On September 1, Green Day’s frontman Billie Joe Armstrong was removed from a Southwest Airlines flight because his pants were too saggy. Two months ago a football player from the University of New Mexico was also removed from a flight, this time by US Airways. With these events taking place in relatively rapid succession, the blogosphere lit up with complaints about the airlines. There are even online petitions and calls for both men to sue their respective airlines.
I view this no differently than the signs I saw as a kid walking into restaurants: “No Shirt, No Shoes, No Service.” A private company has a right to enforce a dress code on patrons.
Those calling for a lawsuit may have their trigger fingers a bit too itchy. This was by no means a restriction based on race, ethnicity, gender, etc. This was a company seeking to enforce a public dress code.
Perhaps this is a potential market opening for any of you with millions just looking for something to do with it – open an airline that allows passengers to wear their pants sagging.
While I understand these are private companies that have the right do enforce a dress code, my main goal when I fly is comfort. If they find saggy pants comfortable to fly in, what’s the big deal?
Also, I think dress codes are in place, in large part, for safety reasons; for instance, not wearing shoes and shirts in a restaurant is unsanitary. If these flyers made it through TSA, enforcing a dress code doesn’t seem to serve a purpose, and enforcement could become way too subjective.
I can’t believe that, that’s discrimination anywhere in the world.
Greetings from Chile
Some dress codes go without a need to be posted. Saggy pants that allow me to see more than I need to are clearly offensive to some patrons and thus, the airline is within its right to say: “hey, not on my ship”. There is something common sense here that too many seem to want to forget for their own selfish reasons. So, ok…saggy pants are fine…let us say…then, if I am an incredibly big person, can I wear a super miniskirt. In the end, it does not matter. It is private property and as such, the airline is within its right to impose dress codes.
I remember when we were growing up people got dressed up to take a plane.
Huh, there was a comment on here I agreed with – basically that if there was a conspicuous message about the dress code on the ticket, the ordering website, etc., then this isn’t a problem, but the airline really needed to give clear notice of this policy.
After a reasonable duration of time searching for a dress code on the Southwest website I have found nothing. How could a prospective traveler plan for such a dress code if it is not to be found?