How two teens in leggings became a PR
mess for United Airlines
Send a link to a friend
[March 28, 2017]
By Dan Whitcomb
(Reuters) - A bystander who touched off a
social media furor after she saw United Airlines stop two teenage girls
dressed in leggings from boarding a flight admitted on Monday that she
did not fully grasp the situation when she started tweeting her
indignation.
The girls, who were flying standby on Sunday from Denver to Minneapolis
using free passes for employees or family members, were told by a gate
attendant that they could not get on the plane while wearing the
form-fitting pants.
Passengers using the passes are considered airline representatives,
United Air Lines Inc spokesman Jonathan Guerin said, subject to a dress
code that prohibits sleep or swimwear, torn clothing and revealing
attire.
The girls were fine with the policy, Guerin says, but a traveler named
Shannon Watts who overheard the exchange took offense.
Watts was further incensed when another woman who was listening told her
10-year-old daughter to put a dress on over her leggings, apparently
thinking United's policy applied to all passengers, not just those
flying free.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2017/Mar/28/images/ads/current/pacesetter_lda_041116.png)
Her subsequent tweet storm, which accused the airline of "policing
women's clothing," quickly went viral, with celebrities such as model
Chrissy Teigen and actors Seth Rogen and Patricia Arquette decrying
United's stance.
After the incident, United's mentions on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram
exploded from its average 2,000 daily mentions to 174,000, nearly 70
percent of them negative, said Kellan Terry, a spokesman for the social
media analysis firm Brandwatch.
Watts, in a phone interview on Monday, conceded that she did not
initially realize that the girls were using passes that entailed
following a dress code. Regardless, she said, the policy is
wrong-headed.
[to top of second column] |
![](../images/032817pics/news_d7.jpg)
A United Airlines jet taxis as another lands at San Francisco
International Airport. REUTERS/Louis Nastro
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2017/Mar/28/images/ads/current/Library_lda_EDUCATION_2017.png)
"I don't get why that's the issue here," she said. "A dress code
still shouldn't be gendered and sexist. To be clear, this was
happening very publicly right here in the gate."
American Airlines Group Inc has a policy on free passes that is
similar to United's, but Delta Air Lines Inc defers to travelers'
"best judgment" about their clothing.
United may have limited any damage to its image if it reacted more
quickly to the tweets and explained its policy on the free passes,
Terry said.
"Once the fire starts to burn, it's all about containing that fire,"
he said.
United's Guerin conceded that the airline could have done a better
job of getting the facts out early.
"But our response following that, once we did have all of the facts,
I think we reacted the right way with this," he said.
(Reporting by Dan Whitcomb; Editing by Marguerita Choy)
[© 2017 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.]
Copyright 2017 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2017/Mar/28/images/ads/current/brickey_sda_2017.png)
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2016/Aug/26/images/ads/current/ldn_medical_directory_small_2016.png) |