Hipplewm

I let my kids wear crocs until age 5, after that it was shoes with laces
They wear a nice dress or pants with a collared shirt.

I remember getting on a plane with a jacket and tie, no matter what. I get that people are more relaxed now, but relaxed and downright awful is a thin line anymore.

Nazdoom

Agreed. Outside the FF and industry realm, few leisure travelers would understand what was actually happening if they overhear a pax being told to change her leggings to be allowed to board. As I understand it in this case, the person to first report it to social media was someone overhearing it, not the pax involved.

Whenever GAs invoke this policy at the gate and other pax overhear, similar misunderstandings can also happen. It's great that UA wants its employees to look professional when traveling on employee benefits. But if it costs them undue confusion and bad press from the general public, it's probably not worth it. As someone who flies in J frequently but dresses terribly, if I overheard GAs criticizing someone's non-offensive/non-lewd clothing, I'd probably avoid UA.

I'm not sure I understand the hostility against the pax either. A 10 year old didn't know the esoteric rules about a dress code when flying on mommy/daddy's benefits? I promise you the average 40 year old can't tell you what non-rev means, let alone about what is OK under UA's dress code for non-rev.

I'd file this one under "how to needlessly turn something mundane into a PR fail" for UA's role.

WIRunner

United's best move at this point would just be to respond to the press inquiries, explaining what these tickets are, and why the dress code exists. They're not doing much to manage this. Either that they just need to let this all blow over. The current news cycle is really dominated by the Trump administration, there's not much else going on that's being reported.

That all being said, I'm in the camp of "leggings and yoga pants are meant to be worn under something (And sweatpants aren't meant for public wear.)" Airplanes are cold, and tight fitting synthetics are never a good idea to fly in. I will admit I only know a few people who have kids in this age range, and they all have clothing that is beyond leggings but not Easter Sunday church wear.

This really is a case of someone sticking their nose where it didn't belong, the original tweeter was just a bystander.

eigenvector

You mean someone started a controversy on social media over something that's not even their business to begin with? I'm shocked.

woodford02A

UA's handling of this on a public forum (Twitter) shows what an amateur operation that company can be sometimes.

EWR764

and also the downside to the practice of virtually instantaneous replies to each and every single social media inquiry in the name of "responsiveness".

zombietooth

And what's with this "The Boy Who Cried Wolf" syndrome that has infected the media, where literally everyone but "the man" is a victim as a result of the smallest perceived slight or micro aggression? Is it possible to write a news (not that this was news) story these days that is neutral? -I think not.

The girl didn't suffer, she was minimally inconvenienced.

Society is collapsing, I fear.

grapegrower

Good on United!
What some people wear on planes today can be pretty off putting.
They should wear a sign that says "My mother let me dress myself this morning".

WIRunner

To be fair, the best workers probably aren't working on a Sunday morning.

RumPatrol

To be fair, it was only because of a third party tweeting about it that this became an issue at all. Gotta fight where the battles are. Of course, in true UA fashion, they completely botched it initially.

The other issue is that you have headlines like this one, from the Chicago Tribune's twitter: "A United Airlines gate agent barred two girls from boarding a flight because they were wearing leggings." The headline by itself gets all the attention, few people actually open the link to the article and even if they did, the article itself doesn't mention they were non-revs on a pass until the last paragraph.

That's the hometown paper of a Chicago based company too. If you just google United Airlines, you get this immediately:



The concept of a non-rev is completely foreign to most people so even *if* United handled it perfectly from the start by saying non-revenue passengers are expected to follow a certain code of conduct as part of the agreement, few would actually understand.

The whole thing was a non-story that went supernova because of an overzealous third party, United Airlines' normal incompetence and then the news running with it.

Loren Pechtel

Nah, there's a lot more range to "non-prudish".

rjque

Indeed. I see more men in ill fitting suits / sport coats on airlines than just about anywhere else.

jspira

If the employee or a family member had posted the "news" on Twitter or FB or any public forum, then yes - but in this case it was a third party who created much ado about nothing.

BullishGS

Dont we all just love the Media?

They were traveling on whats called a "pass" or non-rev/zed ticket. These tickets have extended restrictions placed on them since travelers using them are employees or thier families. They fly as a representing face of an airline. Every airline has some type of rule pertaining to Dress Code when flying with a "Pass".

Visit: http://www.flyzed.info/UA
UA's rules are similar if not identical to other airlines for non-rev/zed passengers:

"Dress code

Pass riders’ overall appearance should be well-groomed, neat, clean and in good taste.
Attire should be respectful of fellow revenue passengers, employees and pass riders.
Pass riders may wear denim attire (such as jeans), shorts that are no more than three inches above the knee and athletic shoes when traveling in Coach or Business cabin.
The following attire is unacceptable in any cabin but is not limited to:

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"

The rules explicitly states lists "Form-fitting lycra/spandex tops, pants and dresses" as one of the restrictions.

NeedstoFly

I have several reactions to this:

1) the dress code, even for non revs, is a bit nuts for a 10 yr old girl. UA should update.
2) UA Twitter account handling of this has been a disaster.
3) the UA employee who's buddy passes these are needs to be given a stern talking to. This just shouldn't happen at a gate.