Passenger Was Told To Button Up Her Shirt, Or Miss Her Flight

A woman checking in for a Southwest flight in Las Vegas headed to New York says that her pleasant conversation with an airline worker took an unexpected turn when the airline employee told her to button up her shirt or she would not be allowed to board her flight.

The woman, who was identified only as Avital, had put on a black cotton dress, flannel shirt, and a scarf at 0430 before heading to the airport for a flight that boarded at 0600. She says she was talking to the airline employee about getting up early for the flight and such, but was then told that she was showing too much cleavage and would not be allowed on the plane unless she buttoned up her shirt.

Television station WCBS in New York reports that Avital said that, after she left the check-in counter and what had been said sunk in, she became "indignant and self-conscious." She proceeded on to her gate, where she boarded her flight with her shirt still unbuttoned ... cleavage in plain view.

The flight was apparently not disrupted.

Avital said that she understands that Southwest has the right as a private company to impose a dress code, but that she was bothered by the fact that an employee apparently arbitrarily attempted to prevent her from boarding "based on personal opinions."

Southwest told the online site Jezebel, which first reported the story, that it had offered Avital an apology and a refund, but it does have a policy allowing it to refuse to transport a passenger who is dressed in a way determined to be "lewd, obscene, or patently offensive."

Avital said she "most likely" won't be flying Southwest again in any event.

FMI: http://www.southwest.com/html/customer-service/faqs.html?topic=car