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There are only ten US states that require geography courses to graduate high school. Geography education is not prioritized in American school systems and it’s starting to show. A family traveling from Los Angeles to San Juan, Puerto Rico was denied boarding because the two-year-old child did not have a passport. The problem? Puerto Rico is a US territory and should be treated as a domestic flight. No passport is required for US citizens.
Spirit Airlines told a Puerto Rican mother to provide her toddlers passport, but when she couldn’t, she says an airline agent & a supervisor refused to allow her & her family to fly from California to the island of Puerto Rico.
Statement from @SpiritAirlines : “Spirit has a… pic.twitter.com/4rZgG3fenA
— David Begnaud (@DavidBegnaud) May 18, 2023
The incident took place at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) on April 25th. Marivi Roman Torres, her husband Luis, and their two-year-old son Alejandro were traveling to visit family in Puerto Rico. When they reached the ticket counter, the agent demanded passports. When they could not produce one for their child, they were denied boarding passes. A supervisor backed this up and they were forced to buy expensive, last-minute tickets on JetBlue.
Spirit released the following statement:
In this specific case, an agent at LAX who is new to the position misunderstood the identification requirements. We are providing the agent with additional coaching and reiterating proper procedure.”
Anthony’s Take: Airport personnel might need geography classes or at lease better training when it comes to aiding passengers. I’m surprised that the check-in system doesn’t dictate whether ID, visas, or other forms are needed. Hopefully, Spirit refunds the money spent on the JetBlue tickets.
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Advertiser & Editorial Disclosure: The Bulkhead Seat earns an affiliate commission for anyone approved through the links above This compensation may impact how and where links appear on this site. We work to provide the best publicly available offers to our readers. We frequently update them, but this site does not include all available offers. Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed, or approved by any of these entities.
2 comments
What I don’t get is how that couldn’t have been checked so easily. Everyone carries the internet on their phone in addition to I am sure access at the Spirit desk. Even if the employee and supervisor didn’t know that Puerto Rico was indeed a US territory, you would think it could have been easily checked and corrected right then.
Linea aerea spirit un desastre, viaje el 10 de mayo de 2023 de Newark a Forlauder a Puerto Rico lleve un andador con rueda de mi esposo, y me lo entregaron roto. No vuelvo jamás a viajar con ustedes. Un personal pésimo. Para cobrar rápido por las maletas. El servicio al cliente es sumamente importante, algo que ustedes no tienen. Son un desatres.