People fly in most anything nowadays, from stained sweatpants to wrinkled t-shirts. I think if the passengers can do that, the employees should be able to also. Even while they’re working, because it’s only fair. Why should they have to wear a uniform, just slap a piece of duct tape across their chest with the airline name in order to identify them.
And yes, quite often people can tell whom is flying on a pass. If you start a conversation with the person next to you and they say they work for that airline (or their spouse, family member or friend does), or their carryon has a bag tag or embroidery saying the name of the carrier…they’re on a pass. People don’t generally buy tickets on airlines that they or their spouse work for. So it can be obvious who is on a pass, and people might even tell you.
Seems like an odd thing. I want this benefit for free (actually with everyone else paying for it, in terms of additional fuel costs and less last minute seats), and I don’t want to have to follow the rules, either. Except it’s not the employees complaining, it’s people complaining for them. You’d think people would be more upset when a flight is delayed to let on all the non revs, or they realize one is sitting in first class.