If you somehow missed this particular controversy, multiple girls in Denver were prevented from boarding United flights due to what a gate agent deemed inappropriate attire.
This was broken by Shannon Watts, who saw it firsthand:
1) A @united gate agent isn't letting girls in leggings get on flight from Denver to Minneapolis because spandex is not allowed?
— Shannon Watts (@shannonrwatts) March 26, 2017
2) She's forcing them to change or put dresses on over leggings or they can't board. Since when does @united police women's clothing?
— Shannon Watts (@shannonrwatts) March 26, 2017
From the New York Times recap:
Jonathan Guerin, a spokesman for United, confirmed that two teenage girls were told they could not board a flight from Denver to Minneapolis because their leggings violated the company’s dress code policy for “pass travelers,” a company benefit that allows United employees and their dependents to travel for free on a standby basis.
Mr. Guerin said pass travelers are “representing” the company and as such are not allowed to wear Lycra and spandex leggings, tattered or ripped jeans, midriff shirts, flip-flops or any article of clothing that shows their undergarments.
“It’s not that we want our standby travelers to come in wearing a suit and tie or that sort of thing,” he said. “We want people to be comfortable when they travel as long as it’s neat and in good taste for that environment.”
United is hanging quite a bit of their response on the difference between the dress code for regular passengers and the dress code for “pass travelers”, which is apparently stricter. They mounted that defense most of the day on Twitter, dueling with celebrities and regular people alike:
https://twitter.com/PattyArquette/status/846051081067028480
https://twitter.com/chrissyteigen/status/846066710171926529
United, perhaps realizing that though everyone hates pretty much every airline, being the most hated airline is not a good idea, made one final bid at damage control:
To our customers…your leggings are welcome! Learn more about our company’s pass travel privilege: https://t.co/5e3euG1H9G.
— United Airlines (@united) March 27, 2017
Which once again spectacularly misses the point! People don’t care whether or not the women involved were ordinary paying customers. They care that a company is more than fine with a policy that empowers a gate agent to look at young teenagers and a 10-year-old girl wearing wholly appropriate public attire and unilaterally declare them unfit to get on a plane.
That’s a real problem! Especially when an adult man wearing the adult man equivalent of yoga pants, mid-thigh length shorts, was apparently not found to be in violation of the policy.
I’ve spent plenty of time hanging around United gates at the Denver International Airport. It’s not a very fun place to be, and I wouldn’t wish extended time there upon anyone, least of all women being told their clothing isn’t up to standard. Gate agents as a whole have just bit too much authority; I once saw one threaten to keep a guy from ever flying his airline again if he continued to film what had been an already over-the-top shouting rant.
But this is just silly. Whatever the dress code for pass travelers might be (United refuses to release it, but it sounds hopelessly outdated) being rigid to the point of preventing a child from boarding in leggings is pure stupidity. The gate agent, the social media response, and then the official corporate response have all done a much greater disservice to United’s reputation than three girls in activewear could ever dream to.
