Women In Swimsuits Check In For American Airlines Flight, Agents Are Like ‘No Big Deal’

Southwest Airlines kicked a Playboy Playmate off one of its flights because of her attire. This from an airline whose flight attendants used to wear hot pants, its automated ticketing machines were called “Quickies” and snacks were “Love Bites.” Southwest is known to be strict about dress, from Kyla Ebbert dubbed ‘too sexy to fly’ in 2007 to Kayla Eubanks in a low cut black halter top in 2020.

American Airlines is known for inconsistent enforcement of dress standards. They told a curvaceous woman to wear a blanket in order to fly before the pandemic. They refused boarding to a Turkish fitness model in 2021. And earlier this year they told a former Miss Universe that her athleisure wear wouldn’t fly.

Yet at its hub in Miami, dress codes are interpreted differently. The best part of this photo isn’t the women in swimsuits checking in with American Airlines, it’s the ‘no big deal’ expressions on the faces of American’s agents. Click the tweet for full photo.

You might say “only in Dade County’ but Virgin America for its part, based in San Francisco, used to say that ‘all passengers are welcome.

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. I used to connect in MIA to points south.

    I found out that I could kill time by jogging in the airport parking structure. So I would leave everything in the club, and go for a run.

    I would come back, in running shorts, totally sweating, with only a paper ticket and ID. Yep. I got some very strange looks.

    A shower and change of clothes in the Admirals Club prepped me for the night flight south.

    Travel is what you make of it.

  2. Did they actually get on the plane like that? What is the AA rule for the terminal? The agents should be spoken to if they failed to enforce whatever rule there is. And yes, people will have a nice time fat-shaming this pic. Oh well.

  3. If it’s socially acceptable to wear in public, then it’s none of anyone’s business.
    There are a lot of things that other people do that bug me, but I let it go.
    Big beefers on planes, taking up all the space and warping earth’s gravitational pull.
    Clowns who speak so loudly you can hear them at both ends of the plane.
    Cranky flight attendants who can’t be bothered by you or anyone else.
    Nasty people who put their stinky feet up on the bulkhead wall.
    Endless pop-up adds on web pages.
    I guess we just have to learn how to tolerate one another, and let it go.

  4. Saw two women checking in at the AA ticket counter in SJD this week. Bikinis with coverups with large mesh left nothing to the imagination.

  5. I’m not going to even say. No wonder so many people are angry as this country has fallen for many years. These “women” (excuse me if I offend anyone as I’m not a biologist) probably are teachers who corrupt the minds of our kids every single day.

  6. @jackson

    You go, boy!

    I count on you just to show how wack-a-doo the far far far right has gotten.

    You are the most awesome comic relief.

    I love the way that you define yourself by what you hate. Germany was great at that in the 40″s.

  7. One wonders if they would have been treated any differently if their skin tone was, shall we say, slightly more “lucent”.

  8. Why the faux outrage?

    Maybe because I lived in Rio for a few years, I see this as standard attire for a beach resort destination.

    (In the same way I would expect people going to Eagle Airport right off the vail slopes in ski clothing)

    They changed before they got on a plane.

    Bfd.

    Clutch pearls elsewhere.

  9. @Jackass Waterson and his pathetic types were the audience the GOP showed how ignorant they can be in the recent Senate hearings. And they say the Republicans aren’t trying to continue the educational decline in the US. What a joke. The rest of the world laughs at the theater played out in full view.

  10. Your blog is becoming more and more like the National Enquirer than a serious travel and points blog. The fact that you are even able to source such crap as “news” is sad.

  11. Lot of prudes on here (led by Gary as usual). Get over it! Live your life and don’t worry about other people!

  12. I think it’s not off the mark to say the Golden Age of flying began to disappear with mergers. All of the above negatives about flying then add barely clad flyers to the list further demonstrates America’s slide into the sewer. It’s much more difficult to reestablish standards once you let them down.

  13. What happened to decency? It is bad enough that some so called men cannot pull their pants up, now we are expected to accept people who dress obscenely . Seeing that photo is justification for throwing up…

  14. @Ray

    What is a woman? Definition please, without using the word “woman”…

    When we start talking about “female penises” and “men can menstruate”, I don’t think it’s the GOP who has lost their mind – and the vast majority of the American people haven’t lost their minds either. People who believe otherwise are in for a rude awakening come November. They’ve picked the wrong hill to die on. There’s a difference between tolerance, live and let live, and BS F-ing crazy. No amount of free money is going to save them.

  15. Who wants to volunteer to be the first one to sit on the seat right after counter girl sits on it?

  16. Hope they’re not travelling on a buddy pass! Remember the outrage when someone wore leggings on UA staff travel (not permitted in dress code for non-revs) & was denied uplift.

    They then stupidly tweeted UA about their grievance omitting the non-rev bit then received a flood of support from all kinds of celebrities who tweeted pics of themselves wearing leggings on commercial fares of course!

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