Is there really a dress code for a flight?

AT FIRST glance, this was a controversy tailor-made for the boiling outrage of social media.

United Airlines was besieged by an angry public after a gate agent refused to let two teenagers board a flight to Minneapolis at Denver International Airport on Sunday because they were wearing leggings.

The model Chrissy Teigen said she would fly topless the next time she flew United. The actor William Shatner snarked about pants he once wore on the set of Star Trek. Calls for boycotts of United flooded social media sites.

United wouldn’t back down, saying the barring was justified because gate agents could ban anyone who was not “properly clothed”. But this only fuelled the bubbling controversy.

Hours later, United issued a clarification, saying the teens and their parents had been travelling with “pass riders”, tickets given to employees or their friends at a heavily discounted rate, and that with this comes the responsibility of a dress code.

United explicitly bans “form-fitting lycra/spandex tops, pants and dresses”, along with “any attire that reveals a midriff ”, “mini skirts”, “bare feet” and many others.

Delta is far less specific, saying only this in its guide: “Just remember, Delta has a relaxed dress code for pass riders, but that doesn’t mean a sloppy appearance is acceptable.”

American Airlines says in its employee travel guide, “In general, if attire is appropriate and in good taste for our revenue customers, then it is acceptable for us as well.”

It is up typically to gate agents to decide what is appropriate for those travelling on pass riders.

But there is a reason for the strictness of United’s guidelines, a company spokesman said. They exist to take the decision out of the gate agent’s hands.

“We have guidelines like this to help our gate agents, because we don’t want to put them in this position, to have to be making judgement calls about attire,” said the spokesman, Jonathan Guerin. “That’s what the policy is about. It’s designed to help our employees do their jobs and be efficient and get people on board.”

What seemed to be lost in the social media fury was that commercial passengers are not held to the same standard, as Delta mentioned on Twitter, ribbing its competitor.

Whether this controversy will bring about a change by United remains to be seen. “We regularly review our guidelines,” Guerin said.