Passenger Banned From Spirit Airlines For Teaching People How To Scam Free Carry-On Bags

Spirit Airlines charges low fares and adds fees for almost everything. You pay not only for checked bags, but also if you want to bring a bag on board large enough that it has to go in the overhead bin. You pay for your seat assignment if you don’t want whatever is assigned to you. You even pay extra if you check in at the airport with an agent. And many fees get more expensive the closer to travel you get.

The way that some of these fees is enforced is fairly simple. If you haven’t purchased a carry on bag, your boarding pass says the number you can bring on board is ‘0’. If you’ve purchased one, it says ‘1’.

@RobKAllday posted a video to TikTok showing himself editing a screen shot of his boarding pass to show he was eligible to bring a carry on bag onto his Spirit Airlines flight. He says he “[d]idn’t actually do this” of course and that his bag ‘fits’ without paying extra to bring it on.

@robkallday

Didn’t actually do this, my bag fits #nobodyneedstoknow #travelhacks #pdfeditor #vegasbaby #iphone11pro #spiritairlines

♬ how would they know bad girls club – Chris Gleason

‘RobKAllday’ appears to me to be Rob Kleifield a “former Division-I football player turned sports journalist.” And he’s also someone that is no longer permitted to fly Spirit Airlines. Update: Rob Kleifield reaches out to say this is not him and that he doesn’t use TikTok. While both users use the moniker ‘RobKAllday’ and appear to have attended University of Arizona perhaps around the same time, Kleifield indicates he has not flown Spirit. (Oddly Spirit Airlines didn’t offer this correction when reaching out to me about the story.) My apologies to Mr. Kleifield.

The video’s creator posted a followup to TikTok with a letter from Spirit banning him from the airline but offering that they will consider a letter of contrition in two years if he wishes to have the ban lifted.

Subject: Barring From Spirit Airlines Flights And Facilities

As you know you created a video on the social media platform “TikTok” showing users how to manipulate a Spirit Airlines boarding pass and fraud1ulently indicate they paid for a carry-on bag to the financial detriment of Spirit Airlines. Additionally, as evidenced in the video’s comments, you have also been advising users specifically on what cell phone application should download to carry out the scam.

In light of this egregious misconduct, Spirit Airlines has determined that you are no longer permitted to fly with us and we have placed you on a list for this purpose. You are also barred from entering Spirit’s facilities. If you seek to circumvent this any ticket that you purchase will be forfeited without a refund. If you come into our facilities we will report that trespass to the appropriate law enforcement authorities.

Should you wish to travel on Spirit Airlines again in the future after the passage of at least two years from the date of this letter, you may request that we revisit the foregoing restrictions. You may do so only by a letter explaining why we should reconsider the restrictions and giving unequivocal assurances that you will conduct yourself appropriately in the future. The foregoing is extended solely as a courtesy and not as a right and we may determine not to lift the restrictions in our absolute discretion.

Hopefully sharing that someone else shared a video, and covering the ban that this person received, doesn’t cause me to be banned because Spirit’s “Big Front Seat” is one of the best values in travel and their loyalty program is much improved.

(HT: Demetrius J.)

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

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Comments

  1. Sharing any video showing a passenger how to get on a Spirit flight is called aiding and abetting a crime. The only defense you have is if you are showing said passenger how to get on Spirit as a member of their frequent flyer program – Fight Club. But remember the first rule of Fight Club is: You do not talk about Fight Club. That said, sharing videos of Fight Club activity aboard Spirit aircraft are permitted, as is ringing a Jerry Springer bell between rounds in the aisle.

  2. That letter is so condescending (“As you know…”) I can only imagine how dry is the p-word (genitalia) of the hag who penned it

  3. The letter looks fake to me. Certainly doesn’t seem to me like anything a legal department would write. If he can fake a boarding pass that easily I imagine he can fake a letter too. Besides, wouldn’t the info be in the barcode too?

  4. Give me a break L3. This would never hold up in court and why the hell anyone would want to fly Spirit anyway is beyond me?

    PS: great post Aloha Dave. You had me laughing in the aisle.

  5. @Cmorgan: Don’t pretend to be a lawyer.

    And if you don’t know why people would fly Spirit you appear to be missing the main trend in air travel — Ryanair, the most popular airline in Europe, is the model.

  6. I actually agree with most of the previous comments. But what I really want to say is:

    OOOOOOOOoooohhhh!!!! BANNED from Spirit! Whatever in humanity could be WORSE????

  7. Someone say “charge with fraud”. Lol. That’s a big stretch since he clearly told his followers that he wasn’t telling them to do it. Smh

  8. It would take a lot more than 1 free carry on to get me on the metal. They should be rewarding this guy as it will likely bring business this crappy airline would never have gotten otherwise.

  9. Savannah says:
    November 17, 2020 at 2:32 am
    Charged 90 bucks for being overweight in luggage
    And u cant even get a drink on flight with cash

    ^^^Another genius that doesn’t realize their flights are often 50% cheaper because of their fee structure. Don’t like it? Fly another airline and pay twice as much for the ticket but carry on a bag. Enjoy!

  10. i fly spirit Airlines i was looking to find how can i reach out to them, i had a check bag they charge me 50 dollars, going to vegas and plus they don’t offer anything they charge yu for food, comeing out of vegas i buy my ticket on line and pay for my bag 30 dollars went i reach the counter they tell me i have over weight with my check bag and i had a carry on they tell me take out some things out of the bag i take it out they still charge me 55 dollars i ask why? if i pay 30 dollars already and now another 55 dollars wow.

  11. Spirit airline is the worst of the worst including the people at the ticket counter, the gate.and the ramp. At the end of the day, one can die of thirst if you don’t have a CC. Often times, when you add all the fees plus the bad service, you end up paying a lot more for your trip. They are on the bottom of my list for places where my fav airlines don’t go or the travel time don’t work for me. At that point I will mail my bags to my destination, which cost a lot less and really get a low cost ticket from them.

    An original & former 9 dollar club member

  12. They also trespassed him from Spirit’s facilities, e.g. office buildings… (most airline bans do not include such a trespass).

  13. Here is the real spirit airlines scam:

    When you modify a flight, the check out page will say you are getting a credit for the difference of fares. Then the credit does not work and a charge will appear on your credit card that you were never told about.

    Now that’s a scam. Anybody else have that experience? I’m considering forming a class action lawsuit. Please email me if you have had a similar experience.

    Thomaspatrickrahim@gmail.com

  14. Spirit Airlines is trash, but you have to be stupid to post something like that. Why would you ruin it for yourself and everybody else by POSTING IT?

    The moron should be banned from every airline.

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