So to summarize my opinion/position
1) FlyingFran is completely right, our appearance affects how others perceive us, this is human nature and no amount of talking will change basic human instinct

2) While we perceive/judge others based on their appearance and our own notion of what is acceptable/unacceptable attire...it is UNPROFESSIONAL for Delta gate/ticket agents to TREAT people differently based on these perceptions/judgements[/QUOTE]


Per the above post, Doc, your about half right and the other half....you know, IMO.

As an aging hippy who manned the barricades in his youth, and forswore the superficiality of outward appearance, I still don't see how it would, or should, kill you to add a buttoned or collared shirt to your khaki's when flying. Especially if, as seems apparent, being treated as due your station is of current concern (or not being so treated is apparently grating to you).

As now a practicing attorney who travels for both business and pleasure, near and far, I tend to do it this way: if I'm jumping on a Horizon shuttle for a < 1 hour something flight for a weekend goof off or sports event, I just might wear shorts and a T, or a hoody and my team's logo cap, because, who cares?

If I'm embarking on a transcontinental or transpacific flight and am booked in coach plus, or business, or better class, then I dress smartly and find it pays off more often than not in how I'm treated in everything from overlooked excess baggage weight, early shot at released blocked seats, upgrade op's, getting the whole can of beverage during service, and more check backs from the FA's, and the like.

I think you can just take your choice: dress down, but don't complain when you get normal, not extra service! (And that's how I read your post: you were not getting poor service, just not much above and beyond that required).

Are you confusing me with the OP (original poster)? You quoted me but then claim "that's how I read your post: you were not getting...."

If you go back and read the very first post by the original poster he doesn't make reference to not getting "extra service"...

He makes reference to once being questioned about his title/qualification as a doctor and he makes reference to be talked down to....

Delta is providing a service to a paying customer. The quality of that service should NOT be a function of what the employee thinks of the attire of the customer. If it is, the employee is being UNPROFESSIONAL...

I keep harping on this because this is one of the STRENGTH's of our society and of our business culture.

And honestly I am really dismayed by a lot of the responses in this thread...the whole logic that one has to dress a part to expect to be treated fairly is the same logic that if a woman goes out at night by herself and is dressed "improperly" than she deserves to be assaulted...and she should have known better...

Which is why in the very same post that you quoted I said:

My point, which I've made several times now...is that it is UNPROFESSIONAL for a Delta employee to treat a paying customer poorly based solely on that employee's opinion of the customer's appearance.

Dress-code threads always manage to highlight the generational gap that exists today.

And nobody is disagreeing with this concept...however the word you are omitting in the above statement is "SOCIAL" before the world norm.

Violate a social norm and you tend to get treated accordingly. However we are discussing a BUSINESS norm and in discussing a BUSINESS norm the setting is key.

If you go to a business interview dressed as a slob, it will hurt your chances of getting the job. But here you are the one applying for a job.

But once you are a PAYING customer who is PAYING for a good or service, it is considered UNPROFESSIONAL for the quality of that good or service to be a function of how the employee feels about your appearance.

Even at McDonald's you would never accept a situation where you place your order and the cook comes out, takes a look at you, and decides if you get a fresh burger or an old dry burger or a burnt crispy burger based on your appearance.

clothes make the man
 

An unfortunate but true reflection of humans nature and psychology, that as Mark Twain put it - "Clothes do make the man"

At the check in desk, your only interacting with the person at the counter for a minute an extremely brief period of both your lives , your the one thousandth person they've seen today. And in spite of all the training to be fare and treat every passenger the same, no one can suppress our natural instinct to make a judgement/assumption about you within the first 2 seconds of seeing you.

what about the other "normal" customers?
 

Even at McDonald's you would never accept a situation where you place your order and the cook comes out, takes a look at you, and decides if you get a fresh burger or an old dry burger or a burnt crispy burger based on your appearance.[/QUOTE]

Enjoy your comments Burj, and do agree. But I think the plight of other customers also needs to be considered. If I own an establishment/business that prides itself on decorum, peaceful environment and first class service (e.g. business class, airport lounges). Then I owe it to all my paying customers who are well dressed and well behaved to not allow anyone who is inappropriate dressed or ill behaved from entering the premises.

Nobody is expecting people to suppress their natural instinct to make a judgement/assumption...BUT if it is your JOB to provide a service you had better not ACT on those instincts, because if you do that would be very UNPROFESSIONAL.

Agree, it would be unprofessional, unfortunately not always unavoidable

Oh I agree with this principle...that is the reason that a lot of stores/restaurants have a "No shirt, No shoes, NO SERVICE" policy...

This isn't the situation in this case... And even given your example, there is a difference between refusing service based on some universal criteria applied EQUALLY to all people...and providing bad service or varying service based on some ambiguous notion by individual employees as what is, or is not, appropriate.

So while a fine restaurant can refuse you entry if you are not dressed to their criteria (jacket and tie for instance)....if you meet that criteria and they seat you...it would be unprofessional for the waiter to be rude to you because your tie is not 100% silk and your jacket is from Sears and Saville Row

(bold but not uppercase this time!)

and I hope they never do...
 

And I hope that never changes... the number of times I've shown up the check-in counter or airport lounge at 5am, straight from whichever bar/club I was last to leave, still a bit inebriated, in need of a shower and yet still been welcomed with open arms :)

Yes very true.... I think this thread just really made me realize that in a lot of ways we, the customers in the U.S., are partially to blame for the crappy service provided by the airlines, because we ACCEPT it....

When we see it happen we don't challenge or question it, but instead blame ourselves for not being "rich enough" or "dressed well enough" or not being "elite enough" to merit polite and competent service...

I was not confusing Burj with OP, and still thinking both Burj and OP were both half correct.

I did go back to review the Good Doctor's original post, and the only specific mentioned was once being "questioned" if he was really a doctor; other than that, the complaint was that he was "treated....[like]...a little a kid", which provides little information on just how these TA's failed to offer him professional service.

While I am not a psychologist (although I was a practicing Licensed Clinical Social Worker for a decade before becoming an attorney, too long ago to remember), there was something about the post's lack of detail of the complained of mistreatment that led me to wonder if there was a hypersensitivity on the pax's part about being slighted.

If that were possibly the case, perhaps the TA's comment about "really being a doctor" was a good natured, but poorly received attempt to engage? As in, "but you're so young to be so accomplished!" None of us, not being there, shall ever know, of course; and I'm the thoughtful posters who point out that "dress standards" threads inevitably reveal some generational divides are right on. But perhaps those divides reveal not only simply the differences of age, but sometimes, accumulated experience and wisdom?

Happy flights and cheers to all! Alibi13Us

female point of view..
 

Well, I'm 29 and I just love beeing well dressed and I prefere beeing next to somebody on the airplane(the age issue: preferably young) and no wonder: well dressed and not showing off his PDH. I have one by my own but I do never tell. (Ok, right now it's different :) )

Would this be the same accumulated experience and wisdom that said that generations of blacks in America couldn't eat at the same restaurants as whites or sit in the front of the bus because their "appearance was improper"?

Or would this be the same experience and wisdom that made any "middle eastern types" automatically subject to suspicion and extra scrutiny because their appearance was not to some airport/airline employees liking?