment. The Dodev’s say they waited patiently but when they realized that everyone else had already boarded the plane, they again enquired whether they could now pay for their carry-on bags.
The gate agent once again rebuffed them before the boarding doors were shut and the plane was allowed to be pushed back from the gate without Ivaylo or Nikolina onboard.
Ivaylo says he then called 911 to ask for assistance, although from the very outset the police told him that the dispute with Frontier was a civil matter. Nontheless, the police made enquiries with the gate agents and seemingly couldn’t get a proper reason for the Dodevs’s being refused boarding.
When the Dodev’s approached the gate podium themselves, they overheard one employee telling their colleagues that “they are not allowed to fly” although the Dodev’s never learned a reason for them being refused to travel with Frontier.
By this point, the gate agent who had taken offense to Ivaylo not being able to hear her was allegedly showing “plenty of exuberance because she was able to marginalize Plaintiffs from the rest of the passenger cause them to miss their flight”.
Ivaylo went to take a photo of the gate agent to get a record of her name on her ID card, but she covered this up with her cellphone. Nonetheless, it showed her “sanctimonious smile,” the lawsuit alleges.
The Dodev’s have accused Frontier of discrimination based on their background as European migrants of Bulgarian descent, as well as violating the Americans with Disabilities Act. The lawsuit further alleges infliction of emotional distress and defamation, as well as breach of contract.
The lawsuit came to light just a day after another Frontier Airlines accused a gate agent of trying to boot her from a flight after she had already taken her seat in order to give it to a standby passenger.
The woman says she feared being arrested unless she complied with the ‘illegal’ demands of the gate agent to have her relinquish her seat on the oversold flight at Philadelphia International Airport.
After deplaning, however, the woman says a second gate agent realized that what she was being asked to do was in violation of Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) rules for bumping passengers and hastily arranged for the passenger to be reboarded.
What Frontier should have done in this case is first ask passengers to voluntarily give up their seat. Once a passenger has already been accepted for travel and has taken their seat, they can’t be involuntarily booted from the flight unless there is a safety issue or they are unruly.
Frontier Airlines allegedly only offered the woman 10,000 frequent miles for the distress she experienced which is worth just £20 towards another Frontier flight. In correspondence to the woman, the airline referred to the incident as a “lack of professionalism.”
These aren’t serious airlines and nobody should ever give them their money.
During the peak of the Covid scare my wife, who is deaf, had a terrible time dealing with airline employees. She reads lips and most couldn’t understand her struggles to hear them. To make matters worse, many employees would be militant about wearing a mask. Fortunately, we would encounter a few kind ones who would remove their mask and communicate with her. It was not fun to witness a mentally strong person like my wife break down in tears due to some of these events.
If there are no witnesses you can sucker punch the savage.