Now Boarding: Passenger Led By A Leash Onto Southwest Airlines Flight

A video is going viral in social media of two passengers boarding a plane, one leading the other one on a leash. It was shared to a flight attendant group on Reddit, and appears to be an example of ‘BDSM’ or bondage, discipline, submission, and sadomasochism (apologies if I don’t have the term of art here precisely correct, it’s a bit outside of my field).

It seems the passengers in the video are consenting adults, with one in control and the other pulled by a leash attached to their neck. And they’re wearing their masks properly! I can make out a Southwest Airlines heart logo on the right side bulkhead at the start of the video.

My own view is that what consenting adults do in private is their business alone. What consenting adults do in venues open to such activities is similarly up to those individuals and businesses. But that airlines should be free to enforce their often ambiguous dress codes in a manner that includes “no passengers on leashes for the duration of the flight.” Although who’d have thought that any airline would need to consider making this an explicit rule?

With the heavy focus on human trafficking including harassing passengers for ‘looking different’ than their traveling companions – such as n African American social service worker traveling with a white baby being accused of kidnapping, armed Port Authority police boarding a flight because a flight attendant saw an Asian American woman follow her Hispanic husband to the lavatory, and a check-in agent demanding to see Facebook posts when a white mother checked in with her mixed-race son – it’s shocking that no one stopped to ask the woman if she was alright, and whether she was under duress let alone reporting the situation to authorities.

(HT: C Boarding Group)

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. Kinky preferences should be confined to private places and practiced by consenting adults only. Same goes for sex and religion.

  2. I say: if she is an exhibitionist and a submissive, then this could have been her idea.
    Being dominant in a dom/sub relationship is more about fulfilling the other person’s desires than it is actually “making” the other person do whatever.
    This is easily misunderstood, as we are still a very puritanical society.

  3. Issue is, I can imagine if this pair involved various combinations of different genders and/or ethnicities that someone (passenger, FA) would have raised an issue even if everyone involved consented. Probably should have been denied boarding or told to unleash as a violation of restriction on public sexual activity

  4. Definitely not ok. Consensual means that everyone involved (also the people on the plane) explicitly state that it’s ok – which it obviously not is and also could trigger someone else on the plane.
    If you’re into Nazi-Uniforms you surely can wear them as long as only these people see you in it that are ok with it. Basically the same…

  5. Oh no! Two consenting adults enjoying their normal lifestyle! Woe is me! :EyerollEmoji:

    Are they consenting? Yep.
    Are they violating any sort of dress code? Nope.

    Just because unusual or out of place to /you/ doesn’t make it wrong. Move along, folks. Slow news day.

  6. Don’t sell yourself short on this. You got the term BDSM right (like you didn’t know). But like you said, whatever consenting adults do in their home…..
    Just be safe when you practice this.

  7. This is what happens when crazy liberals and women have too much influence and power. Its not good to give this kind of power to already unstable people.

  8. Good for them. I’m sure it was very exciting for them both, especially her, to be seen that way in public. And no one and nothing was hurt except the feelings of a few snowflakes.

  9. @J. Griffin: Instead of a passenger led by a leash onto a Southwest Airlines flight, do you prefer to see a Southwest Airlines flight attendant led by a leash onto a flight by a Southwest Airlines pilot?

  10. Wesley, conservatives have their own sexual picadillos (J Edgar Hoover, log cabin Republicans anyone?).
    At the end of the day we are all
    humans full of body fluids just waiting to burst out…..
    .

  11. Well Mr Miller, I am disappointed in your negative opinion of my post (should there be a comma here?) especially the lack of clever repartee.
    I was simply pointing out humans have more similarities than differences when it comes to base desires. Liberals are not all sexual libertine (why does spell check keep removing the “s”?) and conservatives are not all repressed. Next time it would be nice if you stated reasons for your negativity instead of hurling insults. I feel sad for you, holding such hate in your heart at Christmas time, a time when I wish all sides would reflect on HIS message “peace on earth and goodwill to all men (and women). Or did I read that in a card? I have said a prayer for your angst and I wish you a Merry Christmas. Now let us agree to disagree. I will engage you no more.
    A blessed good night to you sir…..

  12. Jorge – save that liberal slop for someone who does not understand human decency. Your attempt to paint me as being a hater is just your liberal way of deflecting on the topic. I disagree with your moronic “body fluid” nonsense, but I respect your right to be stupid.

  13. ANYONE who is dumb and submissive enough to wear a mask is being led around on a “leash”….

    Grow a set, cowards!

  14. Sounds like David R. Miller is an unhappy incel, since he has a negative reply to the two sex-positive posts, and thinks it’s sick for two consenting adults to have a little fun.

  15. Pedro – There is a time and place for things people do. Accepting this type of behavior is one of the reasons the morals of people in America are becoming more decadent. Have your “fun” in the privacy of your abode – decadent behavior does not get a pass just because some cretins have no respect for themselves and others. What I “sound’ like is a person who was brought up with morals and respect for others -of course a deviant such as yo yo would not understand just how ignorant he is for defending this type of behavior. Meanwhile, yo yo, the real incel, here, is siting at his computer, member in hand as he writes his drivel.

  16. @Amazing Larry
    I can tell you who doesn’t have a set. You know of course the lying a-hole Chump and his son Donny boy Junior. Two of a kind. There are a lot of Chump Fools here, you being No. 1.

  17. Rog -You are an obviously brain washed liberal who is too ignorant to comprehend reality. You, and others of your ilk, are what is wrong in America. Care to elaborate on just how stupid you are – or will you continue to affirm your ignorance by posting more moronic postings?

  18. Comical to me that literally ANYTHING can be cast in terms of political ideology on a message board. Very creative, folks!

Comments are closed.