Southwest Once Put A Bikini Model On A Plane — Now They’re Telling Passengers To Cover Up

Southwest Airlines passenger Carolina Rodriguez says an airline employee came up to her in the bathroom before she boarded her Oakland – San Diego flight and told her to cover herself because children would be on the plane. So she asks the internet, was her attire “too much?” Her sweatpants and low cut top were meant to be “comfy” and besides “where else am I gonna put my big girls?

Nobody has ever told me that so I was caught off guard and a lady was blow drying her hair in the bathroom but genuinely I didn’t think what I was wearing was inappropriate and also find it inappropriate of the worker to comment on the proportion of my body I’m comfy as hell and where else am I gonna put my big girls??!!!

@carolnotbaskins Nobody has ever told me that so I was caught off guard and a lady was blow drying her hair in the bathroom but genuinely I didn’t think what I was wearing was inappropriate and also find it inappropriate of the worker to comment on the proportion of my body I’m comfy as hell and where else am I gonna put my big girls??!!! @Southwest Airlines #fyppppppppppppppppppp #traveltok #southwestairlines ♬ original sound – Carolina 🙂

There are many such stories at Southwest, like this one and this one and this one.

Southwest Airlines employees have a dress code, but passengers do not. Passengers are only prohibited from “wearing clothes
that are lewd, obscene, or patently offensive.” Those terms are not defined, so employees are left – like Potter Stewart – to ‘know it when we see it‘. So what do you think?

It was nearly 20 years ago that Kyla Ebbert took the world by storm and had 15 seconds of fame getting kicked off a Southwest Airlines flight for being ‘too sexy to fly’. Back then the airline ran a fare sale in response to 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.”

U guys remember in 2007 when a SW FA asked a passenger Kyla Ebbert to cover up but she was making a 1 day trip thus had no more clothes ? Unlike this case, I was mad at SW but that case was totally different. Yes her skirt was short, but she was not exposed. No pilot help either! pic.twitter.com/Xf79Flogag

— Pat ☭ 👋✌😷🇵🇸 (@PatTweetsNow) October 10, 2020

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.

Bar Refaeli / Southwest / Février 2009https://t.co/mUf2QIaUiW pic.twitter.com/bcbamBlMdf

— Alain Baron (@AlainBaron747) January 11, 2022

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.

While passengers get dress-coded, like this Playboy model and this Miss Universe both on American Airlines, it seems to happen far more frequently on Southwest. That’s odd.

(HT: Rachel Thomas)