If you hopped on Twitter yesterday and saw United trending, you might’ve thought, “Great, another airline I’m going to have to stop flying.” But before you jump to conclusions, it seems special circumstances were involved in United’s decision to block two teenage girls wearing leggings from boarding a flight to Minneapolis yesterday.
The young passengers weren’t your everyday customers, they were “pass riders” — relatives or friends of United employees allowed to fly at discounted rates — and as such they are required to follow the airline’s dress code when flying which, apparently, does not include leggings.
Despite the explanations being tweeted from United’s Twitter handle during the debacle, celebs and citizens alike dragged the airline for their “policing” of women’s clothes which, understandably, was deemed sexist. Today, United put out a formal statement on the incident, attempting to assure its regular customers their leggings are all good, but it might not be enough for the airline to recover from yesterday’s mishap. What do you think?
Let us take a moment to explain today’s news:
We care about the way we present ourselves to you, our customers, as we believe that is part of the experience on board our flights. One of the benefits of working for an airline is that our employees are able to travel the world. Even better, they can extend this privilege to a select number of what we call “pass riders.” These are relatives or friends who also receive the benefit of free or heavily discounted air travel – on our airline as well as on airlines around the world where we have mutual agreements in place for employees and pass riders.
When taking advantage of this benefit, all employees and pass riders are considered representatives of United. And like most companies, we have a dress code that we ask employees and pass riders to follow. The passengers this morning were United pass riders and not in compliance with our dress code for company benefit travel. We regularly remind our employees that when they place a family member or friend on a flight for free as a standby passenger, they need to follow our dress code.
To our regular customers, your leggings are welcome.
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