An influencer recently went shirtless in Emirates business class, sparking debate about what’s acceptable behavior onboard premium flights. While some have dismissed this as harmless, the issue goes beyond etiquette—it’s a genuine hygiene concern, raising questions about whether passengers should be putting bare skin directly on seats others will soon use.
One Mile at a Time highlighted the influencer who posted their “business class morning routine” on an Emirates Airbus A380 business class flight from New York JFK to Milan. They woke up shirtless in the lie flat seat, did a bathroom freshen-up, got dressed, put in their contacts and brushed their teeth, ate breakfast and watched a movie.
Here’s my business class morning routine flying Emirates. Blessed to be waking up horizontal. First I greeted the boys, then I headed to the bathroom to freshen up, outfitted myself, little brush of the pearls, popped on my lenses. I was ready for breakfast. I ordered the crepe and it was unbelievable. It was about an hour left in the flight, tossed on a movie, and enjoyed the rest of the trip. Peace.
@jpark_fit Horizontal 30,000ft in the sky is a W. #emirates #jparkfit #morningroutine ♬ original sound – Jeremy Park
One Mile at a Time defends the passenger by:
- Recasting it, saying he probably wasn’t actually shirtless for long, and assumes he was actually faking it for social media clout.
- And says he “the guy didn’t harm anyone else by doing this, and at least he seems to have a positive vibe”
He’s probably right it’s performative. We don’t know whether the passenger actually slept with his shirt off. On the other hand, we also don’t know how long he had it off even if it was just for the video (like, how many takes did it take?).
This ignores the hygiene issue of the man’s body on the seat (and seat on his body for the next passenger). And airlines don’t treat sleep as a strip-down event! Two years ago Emirates introduced new pajamas in business class on flights of 9 or more hours. They did this for a reason. JFK – Milan is just 7.5 hours, so bring your own!
Besides, once you normalize going shirtless in business class you’re inviting passengers to test the limits even further. Pants, no pants? Shirtless walking the aisle (‘but just to the lavatory and back’). Emirates business class is not a private suite. You don’t even have the privacy for this in Emirates first class on this aircraft, because the walls aren’t high and anyone walking by can see you.
The world went nuts when a passenger on United wore just a t-shirt and underwear. And she was covering up with a t-shirt! So defending this guy seems pretty gendered?
A Delta flight nearly diverted to Tokyo over a business class passenger without pants. The issue was children around. Then again, a United passenger took off his pants on an Orlando flight and no one said a word. And here a shirtless passenger on United went unremarked upon, so maybe everyone else just thinks this is normal?
Of course, I tend to think that bare feet on planes is a problem.
Politely, this argument is a classic slippery slope fallacy. It asserts a causal chain from passengers being shirtless in their suites to being shirtless walking around the plane or pantless with no clear evidence that each step would cause the next one. General western cultural norms look far kinder on a male not wearing a shirt in public than anyone not wearing pants in public, so this is not a logical next step. Nor is the walking around the plane one.
@ Gary — “This ignores the hygiene issue of the man’s body on the seat (and seat on his body for the next passenger).”
But the guy’s body wasn’t on the seat. Emirates has mattress pads in business class, and he was clearly on one (which is why the surface is lighter in color). Those are changed between each flight.