Passenger Demands To Know Why Southwest Airlines Wouldn’t Let Her Fly In A Sports Bra

A Southwest Airlines passenger is demanding to know why she was “pulled aside” and told she “needed to put a sweater on” over her sports bra. She admits says she wears the same outfit on every trip, and never has a problem. And she wonders whether the size of her mammary glands is what triggered the boarding agent?

It was 16 years ago that Kyla Ebbert had 15 seconds of worldwide fame getting kicked off a Southwest Airlines flight for her outfit (‘too sexy to fly’). Back then the airline ran a fare sale based on the publicity,

Southwest Airlines today faces the bare facts and reveals the naked truth by issuing an apology to its Customers who have commented about its handling of a few who were dressed in revealing clothing. …Southwest has lowered its already skimpy fares to “mini-skirt” size of $49 to $109 one-way.

“Some have said we’ve gone from loving hot pants to having hot flashes but nothing could be farther from the truth, “said Southwest’s CEO Gary Kelly. “The publicity caught us with our pants down, quite frankly. The story has such great legs, but we have an even better sense of humor, so we’re going to jump out there and lower our fares to match the mini skirts we’ve all been hearing so much about.”

This is an airline that plastered Israeli model Bar Refaeli in a bikini on the side of one of their 737s, which I take as prima facie evidence that the attire in question doesn’t violate Southwest’s standards of what’s appropriate to fly.

Here are Southwest’s original flight attendant uniforms, designed by their original President’s wife. The airline’s ticker symbol is LUV. The peanuts they used to serve onboard were “Love Bites.” Their original ticketing machines were called Quickies.

The days of getting dressed up on planes, like you would for formal dinner on a cruise ship, are long gone. Over the past few years there haven’t been as many business travelers in business attire either. Dress guidelines are vague and left to the interpretation and discretion of gate agents and flight crew.

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. What is happening to our society and why are we rewarding these trashy people with publicity?

    She refers to herself as a “big titty woman”?? Another word comes to mind (skank).

    However, valuable lesson learned: if you are going to post your selfie on the Internet, spend more than $2 on a manicure.

  2. It’s a bra. To quote a google search, a form-fitting undergarment designed to support or cover the wearer’s breasts. Note it’s an UNDERGARMENT. So no, societal norms in this broken society still imply it’s not appropriate for public attire. Sorry, needy attention seeking person. Go put a shirt on. Please.

  3. If she wore normal clothes, she’d just look fat and would not get a second glance. I wish more airline personnel could enforce that clothes cover from shoulder to knee. Don’t want to see the bods and bare feet of strangers in close quarters in a plane.

  4. I do think that if she had smaller boobs she wouldn’t haven’t had anything said to her and that does feel unfair to me. She will have a life of back pain. There is nothing sexy about that.

  5. Public attire standards are certainly no longer what they used to be when I was a kid.

    But even nowadays, I doubt her attire would fly at schools outside of maybe gym class and the locker rooms.

    But if you look at what some people wear at grocery stores or even on their way to and from schools when dropping off kids, it seems like the last places left for people to actually dress sort of consistently in a way that wouldn’t get so many eye rolls, popping eyes or whatever is at offices and other workplaces.

    Let’s just say that there is less and less left to the imagination with all the skin and skin tight clothing running around in public nowadays. But freedom of expression includes the freedom to do a lot of things that others may not care to see done: including different approaches to attire, tattoos and so on.

  6. I agree that this recent trend of fat hippopotamuses wearing sports bras in public is disgusting and should not be tolerated by decent society. Imagine having to sit next to that on a flight. Big, bare belly dancing around in the lightest of turbulence.

  7. Gary, I see you have a bunch of prudes abd/or bigots in your comment section. There is nothing special about an airplane as opposed to any other accommodation where people might mingle, such as a sports event, movie theater, mall, or rock concert. If it’s OK there it’s OK in a plane. My point of view is that if you have. a policy whose impact falls overwhelmingly on one group (in this case women), you better have a good reason for the policy, beyond the censoriousness of a few blog commenters.

  8. First: Trailer trash. With the size of those fake boobs, I’m surprised she doesn’t have back problems. If not that, sleeping too close to a space heater or in a hot room, she could wake up in the morning with a pair of moulded ashtrays. For the average “moron” who travels in sweat pants, flip flops, pajamas, etc., if any emergency happens (god forbid) they will be severely injured or die due to their “beyond casual” dress. One can fix ignorance but stupid is forever.

  9. @ Gene – they’re only boobs, butts, and crack. Nothing to fear! Let folks relax and BE, I say. They certainly don’t affect me.

  10. @DaveS if I enjoy going to bars and clubs where people “mingle” and are wearing fetish attire does that mean I can wear it on an airplane? I’ve been looking for opportunities to get more use out of my German dungeon attire. 🙂

    Seriously, though. Just because you CAN wear something in public does not mean that you SHOULD wear something in public. It’s also interesting to me that we live in a country where we want to imprison a dude walking around in public in a wig and heels but we’re totally fine with H-cups spilling out of a bra, quite the bare midriff and, dare I guess, camel toe.

  11. “sports” bra, lol, this fake, fat titty over tattooed trash has seen a gym or athletic activity in a long, long time if ever.

  12. Next time a guy is on Southwest he needs to wear a JockStrap. Because he wears it every day to the gym.

  13. Lars,

    Are you saying the attire is ok if your dream date/love — man or woman — wears that on your flights, but it bothers you if the same style of attire is worn by this woman in the photograph?

    Dress codes tied to how attractive someone is viewed by someone or some group are problematic in various ways.

  14. Maybe the reason she was asked to cover up was that she was flying to the Middle East. They are much more conservative.

    Why do people jump to the conclusion that they are being attacked’. That being said her attire was inappropriate.

  15. Self respect, which she has nine. She did it for attention. People have lost their F&&&ing minds.

  16. A bra is considered an undergarment which means it should be worn under another garment. Why is this so hard to understand. Respect yourself and respect others.

Comments are closed.