Frontier Airlines Class Action Seeks Refunds for Tickets

Frontier Airlines has been hit with a class action lawsuit by passengers who claim that the airline has not refunded them for their cancelled flights due to the coronavirus.

Plaintiffs Nelcy Alexa Rivera-De Leon, Piotr Tchorzewski, and Stephanie Muters say that Frontier has engaged in a scheme to escape their obligation to refund passengers for flights that they never took. 

Rivera-De Leon, a resident of Florida, claims that she purchased four tickets to fly on Frontier Airlines between Tampa, Florida and San Juan, Puerto Rico on March 13, 2020 and March 20, 2020.

She states that she paid $483 for her Frontier Airlines tickets for a family vacation, which was to include her husband and two minor children.

Rivera-De Leon’s husband, Roger Zehr, is allegedly active military who was advised that, effective March 13, 2020, he was prohibited from non-military travel for 60 days. When Rivera-De Leon learned that her husband would not be able to travel, she immediately cancelled her trip on the Frontier website, according to the Frontier Airlines tickets class action lawsuit.

She claims that upon cancelling her trip, she was advised by Frontier that she would receive a credit toward a future trip rather than a refund for the purchase price, and that she had until June 11, 2020 to use the credits.

Did Frontier cancel a flight that you were going to take and didn’t provide a refund? Get legal help here.

“Plaintiff Rivera-De Leon cannot apply her flight credits by June 11, 2020 because of ongoing restrictions imposed by COVID-19 that make it impossible for her to make future plans,” the Frontier Airlines tickets class action lawsuit goes on to say.

Rivera-De Leon states that she called Frontier Airlines and has attempted to contact them via Facebook Messenger on numerous occasions, hoping to get a refund for her cancelled flight, but the airline has ignored her calls and has refused to provide her with a refund. 

The plaintiffs claim that Frontier is aware of federal law as well as its own conditions of carriage which require the airline to issue passengers refunds for flights that were cancelled because of the coronavirus.

However, as the pandemic grew, Frontier allegedly began to email passengers to preemptively tell them to cancel their flights in return for bonus credits of $50 per ticket or Frontier points.

The Frontier Airlines tickets class action lawsuit maintains that Frontier did not disclose to customers that they were legally obligated to provide them with a full monetary refund.

In addition, the plaintiffs say that Frontier requires customers to use applied credits within 90 days, even though it knew that this was impossible because domestic air travel had come to a standstill and that most passengers were not able to make plans because of the coronavirus.

“Through its misstatements and omissions, Frontier sought to deceive its loyal customers into allowing Frontier to avoid its refund obligations while providing only illusory credits likely to expire before Plaintiffs and the Class can use them,” the Frontier Airlines flights class action lawsuit says.

The plaintiffs also maintain that Frontier has engaged in unfair, unlawful, and unconscionable practices in order to enrich itself at the expense of its customers. 

According to the Frontier contract of carriage, the airline contracts with customers that in the case of a force majeure event, Frontier can cancel, divert, or delay a flight without liability except to provide a refund for the unused portion of the ticket.

Thus, the plaintiffs argue, if Frontier cancels a flight, it is contractually obligated to provide a refund for the full fare inclusive of all taxes and fees.

The lawsuit claims that, as a direct result of the coronavirus, many airlines, including Frontier, cancelled or rescheduled flights.

These cancellations continued into April 2020 when Frontier announced that it would be cutting more than 90 percent of flight capacity nationwide in April and expected to be at 35 percent capacity in May.

While some airlines have provided refunds to passengers due to cancelled flights, some, including Frontier have refused to issue refunds to customers, the Frontier Airlines flights class action lawsuit asserts.

“Despite the plain language of its own Contract of Carriage and the guidance issued by the U.S. Department of Transportation, Frontier has engaged in a pattern and practice of denying refunds to its passengers for flights cancelled as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic,” the plaintiffs maintain.

The lawsuit claims that Frontier sought to trick customers into preemptively cancelling their flights in order to relieve the airline of its obligation to issue full monetary refunds for flights that it ultimately cancelled.

Prospective Class Members include: “All persons in the United States who purchased airline tickets through Frontier Airlines, or for flights on Frontier Airlines, to, from or within the States, and sought to cancel their flights, or had their flights cancelled, on or after February 29, 2020.”

The plaintiffs are represented by Kathryn J. Stimson and Jamie Hubbard of Stimson Stancil Labranche Hubbard LLC, Daniel O. Herrera, Christopher P.T. Toure, and Bryan L. Clobes of Cafferty Clobes Meriweather & Sprengel LLP and Joseph G. Sauder of Sauder Schelkopf LLC.

The Frontier Airlines Tickets Class Action Lawsuit is Nelcy Alexa Rivera-De Leon, et al. v. Frontier Airlines Inc., Case No. 1:20-cv-01518, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado.

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