Originally published at: Spirit Airlines denies Puerto Rican family a flight to Puerto Rico, erroneously saying they need passports | Boing Boing
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And how does Spirit Airlines’ statement excuse the actions of the supervisor? A new employee can make a mistake, although it is shameful not to know that Puerto Ricans are American citizens. But to have the supervisor double down on that mistake is egregious. If you are working in the US travel industry (listen up here, Hertz) and you do not know that Puerto Ricans are Americans, and have all the associated rights of any other US citizen, you are in the wrong job.
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Sure it has.
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I was going to say the same thing, they’re making excuses for the ticket agent but what about the supervisor? And they gave them travel vouchers as an apology, nah man… that offer better be cash because they shouldn’t use them ever again.
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I’m rather surprised that the correct checking policy isn’t in the agent-facing interface to the airline’s DB: it ought to, based on the passenger’s nationality, either be enforcing entry of passport numbers or not, as part of the check-in process.
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Spirit airlines is such a shit airline it would stack us like cordwood in the baggage hold if it could get away with it. Not condoning them treating people badly in the slightest, but they’re the prime example of “you get what you pay for and sometimes you don’t get what you don’t pay for.”
I was sitting across the gate watching a spirit airlines flight board waiting on my delta flight out, and was watching the gate agents frisk people because apparently that boarding group wasn’t allowed to carry ANY bags on board, and that rule wasn’t allowed to be circumvented by loading up your pockets or wearing a jacket with pockets. So they were searching everyone and deciding whether or not that was “too many things” or not, and making people gate check at $55 a pop anything or not fly.
Edit:
Found out later that gate agents get a bounty of $20 per person they catch and force to gate check, and they must get 10 bounties a month or they’re fired.
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It’s shocking how many Americans are ignorant of other parts of the United States.
A couple of decades ago I had a supervisor give me a hard time because I didn’t get pre-approval for foreign travel…to Hawaii.
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Like the cheap buses to NYC, even cheaper.
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Short of the screen flashing “American citizens since 1917, dummy!”, I’m not convinced it’d cut through the ignorance.
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40 years ago when i got married a co-worker asked me where we were going on our honeymoon and when i said “Puerto Rico” she said “Oh i always wanted to go to Spain!”
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See also: New Mexico’s license plates. The only state that explicitly specifies “USA” on its plates, so that no one thinks the cars are from the other Mexico.
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For everyone outside of the U.S, Spirit makes RyanAir look like Emirates.
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Should we expect Spirit Airlines to know that Long Island is part of the USA?
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And they’re the most well-known among U.S. territories, as the population of Puerto Rico outnumbers that of 21 U.S. States. It must be especially frustrating to be a resident of one of the other territories like the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands and have to explain the status to everyone every time you travel.
John Oliver did a great segment on the territories (specifically their disenfranchisement) a while back:
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I give you New Mexico’s previous flag. Seriously.
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CGP Grey would have a fit.
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I was going to pick up a friend from the Philly airport last Friday and when texted “how many bags will you have” she replied back “It’s Spirit. No luggage.”
I had no idea there were enforcers.
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Spirit doesn’t make you pay to use the bathroom. Yet. So they have that going for them, which is a low bar. I haven’t had the “pleasure” of flying Ryan Air, but I just flew one-way on Spirit in February. It’s a non-stop up-selling PITA with the tiniest damned seats. Thank Dog it was only a 1.5 hour flight.
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Oh absolutely. New Mexico definitely wins the “most improved player” award for flags.
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