Sure, weather, mechanical issues, flight delays, etc affect the nonrevs. They affect all the passengers. Nonrevs understand the chances they are taking, and usually check the flight statuses and available seats multiple times before heading to the airport. But its a small price to pay for a free seat. I still think paying passengers should be upgraded and nonrevs should fly coach. But oh well. I havve heard of several times the nonrevs I know have gotten to sit in fist class. Then you get the drinks, meals, etc.
I’ve got to say, I’m on the side of those who think there is no real benefit to this dress code. I can’t see any reason for it to be different from whatever dress requirements there are for all passengers. The only argument that has any bite, in my opinion is this one:
I rarely get to ride in first class, but I see it lots of times. The idea that the people in first class are dressed up nicely is an anachronism. So I don’t this argument as very strong, either.
Of course, United can do what it thinks is best. But I can’t see any valid business reason for maintaining this separate dress code. (I guess the jump seat is arguably different, since it’s obvious that the person in the jump seat is an airline employee.)
But if the airline wants to make a good impression on me, give me a couple more inches of leg room, rather than wasting time and money on nonsense like this.
@hunt:
That is pretty much my impression,that it is a policy that doesn’t seem to serve anything, since no one knows who the non rev passengers are and on the flight they don’t interact with other passengers as anything but a passenger, they aren’t flight crew. No one is going to know if the guy with the drug t shirt or the woman with the top that is so low cut the bottom of the collar is in patagonia are anything but passengers. I would agree with things like behavior on the plane, if a non rev gets drunk and acts up and let’s say gets into a fight with the flight crew, it likely will be public and that could be an embarassment to the airline, so codes of conduct make sense, but unless someone got buck naked on the airplane I doubt the dress code would ever make it to the public’s eye.
To the people who want to boycott United because of this policy, American Airlines has an ever stricter dress code. No shorts, flip-flops, jogging suits, athletic gear and baseball-style caps in business or first class.
You know…if I was getting a free ticket, I would wear a prom gown if that was what the rules said I had to do.
I’m not a fan of United Airlines either.
I didn’t see a pic of these kids…but were the leggings like tights under a dress or something? Or were they wearing Lularoe leggings with skimpy tops?
This is an interesting article. Hadn’t heard this before and not sure if it is accurate or not: http://money.cnn.com/2017/03/26/news/united-airlines-twitter-dress-code/ It claims that these were actually 2 separate groups flying. The first group was the nonrev group with the 2 teens that were told they couldn’t board in the leggings. The second group apparently heard this, and they pulled out a dress for the 10 yr old to put on over her leggings and board. The article says the second group was possibly a paying passenger (who was fine in leggings)
Oh, and CNN says it got the pass dress code from a United employee. So there is no reason to doubt its authenticity.
But jym, that conflicts with the idea that a ten year old girl was humiliated, just shattered by having to put on a dress. Now there’s no young victim, embarrassed by cruel and unfeeling airline policies. 
It’s on the internet! It HAS to be true! This has become a ridiculous debate.
I think its a fascinating example of how a knee jerk reaction, to blast to a twitter following, is found to be essentially without merit. Sound familiar?
BTW, the report of this situation involving 2 separate families was, per the CNN article, from United.
Social media changes everything, and especially PR. Smart companies will periodically review their policies with that in mind. I wouldn’t boycott United over this, but if I were the president of United, I’d be setting up a group to look at various policies with the potential impact of social media in mind.
To put this another way, even if this is a tempest in a teapot, if you’re a big company, you’d prefer not to have tempests at all.
Well, we can still get from this incident that a ten year old was instructed to put a dress on, by her mother. Oh, the inhumanity. All girls, unite against such parental abuse!
“There was “no uproar, no tears” and the teenagers left the gate area without incident, according to Guerin.”
Over reaction by news followers for a nonissue.
With these new details it appears that everyone acted reasonably. I predict the only lasting impact will be that the camel toe and moose knuckle crowd will gravitate to other airlines, which might have a positive effect on United’s bottom line.
I haven’t read the whole thread but understand issue regarding United’s policy for those flying on employee passes and I still think it’s a stupid policy - especially regarding leggings which are so ubiquitous. And if United does have ads showing “customers” in leggings - it’s pretty stupid to bar those flying on passes from wearing them. That, in itself, tells me that United’s no leggings policy is hypocritical. They want to appear fashionable in their ads to project a modern image to customers and this brouhaha over the girls attire hurts the image they are trying to project.
This thread is a good example that not everything is a “social justice” issue to debate, LOL. 
Freedom to contract is a wonderful thing. If I agree to wear certain attire, I get to fly for free. As simple as that. 
I don’t think this is a social justice issue - it’s just a dumb policy and there is nothing wrong with people expressing that opinion.
It may be helpful to read the thread to follow the discussion
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.
Yes, it is helpful to educate oneself when a thread is 11 pages long before making a blanket statement.
Opinions can be very ill-formed, as this thread has shown.