NO,marvin. You are confusing the initial misstatement by the United social media person with the Policy for individuals riding on a pass.
This is a good article on the subject http://liveandletsfly.boardingarea.com/2017/03/27/united-leggings-commentary/. Addresses the premature first tweet (they should have said they would look into it further, not cite the contract of carriage policy, as it does not apply to this situation). It addresses your yoga pants and the William Shatner tights. When faced with the correct policy info, the original tweeter persisted with incorrect information. She should have let it go and moved on, like most others have.
Why would anyone actually care what United’s non rev dress policy is? If they make everyone, including toddlers, wear a suit and bow tie in order to get a free ride, who cares? It’s their policy, and they want people not to look sloppy. Paying passengers, they want your money, so you can almost wear whatever you choose.
Hey, if this pisses you off, you should be really enraged at what I have to do in order to jumpseat. Not only can I not wear leggings, I have to wear casual business attire, at a minimum. Not only does that mean no leggings (though I wouldn’t consider scaring the passengers by wearing that), it’s no shorts, no jeans, no t-shirts. I have to dress up waaaay more than these non rev passengers. There should be fury shooting out of this thread, the outrage, the unfairness! Why can’t I wear shorts, tank tops, flip flops and leggings? In fact, I have to dress that way when I have a full fare company PAID ticket, too. No fair! Isn’t anyone gonna fight for my right to wear whatever I want?
I don’t know much about accounting firms, but I am highly skeptical that there have been any law firms in the Boston area – or the New York area – that have prohibited pants for women since at least 30 or 35 years ago. (I started working at New York law firms in 1979, and lots of women attorneys were wearing pants to work by then.) I’d like to see some evidence supporting the claim to the contrary.
The last time I heard of a New York judge requiring women attorneys appearing before him to wear dresses or skirts was sometime in the mid-1970s.
Again, United has not released or confirmed that non-rev passenger dress code policy. That’s from a third party site and we have no way of knowing if it’s accurate.
More importantly, why such a dumb and unpopular rule? What benefit does it bring United? What harms does it defend against? United’s woeful handling of the situation is also part of the problem, of course.
@marvin100 - I’ll answer your questions to the best of my understanding.
“So what’s the safety issue?” Regardless of the fact that it’s listed as a safety item, I agree that it isn’t really a safety issue.
“Why is it a rule?” To insure that passengers who are flying for almost free project the image the airline prefers.
"Why would a company stubbornly stick to a rule it can’t defend and that is clearly unpopular with a segment of its customer base?
The rule only applies to no revenue passengers and I doubt many of them find the rule objectionable, at least not so much that it would cause them to give up an almost free flight in order to fly in yoga pants.
“Why would a company single out a 10-year-old child?”
I don’t believe the child was singled out. Reportedly two older passengers were similarly affected.
As I noted in an earlier post, I’ve flown using buddy passes a few times (Delta, not United, but the story is the same). In advance of the first such trip I was advised to wear a tie, be polite, under no circumstances let anyone outside my party know I was flying nonrev, and to be prepared to not make my flight of choice.
Fortunately for me I ended up in first class. I hate wearing ties, but I think it was worth it.
Multiple sources have provided the UA pass dress policy. If you dont want to believe it’s accurate, thats your perogative, marvin. No one else seems to have trouble accepting it as accurate and UA hasnt “forcefully and vehemently” denied its accuracy.
Still waiting for your evidence of “forceful and vehement” responses.
Whether or not the rule is logical or popular is not the issue here. If you want to make a protest sign and march up and down in front of their offices in Seoul, go for it.
It’s NOT listed as a safety issue in the dress code for United employee pass participants. You can find plenty of reference to the code if you google. The rules have existed FOREVER. So they had one small issue this weekend because of some busybody who didn’t understand what was transpiring. Non-event.
But is that reasonable? Does it even reflect reality? They are unidentifiable on flights. I fly a lot and have never spotted one. Where does the idea that they’re representing the company even come from? How is it anything other than imaginary?
Those aren’t the words I used, and please don’t misquote me.
I consider two rapid response tweets and dozens (more likely hundreds) of responses to media requests to be “strenuous and repeated” (the words I did use). Those words are of course subjective, so we might disagree.
No, there’s one original source on the web, and United has not confirmed it (and has actually declined to do so) in addition to its refusal to release its policy to the public and media.
It is if the company cares about its image and future earnings (which it should since it’s been on total government bailout welfare for ages).
“Whether or not the rule is logical or popular is not the issue here. If you want to make a protest sign and march up and down in front of their offices in Seoul, go for it.”
Well, thank you @jym626 Now I have a mental image of marvin marching up and down in red spandex leggings a la William Shatner
Would assume UA responded to media requests (who knows how many-- but IMO your guesstimate is very overinflated, but who cares) because they have nothing to hide. And nothing to be defensive about. Doesn’t sound like you read the article I linked above, so will relink it http://liveandletsfly.boardingarea.com/2017/03/27/united-leggings-commentary/
This is getting tiresome. Time to get out of my leggings and go to sleep. @busdriver11, you sound like a cooperative and informed employee who respects the policy of your employer. What a concept.
There could easily be 5, 10, 15 or even many, many more nonrev passengers on any given flight. You might not be able to point them out but collectively, given the volume, adhering to a basic standard of dress does have an impact. Given the sheer number of passengers falling into that category, the decision to conform to a dress code or dress more sloppily does result in appearance standards overall.
Most of the revenue comes from first class and business passengers. They don’t want to give those passengers a reason to complain by putting someone inappropriately dress in those sections. That is my impression of it.
Since this a college admissions site I’d like to add that buddy passes remind me of the college admissions preferences given athletes. As a parent of two academically stellar kids who each attended the top 10 ranked college of their choice I’m more than a little sensitive to the argument that athletes at elite colleges don’t deserve their spots. My instinctive reaction to these arguments is that, at least for the academically well qualified athlete, they DO deserve the spot at least as much as a non athlete, but I understand how a non athlete would be resentful. Having the opportunity to choose your college and have a likely letter in hand October of senior year doesn’t seem fair. Knowing this, the wise student athlete doesn’t brag to friends about their LL while the friends are busy writing applications in December after being denied by their ED school. They lay low.
It’s the same thing with buddy passes. It’s ridiculously unfair that just by knowing a pilot or a flight attendant that I could fly for almost free, and even more absurd that there’s a decent chance that I’ll be bumped to first class. So, like the wise recruited athlete, it’s best to lay low.
I assume the airlines require nonrevs to be as inconspicuous as possible for the simple reason that their existence might offend the general (fare paying) flying public
Nonrevs only get on if there are seats available. They fall be hind every paying passenger. They will only get into first and business class if there are seats still available after any paying passenger attempting to upgrade through frequent flyer miles, etc. does so.
For those who have nonrevved for decades, the frequent flyer programs definitely had a dampening effect on their ability to fly in the premium cabins. Improved yield management systems have made it harder to nonrev in general as airlines are much better at filling seats.
I know plenty of people who have access to nonrev passes who choose instead to pay for flights due to the hassle of using the passes.
I don’t think it unfair. It’s a perk that comes along with the job - utilizing seats that would otherwise go empty. Many jobs have employee perks.
It is my understanding that nonrevs can go on line, see how many seats have been sold, and get a pretty good idea if they will be able to board. Most I know have done standby for flights with a high probability of noarding. But, they most likely won’t sit together, and wont fly standby when there is something they cannot mid or be late for unless they plan to fly a day early or so to be safe. Also , there are different levels of priority for the nonrevs, from what has been explained to me. Not all nonrevs are equal.
The dad was probably in shorts because from what I read somewhere, they either were en route to, or returning from ,a vacation in Mexico.
Yes, you can check online ahead of time but all it takes is some bad weather or an unexpected mechanical problem and a cancelled flight to put a whole day’s worth of flights into an overbooked situation. It’s not unusual to spend time sitting in airports waiting on more than one flight.
@jym626 - The employee can go online to check the loads, but the “buddy” can’t. When I fly nonrev I ask my benefactor to check the loads on all my potential flights and plan accordingly. While @doschicos is correct that using the passes is much more difficult than in the past, we’ve continued to have good luck with them; so far we’ve never failed to catch a flight we planned on boarding and we haven’t sat apart, at least yet.
I wonder where @GMTplus7 is on this. She and her family non rev all the time, I’m sure she’s an expert on this subject.
Honestly, if people had no fear of losing their passes or getting their employee sponsor in trouble, you’d have non revs doing the same sort of things other people do…being obnoxious and argumentative, drinking too much, and dressing inappropriately. And passengers would be even more annoyed at the fact that they are paying a boatload for their ticket and the non revs are getting it for free. You don’t want to draw attention to that.
I actually really dislike jumpseating. If I am going somewhere, I want to be certain that I will get there instead of being the last one on the plane. I also hate begging for a ride, but if I have to, I would do anything they asked without complaining. There are more important things to worry about, and this is a privilege, not a right.
