As the mercury climbed over 100 on Labor Day, I called Southwest Airlines with a not entirely hypothetical question:
Could a young woman board a flight to Tucson today wearing a bikini top?
Angelique, the agent who took my call, assured me that a young woman could.
“We don't have a problem with it if she's covered up in all the right spots,” she said. “We don't have a dress code.”
Tell that to Kyla Ebbert, who was escorted off a Southwest Airlines flight two months ago for wearing an outfit far less revealing than a bikini top
Full story and picture of Miss Ebbert's "inappropriate" outfit here.
What are everyone else's thought's on this? Personally as a single bloke in his twenties I can assure you that I don't any problem with it but I can understand why others would.
I have to ask where the line gets drawn? Personally I find Burberry caps, football shirts, shell suit trousers and white trainers offensive but I'd never try and stand in the way of someone's right to look stupid in public.
My wings are like a shield of steel.
Batfink:What are everyone else's thought's on this?
Didn't the Southworst crew uniform used to consist of hotpants and a figure-hugging top for the ladies? Hmmmm Pot, kettle, black?
Personally, I wouldn't have a problem with it. In fact, Miss Ebbert appears to be quite cute..... Sitting next to that for a couple of hours would be more preferrable than sitting next to some idiot with a cell phone attatched to the side of their head. Or a chav for that matter.
Titch
Vidi, Vici, Veni. I saw, I conquered, I came.
she's a fox. this is an outrage.
That skirt is seriously short so though. Prob looks a lot raunchier when she's not leaning forward and isn't hiding it with her hands.
I was expecting a comment along the lines of "Well, if they won't give her a seat then she can sit on my lap" but it never happened. Well done guys, you're a classier bunch than I gave you credit for.
how about this then? Good old HootersAir
I love the expression on the face of the guy on the right, he's just realised he's been caught on film about three feet from the backside of an attractive, scantily clad young lady and the only thought going through his mind (Whilst trying not to spit his drink out in shock) is "I hope my wife doesn't see this!".
I don't know what she was thinking. Those shoes are disgusting!
What would happen to her breasts if the cabin decompressed?
This thread reminds me of a story from a way back:
"A British Airways Air hostess set the pulses of Italian baggage handlers racing when she stripped down to her underwear and ran around a Boeing 737 at Genoa airport.
The attractive 23-year-old brunette, waiting to recrew an incoming plane, had bet a colleague that she would perform a half-strip if the BA flight arrived early. She amazed passengers and baggage-handlers by walking down the aircraft steps dressed only in shoes, knickers, a loose-fitting safety-waistcoat and cap.
The BA Air hostess then sprinted around the length of the jet "smiling and wiggling" according to onlookers, before re-boarding. The captain on the Sunday flight to Genoa's Christopher Colombus airport reportedly knewof the bet and made every effort to fly in ahead of schedule, taking advantage of good wind conditions."
V. amusing.
Here's the full story that Batfink linked too:
Thursday, September 6, 2007Southwest fashion police set no-fly zone By Gerry BraunThe San Diego (IL) Union-TribuneA Southwest employee asked Kyla Ebbert, wearing this outfit, to change or leave the plane. As the mercury climbed over 100 on Labor Day, I called Southwest Airlines with a not entirely hypothetical question: Could a young woman board a flight to Tucson today wearing a bikini top? Angelique, the agent who took my call, assured me that a young woman could. “We don't have a problem with it if she's covered up in all the right spots,” she said. “We don't have a dress code.” Tell that to Kyla Ebbert, who was escorted off a Southwest Airlines flight two months ago for wearing an outfit far less revealing than a bikini top. Ebbert, a Mesa College student and Hooters waitress, was allowed to stay on the plane, but only after she put up a fight and, she says, was lectured on how to dress properly. I don't know about you, but one of my big gripes with the airlines is that they just don't take the time to dispense fashion advice any more. Southwest explained its treatment of Ebbert in a letter to her mother, saying it could remove any passenger “whose clothing is lewd, obscene or patently offensive” to ensure the comfort of children and “adults with heightened sensitivities.” Ebbert, 23, says she was judged unfairly by the airline and humiliated by the experience. Who wouldn't be? She had a doctor's appointment that afternoon in Tucson, where temperatures had topped 106 all week. She arrived at Lindbergh Field wearing a white denim miniskirt, high-heel sandals, and a turquoise summer sweater over a tank top over a bra. After the plane filled, and the flight attendants began their safety spiel, Ebbert was asked to step off the plane by a customer service supervisor, identified by the airline only as “Keith.” They walked out onto the jet bridge, where Keith told Ebbert her clothing was inappropriate and asked her to change. She explained she was flying to Tucson for only a few hours and had brought no luggage. “I asked him what part of my outfit was offensive,” she said. “The shirt? The skirt? And he said, 'The whole thing.' ” Keith asked her to go home, change and take a later flight. She refused, citing her appointment. The plane was ready to leave, so Keith relented. He had her pull up her tank top a bit, pull down her skirt a bit, and return to her seat. Ebbert says several flight attendants overheard the conversation and, after an embarrassing walk down the aisle, she took her seat and spread a blanket over her lap. She kept her composure until the plane landed, when she called her mother and broke down. She took a photo of herself with her cell phone so her mother could see her clothes. That's when mom became livid. “My daughter is young, tall, blond and beautiful,” Michele Ebbert told me, “and she is both envied and complimented on her appearance. She dresses provocatively, as do 99 percent of 23-year-old girls who can. But they were out of line.” Who knows where the lines are drawn these days, particularly when it comes to dress? If you watch television, or visit the mall, or take in a game at Petco Park, you'll see women dressed in ways that, 50 years ago, were pornographic. Today they are stylish. A Supreme Court justice famously could not define “obscene,” and declaring a thing “lewd” imputes motive. Did Kyla Ebbert intend to excite sexual desire on that flight to Tucson? I doubt it, just as I doubt that flight attendants are proper judges of such matters. But neither am I. So when I arranged to see Ebbert in the notorious outfit, I brought along my fashion advisers, writer Nina Garin and photojournalist Crissy Pascual, who for years collaborated on a feature in this newspaper called “Seen on the Street.” The three of us met Ebbert and her mother for lunch at Nordstrom Cafe. Ebbert, who is 5-foot-5 and has green eyes, is pretty enough to be a model. Yet even wearing the clothes that scandalized Southwest, she did not attract attention beyond some lingering glances. My fashion advisers were baffled, saying they saw nothing you don't see on a college campus or in Pacific Beach. “I was expecting to be shocked, and I was shocked the other way,” Pascual told me. “It wasn't a big deal,” Garin said. “Her skirt was a bit short, which was only accented by her heels. If she had been wearing flip-flops it wouldn't have mattered.” Garin wondered if a jealous woman may have complained about Ebbert's outfit. I asked her what she would have said had she been on the plane. “ 'I hope she's not sitting next to my husband,' ” Garin replied. “She's pretty. She wears her clothes well. But I wouldn't complain about it.” Pascual detected sexism in the way Ebbert was treated, wondering if a man would have been asked to change clothes. Do men dress inappropriately? “I see butt cracks, a lot of butt cracks,” she said. In its letter, Southwest said “there were concerns about the revealing nature of her outfit.” I called Hollye Chacón, the Southwest customer relations representative who wrote the letter, to see if we were talking about the same outfit. “What exactly was being revealed?” I asked. She said yesterday she'd call back, but never did. That's pretty revealing in itself.
Batfink:I was expecting a comment along the lines of "Well, if they won't give her a seat then she can sit on my lap" but it never happened. Well done guys, you're a classier bunch than I gave you credit for.
Victor:What a rack!
I think Victor has just blown your theory out of the water there, Batfink......
But, yeah - she could sit on my lap any time of the day. Ha ha.
I know Victor in the real world (As opposed to the online one) so I can't really say I'm surprised. Subtlety is most certainly not his stong point.
Batfink:I know Victor in the real world (As opposed to the online one)
You mean that Airspace isn't part of the real world? Damn, there goes my whole belief system......
Ermmm ... perhaps Southwest had a point.
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=1411029
Miss Ebbert's roots are growing through & the very least she could have done is to colour match her eyebrows the combination of the fake designer bag and sullen look means this young lady is not dressed to travel anywhere other than to work in a redlight district.
Next time I visit the US assuming I don't die while waiting at immigration whose staff qualities could claim the missing link prize, Southwest will surely get my internal US flight business, if only because they don't let young ladies on their aircraft dressed like tarts.
It's interesting that not too long ago SouthWest Airlines had pilots naked in the cockpit. How is this any different? For all the noise SouthWest makes they sure are sensitive on attire.
Batfink you are letting the side down. Where is the link to the footage?
I honestly see this from both points of view. On the one hand I'm perfectly happy to have attractive, underdressed young ladies sitting next to me, on the other hand, it's SouthWest's aircraft and they can do what they want on it, it's not really any different to a nightclub having a dresscode and refusing entry to someone for wearing trainers instead of shoes.
fair enough if they publicise the fact they've got a dress code but they don't so i think it's a bit rich to then spring it on passengers as they board their flights.