Frontier Blunders Lead to Woman Traveling to Jamaica by Mistake

Image: Frontier Airlines plane. (photo via Frontier Airlines Media)
Image: Frontier Airlines plane. (photo via Frontier Airlines Media)
Rich Thomaselli
by Rich Thomaselli
Last updated: 1:15 PM ET, Sun May 7, 2023

It was either comical or scary or infuriating—or a combination of all three. 

Beverly Ellis-Hebard was supposed to travel from Philadelphia to her second home in Jacksonville, Florida. She ended up way south of that. 

Ellis-Hebard was not informed by the airport or by the airline that the gate was changed. Instead, she ended up on a flight to Jamaica — and landed with no passport. In a series of mishaps, including an untimely trip to the lavatory, a cut on her hand that needed to be tended to, a gate change and a cursory check of her boarding pass by the gate agent, Ellis-Hebard ended up on a flight to Jamaica instead of her intended destination, Jacksonville. 

“She said, 'Look at me. This plane is going to Jamaica,’” EllisHebard told a Philadelphia television station about her encounter with a flight attendant. “And I knew by the look on her face she wasn't joking." 

No, it wasn’t a joke. And everybody suddenly turned serious when they realized she did not have a passport to enter Jamaica. Fortunately, some customs officials in Jamaica allowed her to remain on the jetway and never touch Jamaican soil so that she wasn’t in violation of anything. 

Ellis-Hebard was put on a flight back to Philadelphia several hours later.

"It should have never have happened because I did not have a passport. The woman at the gate did not do her job," EllisHebard said. 

For the trouble, Frontier refunded her flight and gave her a $600 voucher.


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Rich Thomaselli

Rich Thomaselli

Associate Writer

Editor Associate Writer true 9281 14744 Rich Thomaselli has written for TravelPulse since 2014 and has been a professional journalist for nearly 40 years. His work has appeared in USA Today, the New York Times and New York Yankees publications. He is an 11-time writ

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