American Airlines Forces Two Women To Change Into More Revealing Clothes In Order To Fly

by Gary Leff

Two comedians wrapped up performing in Las Vegas and were headed to Dallas on American Airlines. They report being forced to change their clothes at the gate because staff claimed what they were wearing was too revealing. They were mortified, they say, that they were stuck changing in front of everyone. And what they changed into – which the airline accepting – was even more revealing!

Here’s how Keanu Thompson and Chrissie Mayr were dressed heading to the airport.

When they got to the gate they were told their clothes were too revealing to fly. Since it was “minutes before” departure, they didn’t have time to go to the restroom to change. If they didn’t want the door to be closed they’d have to change on the spot – in front of everyone. One of the women noted, “Not all of us wear underwear.”

The other comedian calls herself a loyal American Airlines customer, and was surprised that her airline would make her change into something she says was even more revealing.

This is the part of the whole thing that struck me. Sometimes you get frequent flyers who log a lot of miles with an airline expecting better treatment. This woman’s “don’t you know who I am” moment is that she has an American Airlines credit card! Although that points to the danger of co-brand cards: when you get mad at the brand, your only real recourse is to cancel your card. The two brands get tied together, and airlines aren’t always thought of as favorably as banks even.

They’re comedians, it’s not surprised their attire was a little over the top for American Airlines (intentionally?). But this is a flight departing Las Vegas. Just as Miami attire is often a bit different, you have to think that this is just a… Las Vegas flight?

American’s policy on passenger attire says “Dress appropriately; bare feet or offensive clothing aren’t allowed.” They want a policy so they can enforce it in egregious cases, but it’s more or less left to the discretion of frontline employees to figure out what it means. Does her outfit seem to violate the policy?

So we see them deny boarding to a Turkish fitness model and to a former Miss Universe. The problem is American really doesn’t have consistent standards on this so each gate agent uses their judgment, which varies.

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

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Comments

  1. If this is the route the airline is taking (they shouldn’t…) they should consider barring male customers from wearing the too short shorts that have regrettably returned to fashion. Blech.

  2. Pair of trashy LOOK AT MEs got what they wanted…attention.

    I’m sure Keanu will get lots of traffic on her Onlyfans page noted in her Twitter account

  3. Las Vegas “entertainers”, is that what they call them now? Barely dressed and embarrassed to change in public? I would of been embarrassed to show up in those outfits.

  5. The slits go a little bit higher than the shorts but so what? The only thing I see offensive is them being made to change.

  8. Silliness. I’m not saying anything goes, but if it works in other public settings like a mall, movie theater or fast food restaurant, there’s nothing special about an airplane.

  9. The black sparkly pants were see-through. I don’t agree with policing people’s clothing, but at least now I understand the “violation”. The one in the green, no clue what they pointed to. Regardless, the shorts while seemingly covering less were not in fact see through, so covered more.

  10. Comedians racing to catch a plane in LAS VEGAS, forced to strip from waist down in public to put on clothes that cause them to be FAR LESS covered on a plane. This seems like sexual harassment and probably worse. I hope they have hired a killer attorney. @AmericanAir employees seem to enjoy these “little” bouts of sexual harassment that they habitually perform. My guess is the only way this will stop will be when someone wins a large enough lawsuit for it to be painful to the company.

  11. I fly a lot and it’s getting harder and harder to believe some of these stories. I see a lot of shit at different airports and frankly I think TSA and the airlines are scared to say or do anything. I see a lot of shirts with language that can’t be used on tv and a lot of racist stuff also and I’m not talking about MAGA hats

  12. Just dress according to what you would wear in public without raising eyebrows and you will make your flight. Start dressing or undressing in a sleazy way and expect more than questions. Slobs shouldn’t be allowed to fly either.

  13. Thanks @Scarlett Rice for the information that led me to the smoking gun:
    Not all of us wear underwear…

    One of the costumes was see through. The other had slits that reach quite high. The airline has a foolishly written policy, but the costumes could be seen by reasonable law enforcement personnel as an indication these women are soliciting. Their presentation in the first pic supports that contention.

    I do not have a moral issue with sex sold as a commodity. I do think an overcrowded airplane is not an appropriate point of sale.

  14. Yeah, I call BS on this one too.

    No one *forced* them to change in front of everyone. If they did, it was by choice…. “Miss, please change to something more appropriate.” “May I go to the nearest bathroom to change my clothes?” “Absolutely not! You must change right here in front of all of the other passengers and our male employees. And you must choose something even more revealing than you already have on.”

  15. Why is it women who do this trash look? This is not an audition for the Kitty Kat Bar. I mean come on. Now if a guy wore those outfits EVERYONE would be mad.

    GET OVER IT girls your Ma Ma did not raise you to be Show offs.

  16. @ Lisa-‘according’ to one of the women, they were the last 2 passengers to board-likely the GA wasn’t going to wait for them to walk to a bathroom to change & come back before closing the doors

  17. @Lisa:
    > No one *forced* them to change in front of everyone. If they did, it was by choice…. “Miss, please change to something more appropriate.” “May I go to the nearest bathroom to change my clothes?” “Absolutely not! You must change right here in front of all of the other passengers and our male employees. And you must choose something even more revealing than you already have on.”

    I think the issue was time–going somewhere to change would make them miss the flight.

    And this makes a lot more sense if Scarlett Rice is right–the issue was opacity, not coverage. (Not that I think it’s right even then.)

  18. It does seem true, only because it’s consistent with the fascist whim of airline employees who enjoy having control over large groups of people (making up the rules as they go). In other words, not uncommon. It is bizarre however that they were allowed on with less than before. Possibly the agent/airline realized their mistake and tried to backtrack?

    “This woman’s “don’t you know who I am” moment is that she has an American Airlines credit card!” Agree hilarious.

    With regard to having to change in front of everyone, hard to know what did/didn’t really happen unless you were there. Will be interesting to hear if there are any legal or other actions from this.

  19. Bob,

    Frankly, it’s not the TSA’s business to regulate passenger attire on behalf of an airline. Freedom of expression and what not, the TSA shouldn’t be policing passengers’ clothes just because some TSA employees don’t like the look of the clothes on people.

  20. Wow. Going by comments here the airline industry is headed for a giant #metoo moment and half of you are going to lose your jobs. Nice.

  21. @Dillon York:
    > Why is it women who do this trash look? This is not an audition for the Kitty Kat Bar. I mean come on. Now if a guy wore those outfits EVERYONE would be mad.

    > GET OVER IT girls your Ma Ma did not raise you to be Show offs.

    Note: They were comedians.
    Note: Las Vegas.

    I suspect they were dressed in their on-stage attire.

  22. Janeway, I suspect if they traveled with those outfits previously, either the gate agent didn’t notice the pants were completely see-through (which I didn’t notice from the frontal photos myself, I saw another photo from the side on Twitter that the comedian had posted). There is some discretion on the part of the GA with these issues, and while I usually think they (the GA) got it wrong, I can absolutely see why these two outfits were in violation of the rules. That said, if they were permitted to wear it on the plane, I wouldn’t have cared. I’m not in the habit of clothing-shaming other women.

  23. AA dress code: “dress appropriately.”

    Appropriately for what? Your stage act? A pool party? The beach? The weather in Las Vegas?? Sprinting to the airport so you don’t miss your flight? Check. If the question was “are you sure you want to wear that in public,” the answer was clearly “yes!”

    And whom would it hurt? All the strategic bits were covered, even if the rest of the pants were, hmm, negligible. The only danger I can see is distracting the pilot; who would not be able to see them during the actual flying, so that’s covered.

    AA gate agent: Because you’re wearing something too revealing to me and revealing is offensive, we’re going to force you to choose: either miss your flight or REMOVE YOUR ACTUAL PANTS AND REVEAL EVEN MORE THAN YOU WERE SHOWING BEFORE, THEREBY OFFENDING EVERYONE NEARBY, WHO REALLY DIDN’T GIVE A FLYING F@!! BEFORE.

    Makes no sense. Why would you make someone who is not wearing enough clothing remove even more?? Especially since they would be SITTING DOWN for the vast majority of the flight, where their attire would be INVISIBLE to most of the other far more delicate flowers aboard?

    I know from experience that ticketing and gate agents can be pretty mean to those “last to board”, who committed the cardinal sin of cutting their arrival time a little too close (or just being in the last boarding group). They can get pretty spiteful to someone who threatens their on-time departure. So what to do about it? Why, endanger the departure time even more, of course, by forcing them to stop and do *anything* besides boarding the freaking plane already.

    Nope, this one is all on the airline. I hope they get the lawsuit they deserve. And you know American wants it; just look how much their dress code didn’t cover. They’re practically begging for it.

  24. @Other Patti:
    > I know from experience that ticketing and gate agents can be pretty mean to those “last to board”, who committed the cardinal sin of cutting their arrival time a little too close (or just being in the last boarding group). They can get pretty spiteful to someone who threatens their on-time departure.

    I rather suspect you nailed it. This hasn’t made much sense (even if they are somewhat see-through you don’t see anything in the picture, thus a typical observer won’t see anything, either) but it makes a ton of sense if it’s punitive.

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