A woman on board American Airlines flight 2962 from Charlotte to Des Moines says she was told she had to cover up while breastfeeding her 5 month old daughter as ‘common courtesy’ when men or children are around.

The mom explains that he daughter is happy breastfeeding as long as her head is not covered. When she did that on this flight, she was tapped on her shoulder and told that men and children were around, and this wasn’t acceptable.

But, she says, it’s not as if her nipple was showing – less of her breast, even, than if she were wearing a going out top and certainly less than a swimsuit on the beach. And here she was feeding her daughter.

Mid-flight, a flight attendant tapped my shoulder. She said that I “needed to cover up” because “there were men and children around.” My daughter was fully latched and had been the entire flight, so there was no nipple or even areola showing. The top of my breast was showing, but…I mean, I used to show more cleavage on a weekend night out. Swimsuits show more.

I explained, of course, that my daughter won’t eat or sleep while covered, and was told this didn’t matter. I still needed to cover up. When I asked if this was an American Airlines policy, I was told it was “common courtesy.” That’s the phrase this woman kept repeating. “Common courtesy.”

It was the same phrase two other flight attendants repeated later on when I asked them about it.

When the woman complied and covered her baby, she woke up and “cried for the final 45 minutes of the flight.” Common courtesy, it seems to me, is that when a baby is happy on an airplane you let ride whatever is making them happy! Surely the other passengers would have been better off if the mom had continued breastfeeding.

And the comment about “men and children” upset the mom most, shaming her for caring for her baby. The crewmember (and parent that she was told complained) were putting their preferences over her and her baby’s needs.

Hey, @AmericanAir, nursing mother here. Can you tell me why, while I breastfed my infant yesterday on flight AA2962 from Des Moines to Charlotte, I was told by 3 flight attendants that it was “common courtesy to cover up when men and children are around”?

— Sarah.Jean (@SarahJean133579) July 12, 2023

American responded, asking the woman to take it to direct message (brands like to keep negative stories out of public view) and here was the carrier’s response:

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And here was the airline’s written response:

Comment
by u/letmefeedmybaby from discussion American Airlines: “it’s common courtesy to cover up when men and children are around”
in breastfeeding

It clearly is not airline policy to require a woman to ‘cover up’ while breastfeeding. That was the instruction from a flight attendant, taking it on their own initiative. There’s very little service training, and very little recurrent training, that cabin crew go through and you often see crew (1) not performing the service that they’re supposed to, while (2) freelancing their own sense of right and wrong in the cabin.

The airline’s agents, for instance, are asked to interpret the carrier’s dress policy on their own and with little guidance. Last year they insisted a former Miss America cover up in order to fly and when masks were required on board a passenger was kicked off for an F-cancer mask. In the latter case the airline apologized, but the plain language of their dress code seemed to suggest they’d been right to do so. It’s all up to interpretation.

When issues are brought to the attention of the airline there’s little sense for what actually needs to be routed to someone in authority to write a real response versus simply offering low cost front line cut-and-paste which seems to be what we’re getting here.

(HT: Paddle Your Own Kanoo)