Bodycam footage of a March 29 incident at Miami International Airport has surfaced, showing three Frontier Airlines passengers being led out of the terminal in handcuffs after a standoff over an unpaid carry-on bag.

The trio were booked on Frontier flight 1204 to Philadelphia. Between them they had two carry-on bags but had only paid for one. When the gate agent told them to settle the fee for the second bag before boarding, the women pushed back, were refused boarding — and walked through the gate door and onto the plane anyway. One reportedly told the others, "We don't have to listen; let's just go."

It went downhill fast. A Frontier employee told deputies at the jetbridge that the airline wanted all three removed from the aircraft and would not rebook them, and said he believed he could smell alcohol on their breath. Once officers reached the cabin, the women were told they would not be flying. The footage then shows them being taken off the plane, handcuffed, with a physical struggle and one woman ending up on the floor. At one point an officer can be heard telling them: we'll put cuffs on you whenever we want — a comment that's hard to justify even for passengers being obstructive, since an arrest needs more grounds than that.

All three were charged with trespassing and resisting an officer without violence. One also faces a battery charge for allegedly spitting on a Frontier employee. They have pled not guilty. Crowds in the terminal reportedly cheered as they were escorted out.

The lesson for travellers is pretty simple, if unglamorous: Frontier's unbundled pricing means you pay for bags, and gate agents do check. If you're denied boarding, walking onto the plane anyway isn't a bargaining tactic — it's trespassing, and US carriers will not hesitate to call police, especially at Miami, where this airline has had similar standoffs before. If you genuinely think a fee is wrong, the smarter move is to pay under protest and dispute it later, because the airlines hold all the cards at the gate.

That said, the footage raises fair questions about how the arrest was handled — a knee-jerk cuffs-first approach to what started as a fee dispute isn't a great look for anyone involved.

Story via View from the Wing.