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Girls Barred from United Flight for Wearing Leggings


Ericandblueboy

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Well in this day and age, although I would love to see people dress nicer, I think it just isn't worth causing a big fight about it.  Certainly, they can have an internal policy for tickets that are essentially a benefit of employment.  But I think it would have been important for them to note that this was for a different ticket so other people on that flight weren't concerned.  Obviously, they could use some PR training in this day and age.  I would have asked the girls to step aside somewhere more private, explain the benefit policy, explain they should have been aware, asked them politely to cure the breach prior to flight- to the point of potentially offering if they needed luggage retrieved to retrieve luggage and put them on a later flight.  But they didn't.  As a lawyer, I am probably a bit jaded, as I am expected to wear clothes much nicer than others on a day to day basis.  But on flights, I like to dress comfortable, as the whole flying process these days is so uncomfortable.  If it wasn't e benefit ticket (although I wouldn't think they would lie about that) it is not acceptable to judge leggings as inappropriate, given that cut off jean shorts, very short shorts, tank tops and other clothing is allowed.  And if you are going to have a clothing policy, it needs to be stated and made public so it easy to follow.  I have seen people asked to turn t shirts with inappropriate language inside out on a flight, as well.  

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Yes, that seems to happen all the time now, for the click-bait.  I agree it doesn't really represent the true story, and that is what happens these days on social media, making PR and customer service for these big companies very important.

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I had a classmate in college whose father was a commercial pilot. She had to abide by a strict dress code when flying free on her dad's airline, while paying customers did not. That was in the early 1970s. I think it is a reasonable policy, as long as it is applied evenly to all genders.

Another article I read about the incident mentioned a man accompanying the girls in spandex who was wearing shorts, and was allowed to board. If he was also a pass customer, was he held to the same standard as the girls? If he was not flying on a pass, he is irrelevant to the story.

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Oh Delta's twitter response is golden... this is why even if their policy stated this, they shouldn't have made a scene, or should have done it quietly behind the scenes.  And yes, if they are holding teen girls to the standard of no leggings, no boy/man better be able to wear spandex or any kind of athletic shorts or pants as far as I am concerned, if flying on a pass, either all "ath/leisure" wear is banned or none.  

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1 hour ago, ScotteeM said:

I had a classmate in college whose father was a commercial pilot. She had to abide by a strict dress code when flying free on her dad's airline, while paying customers did not. That was in the early 1970s. I think it is a reasonable policy, as long as it is applied evenly to all genders.

Another article I read about the incident mentioned a man accompanying the girls in spandex who was wearing shorts, and was allowed to board. If he was also a pass customer, was he held to the same standard as the girls? If he was not flying on a pass, he is irrelevant to the story.

One of the problems I am beginning to understand from talking with my wife and hearing concerns from other women is that all-to-frequently, dress codes are not applied evenly to all genders.  

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3 minutes ago, Josh said:

One of the problems I am beginning to understand from talking with my wife and hearing concerns from other women is that all-to-frequently, dress codes are not applied evenly to all genders.  

Well ... look at swimsuit laws as one obvious example - unless a beach is topless, the dress codes won't apply evenly. (This is just an example; not any sort of "statement.")

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2 minutes ago, Josh said:

One of the problems I am beginning to understand from talking with my wife and hearing concerns from other women is that all-to-frequently, dress codes are not applied evenly to all genders.  

Well and even within my gender there are different standards for women depending on looks, size, etc.  

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Here is their list:

Any attire that reveals a midriff, Attire that reveals any type of undergarments, Attire that is designated as sleepwear, underwear, or swim attire, Mini Skirts, Shorts that do not meet 3 inches above the knee when in a standing position, Form-fitting lycra/spandex tops, pants and dresses, Attire that has offensive and/or derogatory terminology or graphics, Attire that is excessively dirty or has holes/tears, Any attire that is provocative, inappropriately revealing, or see-through clothing, Bare feet, Beach-type, rubber flip-flops.

So this begs the question- why are leather flip flops be any better, why are basketball shorts or soccer shorts allowed, what about men in tank tops that show arms, but aren't tight, what about lycra shorts, or non-form fitting spandex/lycra tops that is very subjective.  Is that VS track suit designated officially as sleepwear.  Are men's undershirts are considered underwear or white t-shirts.  I have to say, this list does seem to unfairly target women, the word top instead of shirt being used is a clear indicator. I mean what is provocative anyway, it could be different to any person.  And how is a t-shirt and say basketball shorts worn by a man any better than a pair of leggings and a tunic top? I don't mind them having a policy to dress nicer, but it should be universal it could be: No athletic-wear, visible undergarments, see through garments, sleepwear, swim attire, sleeveless attire, attire shorter than 3 inches above the knee, no derogatory or offenisive language, lycra or spandex clothing or bare feet or flip flops. No clothing that is excessively dirty or which has holes or tears.  Wording makes a huge difference in the way a policy is viewed.  Again, it's just silly the PR on this, I hope they re-word this policy...

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No sympathy for the people who decided to make their issue public. They receive extensive travel benefits, and all they have to do is follow the rules. They were either ignorant of the rules or unwilling to follow them. 

I really don't see this as a "decent vs indecent" argument, but I do believe United should be allowed to dictate their own rules for free/discounted travel.

 

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3 hours ago, reedm said:

No sympathy for the people who decided to make their issue public. They receive extensive travel benefits, and all they have to do is follow the rules. They were either ignorant of the rules or unwilling to follow them. 

I really don't see this as a "decent vs indecent" argument, but I do believe United should be allowed to dictate their own rules for free/discounted travel.

I'm guessing you commented without reading the article or anything related to the issue at hand. The publicity came from an unrelated bystander, not the people flying on the pass tickets. 

 

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3 hours ago, Josh said:

I'm guessing you commented without reading the article or anything related to the issue at hand. The publicity came from an unrelated bystander, not the people flying on the pass tickets. 

Not true.  I admit I didn't know a bystander brought the issue to light, but that's another indication the story serves little or no purpose. 

 

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Apologies for the needlessly snarky reply, though the article does address that another traveler was the person who reported the events.

As a man, I'm in a position such that my sartorial choices are not likely to be questioned or used to shame me.  Yes, "rules are rules," and certainly United has the legal authority to dictate how their employees and the children/friends of their employees dress when using company benefits.  And at the same time, the way they have written and enforced those rules is biased against women and, as @ktmoomau points out, a PR disaster.

I would also say that what seems like a tempest in a teapot comes at a time when women in this country are feeling the pressure of their elected officials (many of whom are nakedly misogynistic) aiming to restrict their healthcare options and bodily autonomy.  So I can understand the outrage over this seemingly silly episode of dress code enforcement.

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I'm amazed at how this has blown up, especially as a travel blog reader when I knew within about four hours that they were flight pass users who abide by other rules than paying customers.  Except for the people behind them in line who dressed their girls in dresses not knowing the full story of what was happening in front of them.

Side note flew back from HNL last week to ORD and had a couple next to me.  The woman was irate with United talking about how they were bumped a few times in the previous days and there was space on the planes etc... Damn United.  (There had been announcements that the flight was on weight restrictions from HQ and they would get as many people as they could on the flight.) (There were 50+ people on the standby list for our flight.)  It was fairly clear to me that they were on passes and thus were not "bumped" but dealing with the normal hell of going to a top vacation spot in prime season.  The man was not responding to the Damn United comments making me think he is probably either the pass hold or family of the pass holder and was trying to keep it together so as to not impact his pass privileges... 

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3 hours ago, ktmoomau said:

How can you tell people are on passes? 

I'm guessing but generally someone who is "bumped" from a paid/award Hawaiian flight would have a future flight voucher in the range of $500 since its such a long flight, plus they would have been put up in a hotel overnight.  Had they been "bumped" I'm fairly sure that she would have said something along the lines of never again for a $500, I'm never flying United again so that's worthless to me...   Now there is a chance they missed their flight and they were not "bumped" but missed the flight and thus were on standby, but again I'd expect to here some blame vocalized in that case.  Plus the fact there were 50! standby passengers made me assume that a huge number of pass flyers were trying to get on the flight.

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