No Socks Given: United Airlines First Class Passenger Turns Cabin Into Clothesline

by Gary Leff

A United Airlines first class passenger “took his shoes and socks off, then hung his dirty socks on the seat-back so they could dry” on Thursday. Flight attendants said nothing, but a man sitting across the aisle couldn’t help bringing it to social media – asking how United Airlines could permit such behavior.

In the fall a Southwest Airlines passenger on a cross country flight departing from Oakland hadn’t finished her laundry and dried “her clothes by hanging them on the window shades.”

The airline responded to the customer who shared this on social media, saying “Orange you glad it wasn’t underwear?”

They would know! In 2022 an OnlyFans model dried her underwear using the air nozzle on her Southwest flight after spilling liquor on herself. She says she was still drunk from the previous evening and continued with “a few strong mimosas” at the airport. It wasn’t even the first time that a passenger dried their underwear using airplane air vents.

That wasn’t even the first time a passenger dried their underwear using the overhead air vent.

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

  2. Could be soon-to-be ex Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun drying his socks after another losing another $25B in market cap in Q124. Just another oversight aka “quality escape”…

  3. I know most people are grossed out by these things but the sockless feet doesn’t bother me as long as the feet stay on the ground and don’t stink up the joint. Socks in seatback pockets, if that’s where they were because I don’t see them in the photo doesn’t bother me either when you know all the other stuff going in there. I never touch those seatback pockets knowing how disgusting they are.

  4. Why do things like this have to be done in an airplane cabin? People can’t plan any better?
    At least there was no underwear involved.

  5. Flying first class doesn’t require passengers to have any class.
    Any hillbilly with enough money can buy a first class seat.

  6. An airplane is a transportation vehicle. As long is safety is not an issue, flight attendants are not going to police it.

  7. If it bothers you, just politely say something to the passenger and/or crew. This passive aggressive social media shaming, followed by blogger pile-on, needs to end…

  8. Disgusting.

    I don’t recall this behavior promoted by any Mad Men, not in the Golden Age of Flying, by advertising promotions any time any where.

    Not to mention the inevitable feet on the bulkhead wall in Row 1. 1st class has become disgustingly no class. Not worth it.

  9. United has really been on a roll lately, though the CEO won’t be getting fired over this, anytime soon.

    What an absolute embarrassment of an airline.

  10. Obviously the other commenters have never been caught in a sudden pouring rain while walking to the airport in the wrong shoes!

    OTOH, I was about to get offended by paul’s use of the term hillbilly but… it sure does look like the guy has a toothpick slackly hanging from his mouth.

  11. Thank you Paul and Big Tee. We just keep lowering the bar as to what we will tolerate.. How low will we go?

Comments are closed.