Spirit Airlines refused to allow a Puerto Rican family to board a flight from Los Angeles to Puerto Rico because they did not have a passport for their two-year old child.
Speaking to CBS, Marivi Roman Torres, who was traveling with her husband, Luís, and son, Alejandro, said the problem occurred at the ticket counter.
“At first [the Spirit employee] told me, ‘This is an international flight,’” she said.
“I asked her if there was anything that I can do, because I for sure know that I don’t need a passport to go to Puerto Rico.
“Is there someone else I can talk to? Can we call customer service together? They were completely inflexible, there was no empathy, they were like walls.”
The family ended up going to the JetBlue counter, to be told a passport was “not needed to go to Puerto Rico” and booked on a flight to Puerto Rico that day.
In a statement, Spirit said: “Spirit has a long history of serving Puerto Rico and we offer about 25 daily flights to three destinations on the island.
“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.”
The low-budget airline added: “We sincerely apologize to our guest and their family for the inconvenience, and we issued a refund for the tickets and provided them with future travel vouchers.”
Nevertheless, Torres said: “I do not think I am going to book with Spirit any more. I think that my trust was broken.”
Puerto Rico, an island in the Caribbean, is a United States territory. Although Puerto Ricans cannot vote in presidential elections and do not have representation in Congress, they do not require a passport when traveling to and from the US.
The incident prompted online criticism of Spirit.
One user commented: “Until Hurricane María in 2017, most Americans were either unaware or ignorant of the basics about Puerto Rico. To this day many don’t know the basics even if the ‘Puerto Ricans are American citizens’ fact has percolated more. I’ve had members of Congress gape when learning facts.”
Another said: “How does the airline agent and the supervisor not know that you don’t need a passport to travel to Puerto Rico? You learn that Puerto Rico is a commonwealth of the USA in the third grade. The airline agent not knowing is one thing. The supervisor not knowing is inexcusable.”
In a similar incident earlier this month at New Orleans international airport, Hertz denied a Puerto Rican man a rental car he had paid for, telling him he needed to present a passport.
In video posted online, the man could be heard explaining that his driver’s license was a valid ID, only for an employee to refuse to accept it and threaten to call police.
Humberto Marchand, who also spoke to CBS, said police showed up and asked him to leave before threatening to call immigration agents.
Hertz apologized, saying: “Hertz accepts Puerto Rican driver’s licenses from our customers renting in the US without requiring a valid passport. We sincerely regret that our policy was not followed and have apologized … and refunded his rental.”