You can’t help but feel bad for airline representatives when they have to deal with customers like this…
Allegiant’s $5 boarding pass fee leads to arrest
Police body camera footage has been posted online of an incident that happened on August 3, 2025, at the Allegiant Air check-in desk at Punta Gorda Airport (PGD). Allegiant is an ultra low cost carrier, and the airline charges service fees for all kinds of things.
Among those things, there’s a $5 fee to print a boarding pass at the airport, for those who choose not to use the app or print their boarding pass at home. This is disclosed on the carrier’s optional services & fees page.
Regardless of how you feel about that fee, it’s probably not worth getting arrested over $5… which brings us to this incident. Police were called to the Allegiant check-in desk, over a reported disturbance. The issue? A man was really, really angry that he was being asked to pay $5 to print a boarding pass.
He claimed he “already bought a ticket,” and therefore didn’t have to pay that $5 fee for the boarding pass. He also claimed that last year he didn’t have to pay a fee to print a boarding pass at the airport. When this was explained to him, he said “I will sue this company.”
He police officer acted really respectfully, but this guy kept trying to jump in and interrupt him. But the man insisted he wanted to record the Allegiant representatives telling him he had to pay the $5 fee, because he was seemingly convinced he was being scammed.
The police officer explained that his body camera was on, but the man said that often goes missing. So it then got super cringe, as the man demanded that “I want to hear you say that you’re denying me on the aircraft because I won’t spend $5 for something I already paid for, and I won’t download something on my phone.”
He then proceeded to throw $5 in cash at the Allegiant representative, but they explained that they can only accept credit or debit cards, as is common practice in the airline industry, to which he responded, “so now you’re denying me because I don’t have a credit card,” and he claimed the agent was lying (in fairness, the agent said they haven’t accepted credit cards since 9/11, which isn’t quite accurate, but it’s besides the point).
When the cop refused to take his side and somehow compel Allegiant to let him fly, he told the cop “you’re an idiot, you’re stupid and you’re ignorant.” The cop warned he was going to be trespassed if he didn’t move, and he responded “you don’t know what you’re talking about, and they’re lying,” and then he claimed they’re refusing him service, and that this is a crime.
He was then told he was going to get a trespass warning, and was asked to sit on a bench. However, he refused and got really aggressive, at which point he was arrested.
You can watch the whole incident for yourself below.
The level of ignorance here is astounding
I’m not sure what exactly caused this guy’s issues, and if he’s just a jerk who thinks he’s never wrong, or if there’s something more serious wrong with him.
Regardless, no one has the right to treat customer-facing employees this way, especially when they’re just doing their job. They were literally enforcing the company’s policy, and he treated them as if they were personally trying to offend and scam him.
Then he did the same thing with the cops. Like, dude, once you’re on the verge of being trespassed, just cooperate with the cops, and don’t make the situation worse for yourself. But this guy’s pride got in the way.
Honestly, this guy would be a risk once he gets on the flight as well. Imagine if a flight attendant told him he needed to put on his seatbelt or store his carry-on bag. I’m sure they’d also get a “you don’t know what you’re talking about” response, and he’d accuse them of lying and would threaten to sue them.
Bottom line
An Allegiant Air customer got arrested after putting up a massive fight over the carrier’s $5 boarding pass fee. He was convinced the employees were trying to scam him, or something, and became aggressive. The police had to be called, he was warned that he’d be trespassed, and he was still combative, so he ended up being arrested.
Folks, please don’t act this way at airports…
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