Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy Urges Passengers To Dress Better — But That Won’t Fix Today’s Inflight Behavior Problems

Comments

1. You would think that a more “enlightened” society does not need to be reminded of etiquette but we are seeing the results of too much screen time and not enough really interaction with other humans

2. As soon as air travel returns to the same level of service and comfort as I remember from when I was a kid, I will dress nicely. Until then, with basic economy, reduced legroom and seat width, overhead bin free for all, forced bag check-in, snack boxes on transcontinental flights, etc, I will dress however I feel like. I don’t dress up to go to the dmv or ride the subway.

3. If an airline is going to cram me into a seat and require me to beg for water, I dress in clothes I am comfortable in.

4. Yes, the attire in the airports is atrocious these days. I fly often enough to cringe at the outfits that I have seen. I just do not understand the pajamas and the shower caps that people wear. Sebastian Maniscalco does a bit on it in his comedy routines. It is soooooo true!!!!!

5. Wow, you literally twisted what Sean Duffy had posted, just to make a click-baity headline. Here’s what he said:

   ✅Be courteous to your fellow passengers
   ✅Say please and thank you to your flight crews
   ✅Dress with respect
   ✅Lend a hand to those who could use it

   It’s time to bring back civility and respect when we travel.

   Clearly, Sean was indicating that all four of these were components to “bring back civility and respect when we travel”, which is correct. Notably, he did not signify a respective weighting between the four. For sure the other three are more important, but dressing without respect has proven to incite bad behavior between passengers, so including it was reasonable. Sean was not talking about suit & tie vs jeans, he was talking about provocative messaging, which is another thing that you had twisted. I’m 100 % aligned with you on travel issues, Gary, not so much when you wander into politics.

6. Look at the demographic of those dressing like trash…tells me all I need to know

7. Spirit and Frontier going out of business would help. I have airport/airplanes meltdowns daily in my YT feed and 80%+ of them are related to the ULCC customer. They may be entertaining, better than anything Hollywood can put out, by people acting like feral animals in public is troubling for society.

8. There could be a lot of reasons. More stress in the economy, a president who can’t control his emotions of fear and anger and encourages others to act out, or maybe just a general coarsening of society. Until recently I substituted in the junior high schools where my kids went. The difference in a generation was striking, with many of the kids flat out rude, unable to sit still and not in the habit of listening to what they are told to do. Not all of them, you could tell who had parents who paid attention at home and expected them to get work done, but a lot. Overuse of phones was part of this as their attention spans were low, but I don’t think that’s all. If this was typical of other schools then when they grow up I don’t see how we can have a functioning democratic society.

9. Of everything going on in the world today, even just in the US alone, pitching a minor grievance over something as this is rather comical. I don’t think anyone sees this as Duffy trying to dole out enforceable dress requirements for airtravel but it does certainly plant some good potential ideas for bettering the in-fight experience. It makes sense that if more people would consider ‘dressing up’ when flying, perhaps there would be fewer arguments and physical altercations. Who really wants to throw down in a shirt and tie? And, in considering all those videos of flying in years past, those in which many of us recall better times when we did dress for flying, or for dinner, or for many other occasions that we no longer do, perhaps it would be a start at bringing back some of those better times of past – those that we look back upon and recall how much more respect we had for ourselves and for one another. This sounds very positive to me.

   I don’t know if this has changed but back in my days with the airlines, anytime that we flew non-rev, whether first class or squeezed into the far back row middle seat, we were required to dress in shirt and tie to fly as employees. Non-employees and revenue passengers had no idea that we worked for the airline but the airline certainly wanted to maintain a particularly positive image, one not too far from what Duffy might be hinting at : a society of self-respecting flyers that recognize appropriate times in which decorum is most welcome & appreciated.

   We aren’t talking about leftists and their imposing upon others the requirement to wear ineffective and frankly, harmful and a real risk to health, face masks that were never designed to stop viruses (in fact specifically designed NOT to block viruses). We are talking about Duffy, a conservative Republican, who may make suggestions but would never dream of imposing or mandating those suggestions upon anyone. They are only suggestions. Take them or leave them. But, if ever we are to find our ways back to the good days of airtravel as in the early days on Pan Am, we have to start somewhere. I am all for elevating the flight experience, leaving the days of Walmart shoppers in pajamas and people wearing pajamas outside of their homes at all, ever, for any reason whatsoever, which I personally deem to be amongst some of the lowest of all things in dress & fashion. I think that we all mostly can agree that, as a society, we have really slipped into many very low places as a society and culture. However futile it may be, I take no issue with anyone who extolls the value of those good practices and of years past. As I said, take it or leave it. To those whom it benefits, take all you can. To those who take no beneft, leave it. There are many for whom these very basic suggestions will spark new and innovative ideas for personal growth & development, specifically, the younger, upcoming generations.

10. @ Gary — Let’s all act like a cruel narcissistic maniac, like our Dear Leader, and everything will be great again!

11. @joe – 100% correct

    Gary, please consider adding a NSFYE (not safe for your eyes) warning before posting photos such as Jabba The Hutchess at the counter in Miami.

12. I really don’t think “Dress respectful” means the young people should not wear “baggy” pants.
    Maybe he thought of busty women wearing skimpy bikinis – or 400lb guys wearing nothing but speedos and flip flops ….or MAGA attire and other cult insignia.

13. Misbehavior is an individual problem; to extend that to a group is prejudice; to act on those prejudices is discrimination.

    Yeah, Secretary Duffy may have said ‘the right thing’ here, @TexasTJ, and the former Secretary Buttigieg similarly called for civility, yet, I doubt folks like yourself agreed with him then, because of ‘who’ he is. So, such statements like this solve very little, and the inclusion of ‘dress’ (among other things) is kind of a ‘dog whistle.’ Likewise, @Gary Leff purposely included the suggestive images that he did, because he had to know that it would lead to vile comments like @Larry Hyatt and others.

    All of this is yet another ‘culture war’ distraction from all the real problems with corruption, economic disparity, lack of affordability, no new jobs, and a failure to invest in people, technology, and infrastructure, all of which is what the DOT (and this government) should be focused on.

14. Free wi-fi is the next battleground for disrespectful passenger behavior. Thank you for over-the-ear noise cancelling headphones.

15. For those looking for a ‘blast from the past,’ see Gary’s post on May 31, 2021:

    https://viewfromthewing.com/pete-buttigieg-argues-mask-mandates-must-stay-government-must-require-respect/

    Interesting to see who was ‘active’ on the site, then (and still today). @joe (are you the same @Joe as back then?) @derek, @GUWonder, @Boraxo, don’t Gary (and Secretary Duffy) recent comments seem a bit hypocritical?

    Basically, all I see is mostly partisans supporting their respective sides; yet, there some issues, like health and safety, should never be politicized or made partisan, like they unfortunately were.

    Under the circumstances of 2021, without widespread vaccinations from the deadly novel virus, yeah, masking in confined spaces made sense; not so much today. That such temporary rules lead to literal violence between passengers and flight crews is still deeply saddening.

16. It’s the rise of the Karen’s!

17. I would say that those people who dress like they’re going to the beach are unaware of what a miasma of filth and bacteria airplanes are. Not to mention how cold planes can get. I wouldn’t want my bare flesh in contact with any surface that hasn’t been properly cleaned in God knows how long. And those ladies at the check in counter are going to be pretty miserable once the AC kicks in.

18. LOL. Look at your own boss before talking about decency and civility.

19. @1990 – I re-read that thread and find my comments (and criticisms of Secretary Duffy) to be pretty consistent tbh

20. @ Texas TJ — We can all wear our “Impeach the Pedophile” shirts.

21. @Gary Leff — And, I re-read it, too, Gary. You are indeed fairly consistent (your ‘inner libertarian cringe’d then, too). However, it was a different time and wildly different circumstances. #45’s unnecessary and harmful politicization of ‘masks’ and the subsequent ‘misbehavior’ due to that particular issue is quite different than the typical misbehavior (dress codes or lack thereof, drunkenness, fights, debauchery, etc.), before and since the pandemic-era. Other societies that already used masks (like E. Asia) did not have such ‘fights’ over temporary rules (rather than social norms). Wish we could learn from all this, rather than engage in the ‘collective amnesia’ we currently are doing (forget about the pandemic as quickly as possible!), only likely to repeat the same mistakes in the future.

22. @Gene — Did you catch how @TexasTJ tried the ‘no politics’ plea above?

    Reminds me of that scene from Don’t Look Up (2021) when Jennifer Lawrence’s character (scientist who discovers a comet headed for Earth) visits her propaganda-news-watching parents, and the dad is like: “No politics. None.” And the mom is like: “Your Dad and I are for the jobs the comet will provide.” The dad continues: “The divisions in this country is bad enough. We don’t want more of it in our house.” *the comet kills everyone*