An alleged mistake by Frontier Airlines created a stressful situation for a New Jersey woman who shared that the airline dropped the ball, causing her to end up in a foreign country instead of her destination of Florida last year.
Beverly Ellis-Hebard was planning on flying to Jacksonville, Florida, last November, but instead, ended up in Jamaica when she claims that her gate changed while she was in the bathroom, she told WPVI.
The woman told the media outlet that when she arrived at her gate, it read “PHL to JAX.”
While at the gate, Ellis-Hebard, who had recently undergone back surgery, said she went and asked the agent if she could use the restroom before the plane boarded. After being given the go ahead, she went, and by the time she got back, the flight was almost finished boarding.
“[The gate agent] said, ‘Come on, come on. Give me your boarding pass.’ I would say I took about ten steps, and she said, ‘Are you Beverly Ellis-Hebard?”‘ she recalled. “I said, ‘You just had my boarding pass. You just checked me in. Yes!’ She said, ‘All right, go! Go.’”
After beating the rush and making it to her seat, Ellis-Hebard got ready for the flight she often took, but soon things went south.
Once aboard the flight, the crew informed Ellis-Hebard that the Jacksonville flight had a gate change and that their plane was instead headed to Jamaica.
“I laughed. I said, ‘I would love to be going there, but I have a beach where I live,’” Ellis-Hebard joked.
However, the flight crew wasn’t laughing like she thought they would.
“[The flight attendant] said, ‘Look at me. This plane is going to Jamaica.’ And I knew by the look on her face she wasn’t joking.”
The situation put her in quite a pickle, being that she did not have her passport with her, so she was unable to leave the plane once it touched down. Looking back, she shared that she can’t believe what happened.
“It should have never have happened because I did not have a passport. The woman at the gate did not do her job,” she said.
Ellis-Hebard shared that she stayed on the jetway, as it is still considered U.S. soil, until her flight back to Philadelphia took off several hours later.
Frontier has commented on the incident, as a spokesperson shared that they have made efforts to rectify the situation, which included giving Ellis-Hebard a $600 voucher.
“We sincerely regret that the customer was able to board the wrong flight and have extended our apologies,” a Frontier Airlines spokesperson said. “We have provided her with a refund and compensation as well as addressed the matter with airport personnel.”
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