
Frontier Airlines Tells Passenger "to Drive" After Complaint Over Sneezing Flier
By Mustafa GatollariJan. 26 2021, Published 11:43 a.m. ET
While airlines are implementing a litany of new safety and cleanliness protocols in the wake of COVID-19, it's hard to get around the fact that you're in a giant, air-tight capsule traveling through the sky. While early on during the pandemic airlines would space passengers out and leave some seats open to keep room between fliers, many states that social distancing is "difficult to impossible" to successfully implement on an airplane.
However there are strict guidelines when it comes to sick individuals boarding an airplane and if you're running a fever or are showing symptoms of COVID-19, then you shouldn't be flying. In fact, every major airline prevents those who are experiencing said symptoms from even boarding one of their aircraft.
One passenger, while on a Frontier Airlines flight from Miami to Philadelphia on Thursday, January 21, had expressed concern over a passenger sitting behind them that was coughing and sneezing.
The flier then asked a flight attendant if they could have their seat moved because they didn't want to be sitting directly in front of a sicky McSicky pants and they obliged their request.

Once in his new seat, the concerned passenger had asked the flight attendant why the coughing and sneezing flier wasn't taken off of the flight. The passenger says they were told by the flight attendant that they should be placed on the no-fly list and if they were so concerned about being in an airplane with other people they should probably just drive to where they needed to go next time.
After the flight was over, the man had whipped out his phone and began recording his conversation with the flight crew, which started when he asked, again, why they didn't remove the sick passenger from the plane.
They told the man, "this is a form of transportation, sir, you have an option, you can drive your car if it’s a problem, you can’t tell people to get off the plane if they’re coughing or sneezing."
Doesn’t matter if that passenger was really sick or not, the attitude that flight attendant gave to the complaining passenger was totally unacceptable. Passengers have the right to address their concerns especially when the whole world is threaten by COVID Pandemic.
— Bella S. Y (@bellasirenay) January 24, 2021
The concerned passenger didn't let up, however, and asked why a coughing or sneezing passenger shouldn't be removed from the plane, a flight attendant asks, "why should he be removed?" The passenger responded by saying “because the guy’s sick,” and the flight attendant tells him “you ain’t no doctor."
The flight attendant then tells the man, "You ain't got your mask on good either." The passenger replies by saying, "I got two on sir." The passenger then relayed the story about how he was told to drive his car and that he should be on the no-fly list, to which the Flight Attendant states, "you should be on the no-fly list, you really should be."
When the passenger asks why that's the case, the attendant says, "because you’re getting someone kicked off for sneezing and coughing."
The video clip caused a bit of controversy online. Some people thought that the passenger was out of line for attempting to remove another passenger who was coughing and sneezing.
It is a pandemic. But people can still be regular sick. Every sickness is not corona. If he was that afraid-maybe the plane wasn’t right for him. But the attendant(who obviously is frustrated with every time someone coughs someone comes straight to him)didn’t handle it well.
— Miss Lady (@FabulousMsLady) January 25, 2021
Looks like @FlyFrontier is going to go the 'we hope they forget about how rude our people are' route.
— My rap playlist is RUINED (@truecolossus) January 26, 2021
No matter what angle you decide to take, employees talking to someone who has paid you and then threatening to put you on a no-fly list is unacceptable.
Yea, hard pass.
Others argued that just because someone is coughing and sneezing doesn't necessarily mean that they are ill, they could be suffering from an allergic reaction. In fact, there have been reports of people experiencing skin irritation and having adverse reactions to cleaning products all of the time, so the passenger could've coughed or sneezed for any number of reasons.
They could have been more professional. But passengers shouldn’t be demanding the removal of other passengers, just because they sneezed.
— Clif 🇺🇸🇬🇧 (@Texden1975) January 25, 2021
Sneezing and coughing doesn’t translate to coronavirus
— Chris (@dcFaddy) January 24, 2021
There were other people who commiserated with the flight attendant's stance stating that if the individual was so concerned about the other passenger they just shouldn't fly. But others believe that the sick passenger shouldn't have been allowed on the plane.
What kind of mess?! The flight attendant should have been concerned about the fact that someone was sick on the flight. She was just being funky and attitudial🙄
— Mello (@mello6789) January 24, 2021
Then don’t fly!!!!! When you CHOOSE to integrate yourself with hundreds of people...you choose all that comes with it. CHOICES people!!!
— hholbert (@509Heidi) January 24, 2021
What do you think? Was the flight attendant wrong for the way that they spoke to the passenger? Or does the flier have unrealistic expectations as to how much "power" they have on an airplane in requesting other passengers be removed?