Given that millions of people travel by air every day in the United States, mistakes are bound to happen every once in a while. However, this is an especially strange story, as reported by ABC7.
In this post:
Frontier Airlines passenger ends up on wrong flight
A woman named Beverly Ellis-Hebard, who describes herself as a seasoned traveler, was scheduled to fly from Philadelphia (PHL) to Jacksonville (JAX). She says she flies with the airline roughly every six weeks between the two cities. However, during one of these trips on November 6, 2022, she ended up in Jamaica rather than Florida, and didn’t even have a passport on her.
How could something like this happen?
- Ellis-Hebard said that she arrived at her departure gate, and confirmed that it indicated that the flight was headed to Jacksonville
- Since she had recently recovered from back surgery and was slower than usual, she asked a gate agent if she had enough time to use the restroom; the gate agent allegedly told her she had around 20 minutes to do so
- When Ellis-Hebard returned to the gate a “short time later,” she found the flight almost fully boarded, and the door was about to close
- During boarding, the gate agent questioned her about the size of her personal travel bag, and forced her to put the bag in the sizer; while putting her bag in the sizer, she ended up scraping her arm, causing her to bleed
- The gate agent hurried her to board, and said “come on, come on, give me your boarding pass”
- After taking around 10 steps, the gate agent allegedly said “are you Beverly Ellis-Hebard?” and when she confirmed that she was, the gate agent said “all right, go!”
Once inflight, a flight attendant helped Ellis-Hebard with her bloody wound, and told her that she’d be able to relax once she lands in Jamaica. At this point the woman said the following:
“I laughed. I said ‘I would love to be going there but I have a beach where I live. She said, ‘Look at me. This plane is going to Jamaica.’ And I knew by the look on her face she wasn’t joking.”
At this point the flight attendant informed Ellis-Hebard that the Jacksonville flight had a gate change, and she was headed to Montego Bay, Jamaica (MBJ).
When the plane landed in Jamaica, Ellis-Hebard was told to remain in the jet bridge. The flight crew remained with her, and then she was put on a Frontier Airlines flight back to Philadelphia several hours later.
Frontier Airlines has issued the following statement regarding this incident:
“We extend our utmost apologies to Beverly Ellis-Hebard for this unfortunate experience. We sincerely regret that Ms. Ellis-Hebard was able to board the wrong flight. As a gesture of our apology, we have issued a $600 Frontier Airlines flight voucher tied to the name Beverly Ellis-Hebard that is valid for one year.”
You can see the news story about this incident below.
How could something like this happen?
I’m trying to wrap my head around how something like this could happen. Let me start by saying that no matter how you slice it, this was Frontier Airlines’ fault. It’s the job of airline personnel to make sure people board the correct flight, and in particular, on international flights gate agents should be verifying that passengers have their passports.
With that out of the way, I’m trying to come up with the series of events that could have caused this. For example, for how long did Ellis-Hebard go to the bathroom, given that there was reportedly a gate change and the flight was almost finished boarding by the time she returned?
I can see all the things that could have gone wrong to cause this to almost happen, but what I can’t figure out is how the gate agent reportedly stated her name out loud to confirm it was her, and then invited her to board?
That suggests this wasn’t the case of a sloppy gate agent seeing that one passenger still needed to board, and then assuming that the person walking up to the gate is that passenger. The gate agent seemed to know who the passenger was… and let her board?
I wonder if that’s actually what happened, or if something is maybe being incorrectly remembered here…
Bottom line
A Frontier Airlines passenger intending to fly to Florida instead ended up on a flight to Jamaica. There was reportedly a last minute gate change, and when the passenger returned from the restroom, she was the last to board.
That doesn’t answer the question of why she was allowed to board the wrong flight to an international destination when she didn’t even have a passport, though…
What do you make of this Frontier Airlines mishap?
The same thing almost happened with me back in 2012.
US Airways and TAM were part of Star Alliance.
It was the return part of a multi continent award trip (S. America - Europe, North America - S. America).
The return was LAX-CLT-GRU-SJP
SJP is São José do Rio Preto airport, in Brazil.
At LAX the US Airways agent misread the last leg of the itinerary as San Jose and...
The same thing almost happened with me back in 2012.
US Airways and TAM were part of Star Alliance.
It was the return part of a multi continent award trip (S. America - Europe, North America - S. America).
The return was LAX-CLT-GRU-SJP
SJP is São José do Rio Preto airport, in Brazil.
At LAX the US Airways agent misread the last leg of the itinerary as San Jose and simply (I still don't know why) routed me at LAX - CLT - SJC (?).
I remember he looked confused when he said "Oh.. you are going to San Jose..".
After he printed the boarding passes and handled me them, I got confused because he said they would go straight to "San Jose".
Eventually I had to come back to the check-in desk, they had to retrieve my bag and correct everything. We all ended up laughing about it (even the manager).
Happens more than u think with spirit and Frontier. And the worst part... 600$ r u kidding me. Omg same situation as a law suit, right? They try to pay asap and make ot right so ot goes away. 60p is a joke, I'd go after that pos airline
I've never heard of this happening at Spirit.
Before the pandemic, a coworker of mine was going to Shanghai, but somehow never got a visa (he later said no one told him he needed one); somehow he boarded the flight and no one checked his passport to see if he was in possession of a visa; he arrived in China with no visa, so was put on the next flight back to the US.
Here's something basic. When you scan a boarding card for a flight at the wrong gate, then what happens? It should have beeped in a different way and given a red light instead of a green light so she would not board. $600 is almost nothing and she has to pay for a new flight.
$600 Frontier Airlines flight voucher?
haha
If they did that to me, maybe... maybe... they could put me in business class on another airline that day with a $6,000 check and I would be fine.
If not, see you in court!
How do you board without a passport?
When I saw “Jamaica”, I expected a story about being sent to JFK instead of Montego Bay (or vice versa.) That would have been a much cooler story!
“Why JFK,” you ask? Cause it’s in Jamaica, Queens, N.Y. (at least colloquially.)
Ending up anywhere but Jacksonville sounds like an upgrade—she should be paying the airline.
"$600 Frontier Airlines flight voucher tied to the name Beverly Ellis-Hebard that is valid for one year.”
lol, they want to make it clear she can't sell her voucher.
Right? haha
That seemed like an oddly specific way of saying they gave her a voucher....
In other news,
Frontier sent her to Jacksonville that isn't in Florida.
Kevin!
What a terribly long flight it would be knowing I was on the wrong plane, without passport and wondering when I’d ever get home again. Sounds like Frontier handled this situation well.
You think??!
I would love to see a post about Go Air filing for insolvency due to P&W engines issue
@Jake I believe you are not putting any responsibility on the passanger is flawed. Gates are clearly marked and passangers can check the app to know where they should go. Did Frontier skrew up, yes. Did the passenger skrew up too, yes.
A guy booked a flight to Sidney (Montana) instead of Sydney (Australia). It hadn't occurred to him 1) why the fare was so inexpensive or 2) why he would connect through Denver. As he landed, he thought it incredibly strange that the flight was so short and why he was adjacent to mountains instead of the ocean. When he finally arrived at the gate, it occurred to him that something was truly wrong. His wife was disappointed but understanding.
Only $600 for that entire screw up? And not even cash, but in Monopoly airline "money"?
Is the Government completely asleep?? Now wonder @Icarus says this kind of things happen "more often than you think": there's hardly any cost to the airlines, it's all on flyers.
@Ben it happens more than may think. This includes handling agents boarding passengers on the wrong airline let alone flight by the same one. It’s not picked up if the seat isn’t assigned to someone else, otherwise the crew would spot the discrepancy on the boarding “ card”
This is on top of passengers who book the wrong destinations even though it’s clear at the time : eg Sydney Melbourne Manchester
So, you're saying the plot of Home Alone 2 is feasible?
Things do sometimes go wrong.
It's how an organisation deals with them which shows their attitude to service.
On that basis, Frontier seem to have done quite well - the flight crew stayed with her in Jamaica rather than abandoning her, the airline promptly admitted their share of fault, and promptly provided compensation in a form that it sounds as though she can use for an amount that seems not too stingy.
Beverly says she flies that route every 6 weeks so I think the compensation is fair.