Usually it’s airline passengers acting out of line when it comes to mask compliance on planes, but this time it’s the other way around. There’s a fine line between trying to get passengers to do the right thing, and threatening to jail them, fine them $250,000, and put them on a global do-not-fly list, all while falsely claiming to be a “government official.”
In this post:
Spirit flight attendant’s uncalled for pre-flight PA
Video has gone viral of a Spirit Airlines flight attendant making a pre-flight announcement that contains more false information than a… well, we won’t go there.
You can watch the video below, but here’s a transcript of what was said:
“Once the door is closed, if we have to ask you more than once to cover your nose, mouth, put your mask on, we’re not going to be rude, we’re not going to be nasty. We are going to simply take your seat number and your name, and when we get where we are going you will either be arrested, fined, but you will also be placed on the no-fly list, meaning that you’ll not be able to fly any airline for the rest of your life.
So please, again, I’m saying this because there is usually always that one person and I really don’t want to have to do the extra paperwork, and do more than I’m intended to for my job.
So if you do not agree or want to, you know, do what needs to be done, you are more than welcome to exit at this time. We have about nine more minutes left, but I want to give everyone a fair opportunity.
Also, I’m not really sure what’s going on with all these videos going viral of passengers attacking each other and/or flight attendants. Let me remind you, we are government officials, this is government property. If you choose to act out of content or character on this aircraft, you will be arrested and face 20 years imprisonment and you will also receive a $250,000 fine.
If a weapon is used, you will face life in prison. So before anybody gets creative, want to feel froggy, want to be bad, want to be a superhero, let me let you know what’s going on.
With that being said, if you didn’t like what I had to say, my name is Marrio, that’s with two ‘r’s, don’t forget to dot the ‘i,’ I’m the lead flight attendant on today’s flight, and I’m accompanied with a Fort Lauderdale and Dallas based cabin crew who are here for your safety first and your comfort second. If there is anything that you need on your flight today to make it more enjoyable, please don’t hesitate to let us know. Welcome aboard.”
Here’s the video, should you want to watch it (unfortunately the person who filmed this was someone who believes that “this tyranny will become the norm under Biden if we don’t stand behind President Trump” — let’s not even go there, please):
I’ve never seen anything like this before
I’ve been following the airline industry very closely for over 15 years, and I’ve seen my fair share of videos of flight attendants on power trips. However, I’ve never seen anything quite like this before:
- No, you can’t put someone on a no-fly list on all airlines forever (the worst any airline has done over mask compliance is put people on that specific carrier’s no-fly list for as long as the mask mandate is in place)
- No, flight attendants are not government officials
- No, Spirit Airlines planes aren’t government property (I mean, I guess airlines did get a bailout, so perhaps the government should really partly own these planes, but I don’t think that’s what the flight attendant was going for)
- No, you (probably) won’t receive 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine for “acting out of character” on a plane
- Also, how the hell did we go from talking about face masks to talking about using weapons on planes?!
Like I said, flight attendants have tough jobs, and I get the challenges they face. But this is so beyond reasonable. And the most bizarre part is that the flight attendant seems to think he’s totally in the right and that this is okay:
- He mentions he’s the lead flight attendant, which makes me wonder how often he has made this announcement before
- He even proactively gives out his name in case anyone wants to complain
- What kind of customer service is this, welcoming passengers by warning them what will happen if they choose to use a weapon on the plane?
- Not only that, but it’s clearly ineffective; you can hear people laughing at this guy’s threats because they’re so outlandish, which kind of eliminates any benefit of using scare tactics
Hopefully Spirit Airlines retrains this flight attendant, and going forward perhaps he shouldn’t be put in charge of making pre-flight “welcome” announcements…
Spirit Airlines has issued the following statement regarding this incident:
“The message in this video is not Spirit’s approved message for welcoming our Guests onboard our planes and is not authorized. We appreciate the Guest who brought it to our attention, and we’re addressing the issue to make sure that this does not occur again in the future.”
Bottom line
I recognize how challenging the job of a flight attendant can be, especially nowadays. However, there’s a difference between trying to get passengers to comply with regulations, and making up lies, like that passengers could be fined $250,000, jailed, or never be able to get on an airplane of any airline ever again.
This crosses the line by a long shot…
Marrio. You are I’ll informed and rude.
What? $250,000 fine and go to Prison for life and and be banned from flying from flying all airlines. You’re a joke and you make your company look like a joke.
This flight attendant is an embarrassment for Spirit Airlines and should be fired! What type of employees does this airline hire? Are you serious? Is there no screening process or training for employees.
Also as a paying passenger, my family and I don’t need to by the threatened by the crew and treated like children. Not to mention the unprofessionalism and the negativity.
Thank you
This guy needs to quit. He is lucky to still be able to work after Oct 1st. I was furloughed after only 1 year of this dream job I had the opportunity to do. I'll take his place gladly in the air and not spew garbage to my beloved customers...
I have sympathy for Marrio. It's the same "sick of it all and pushed too far" attitude that makes one dream of grabbing the beer, blowing a slide and jumping out of the plane for one's last day at work. That said, I'd never make an announcement remotely like that; I'd just occasionally wish I could. And I loathe paperwork so much that most passengers get about 10 warnings from me before I'm willing to...
I have sympathy for Marrio. It's the same "sick of it all and pushed too far" attitude that makes one dream of grabbing the beer, blowing a slide and jumping out of the plane for one's last day at work. That said, I'd never make an announcement remotely like that; I'd just occasionally wish I could. And I loathe paperwork so much that most passengers get about 10 warnings from me before I'm willing to do paperwork. And if I'm on the last leg of a 4 day trip that's had a lot of problems, you can probably do whatever you want. I'm just too tired to care enough to tell you to put your mask on more than once or twice, or to do any paperwork. And I have a personal policy of not expecting any 2 (or 3 or 4) year old to wear a mask properly for any length of time so they always get a lot of leeway from me.
Honestly it’s super unprofessional however I feel a lot of comments are coming from racist individuals. The wording in a lot of the comments scream racism. My concern is that I’ve been treated terrible by snarky (w) privileged flight attendants who have been on flights with predominantly black passengers and have been downright disrespectful because of their position. There have been threats, snarky attitudes, oh and my personal favorite , the (w) attendant who does...
Honestly it’s super unprofessional however I feel a lot of comments are coming from racist individuals. The wording in a lot of the comments scream racism. My concern is that I’ve been treated terrible by snarky (w) privileged flight attendants who have been on flights with predominantly black passengers and have been downright disrespectful because of their position. There have been threats, snarky attitudes, oh and my personal favorite , the (w) attendant who does not want to take the trash of another human being CLEARLY because it’s “uncomfortable”. When you witness a privileged attendant turn their nose at a passenger (of color) you see things from a perspective that’s completely different from most of these comments. An empty bag of chips is just so outrageous. It’s honestly not what he said, it’s about who felt offended (Karen). The original post was about supporting Trump at the end of the comments and that says everything America needed to know. This entire thread is full of undercover supremacy. He’s wrong yes, but at least he didn’t treat anyone as if they were beneath him.
I feel for Marrio. I agree with many other commenters here. Marrio is doubtless dealing with the absolute worst of society - the flying public. I’ve worked in customer service and have dealt with jerks, but not wearing a mask is beyond the pale. It’s like arguing against gravity. Who knows how many anti-mask people Marrio deals with everyday. We are all responsible to one another for everyone’s safety on an airplane.
Ben, you...
I feel for Marrio. I agree with many other commenters here. Marrio is doubtless dealing with the absolute worst of society - the flying public. I’ve worked in customer service and have dealt with jerks, but not wearing a mask is beyond the pale. It’s like arguing against gravity. Who knows how many anti-mask people Marrio deals with everyday. We are all responsible to one another for everyone’s safety on an airplane.
Ben, you are obviously a very privileged person, but you seem to take jabs at FAs frequently. That is disappointing.
I'd never realised that Spirit offered IFE!
If he was saying what they could actually do within their control then this would be actually good and it may get more to follow along. Consider the first few people on the no fly list, for example.
I would really have liked to seen the earlier Spirit Fights to be on HIS FLIGHT. there has been plenty!
I wish his threats were a reality. Been on 4 flights recently, and 3 out of the 4 there was that one guy that did not wear their mask the entire flight. FA's said nothing. I think those FA's should be fired and not this guy. Airline tout mask policies, but I've seen little to no enforcement.
I for one love it and hope dear Marrio is rewarded for his efforts. The humor is there for those who can see it, but M was clearly hoping he had a typical complement of fools who might just believe him.
How I wish that every PRE-BOARDING announcement told pax the same thing: No mask, you will be banned from flying (should be on ANY AIRLINE), be arrested at destination, and pay a heavy fine, and if you can't or won't comply, DON'T BOARD the aircraft!
As an elder with a health history I'm in the COVID high risk category, and I'm sick and tired of the selfish idiots that refuse to protect others from their...
How I wish that every PRE-BOARDING announcement told pax the same thing: No mask, you will be banned from flying (should be on ANY AIRLINE), be arrested at destination, and pay a heavy fine, and if you can't or won't comply, DON'T BOARD the aircraft!
As an elder with a health history I'm in the COVID high risk category, and I'm sick and tired of the selfish idiots that refuse to protect others from their possible disease by refusing to mask up. Flying is the most unhealthy activity anyone can right now except for going on a cruise or working in a COVID ward.
Sack the bastard, then he'd know the spirit in which he needs to take his job. Bloody nonsense but then again you get what you pay for.
I agree with Ben and Mashad, I read the transcript first, but watching the video he seemed sincere enough. We dont know if it was a bad day or a typical flight, or a night flight. I think he needs just a coaching on the approved script. He may decide on a different career, he may also be getting the schedule where he's working every holiday or birthday instead of how it is often portrayed as 2 days on, 28 days off.
Airline travel has gone well beyond Greyhound. It's getting crazy from both a pax and crew standpoint. Squeeze enough people into a small metal tube and you've got the makings for a flying Jerry Springer show.
wow... thanks for the heads up! I will make every effort to book Spirit from now on, despite their absurd baggage prices.
If this saves an inflight issue with the up front removal of rude passengers happy to contaminate other passengers, who cares how he says it. THANK YOU MARRIO!!
Not good if you are in a competitive service industry and prone to spelling out rules and terms. more than 90% service seekers already know the rules of the game.
To me, it sounded of a warning than a threat. I don't see any issue with the announcement at all. Too many stupid people doing stupid things these days in the plane! Someone finally was man enough to remind everyone that flying is a privilege and not a right!
Lol when I read the transcript at first it seemed aggressive but then when I watched the video his tone was more “I’m over this” than anything else, he’s probably just really tired of dealing with all these excuses people have for not wearing a mask when doing so is clearly required
Just your typical Spirit flight...
"unfortunately the person who filmed this was someone who believes that “this tyranny will become the norm under Biden if we don’t stand behind President Trump” — let’s not even go there, please "
<<<<<
because Biden announced a national mask policy, don't kid yourself
People who cannot afford to fly most likely cannot afford manners. Hence, the FA had to resort to providing a threatening environment for flyers to comply.
Sounds like a disgruntled FA who was not good enough to get their foot into the doors of a proper airline.
I heard that he has a brother named Warrio who works for Comcast.
"Police powers". "Life in prison". OK. Idiot. Marrio needs a new line of work. Immediately.
Ahhhh, Spirit never disappoints.
I agree that this is over the line, but if you look at the Twitter poster and his other tweets about this, it’s clear he’s after attention and is trying to get the FA fired. I wouldn’t be surprised if there had been some sort of confrontation previous to the video where the poster refused to wear a mask or something and this is a misguided response. I don’t think you can trust that this video is the whole story and putting it out there might be harmful.
Marrio needs to get another job, this environment is too stressful for him.
In his opinion, he is saving lives. Keeping masks on is the only thing stopping this virus from going widespread on airplanes and so many evil people take their masks off. HOWEVER... I do not support threatening people or federal mandates. I am just saying Marrio's intentions may be good, he is just not going about it the right way.
If I was a flight attendant having to deal with passengers day in day out being anti social and refusing to wear masks I'd probably do the same thing. I think the only people that stand to be offended are exactly the same people who are likely to break the rules.
Am I the only one who actually agrees with the FA and wishes all this was true? There must be their side of the story and all the toxic environment in the air right now clearly feeds the anger in their announcement. Going to work not knowing when a Karen will take their mask off and start a scandal? Yes.. must be nice.
"Hopefully Spirit Airlines retrains this flight attendant."
I seriously wish they could just can this SOB if only to provide an example to others, but the union contract surely requires some form of "progressive discipline".
This guy should never work on a plane ever again. Airlines are letting tens of thousands of people go, including people who really care and who love their job. And now, you have Marrio, this idiot, who clearly doesn’t care about this job if he’s proactively asking people to complain I can imagine so many more people that could take his job and do it with care and love. Spirit needs to fire this person ASAP.
This is the profile of someone we'll probably see again on the news for arbitrarily kicking a family off a flight because a 3 year old's mask accidentally falls off their face. The power trip some flight attendants have is sad...they really should look for another line of work. I know I couldn't be a FA...dealing with the public today would be awful.
I was waiting for April Fools! at the end of this video, but alas it's November.
Moron has only one "r", but maybe we can add one in Marrio's case.
I love it. Welcome to Spirit!
For all the reasons you list at the end, makes me wonder if this is manipulated video.
there are days in the airline industry you get pushed to far. Marrio has reached this “line in his sand” on today’s flight. It’s still a sad commentary, for all that we take this and post it on SM. If you felt it necessary to send the video and transcript to the DOT and Spirit management - then you go Karen. I feel for Marrio, who wasn’t like this in his job interview or subsequent...
there are days in the airline industry you get pushed to far. Marrio has reached this “line in his sand” on today’s flight. It’s still a sad commentary, for all that we take this and post it on SM. If you felt it necessary to send the video and transcript to the DOT and Spirit management - then you go Karen. I feel for Marrio, who wasn’t like this in his job interview or subsequent years of service.
Marrio, if you are reading this - we’ve ALL been there brother.
We are all one bad day away from being filmed and posted. You could be next! We need to stop this behavior.
@ M Casey -- I appreciate where you're coming from, and flight attendants have really tough jobs, and they're even tougher now than ever before. Add in the uncertainty about the future, and I feel bad for flight attendants.
A couple of further thoughts, though. First of all, everyone has bad days, and I get that sometimes people "lose it." We saw that years back when a JetBlue flight attendant popped open the slide and...
@ M Casey -- I appreciate where you're coming from, and flight attendants have really tough jobs, and they're even tougher now than ever before. Add in the uncertainty about the future, and I feel bad for flight attendants.
A couple of further thoughts, though. First of all, everyone has bad days, and I get that sometimes people "lose it." We saw that years back when a JetBlue flight attendant popped open the slide and left the plane. However, to me this didn't seem like an off the cuff announcement, but rather seemed rehearsed. I certainly could be wrong, but that's my take. He seemed very confident in what he was saying, even telling people to report him if they have a problem with what he was saying.
Second of all, to me this whole situation is just so absurd. Could you imagine going to a cafe and having the barista tell you that they're government officials, you're on government property, you can be banned from all cafes in the world, you can be jailed for the rest of your life, you can be fined $250,000, etc.? This is so beyond anything that's reasonable even on an off day, in my opinion. I get flight attendants are in more of a position of authority, but ultimately they work in customer service in the private sector. What *would* it take for you to want to report someone?
To be clear, I don't think this guy should be fired. I think people deserve second (and third) chances. And fortunately flight attendants are unionized, and don't typically get fired unless there are repeated offenses. But in my opinion we're doing everyone a disservice if this guy's supervisor doesn't have a chat with him.
Good grief! What’s with all the threats against each other? On my trips to the US I have often witnessed people in uniform, be they private or public employees, shout at people. Knock on wood, it’s never happened to me directly but isn’t there some training in deescalating various situations? If someone gets shouted at for even the most minor thing, like forgetting a water bottle in your carry on, mistakenly getting into the wrong...
Good grief! What’s with all the threats against each other? On my trips to the US I have often witnessed people in uniform, be they private or public employees, shout at people. Knock on wood, it’s never happened to me directly but isn’t there some training in deescalating various situations? If someone gets shouted at for even the most minor thing, like forgetting a water bottle in your carry on, mistakenly getting into the wrong seat or putting on a mask incorrectly then no wonder there is so much aggression. You seed what you sow.
All the Karens at UA and AA rejoice and stand up for their brother-in-arms Marrio
Why did you spell Marrio's name wrong?