Are airline dress codes outdated? | The Tylt

Some people say Americans have become too lax about dressing down for flights. Going into full-comfort mode may make your flight experience better, but to J. Bryan Lowder, it's a sign of disrespect for your fellow traveler. Just like you wouldn't greet a guest in your pajamas or go to work in your pajamas, you shouldn't travel in your pajamas. No one enjoys being stuck in a pressurized tube, thousands of feet in the air, stuck next to some slob wearing sweats and flip flops. 

What is possible, though, is embracing travel as a process, one that offers its own pleasures as well as trials. And foremost among the former is an opportunity to share public space. In fact, traveling—especially air travel—may be the occasion when many of us are most in public, most engaged in negotiating the commons. Americans are, of course, fond of their personal space, but public travel requires that we recognize that airplanes, trains, and buses are not extensions of our living rooms. Just because we may be anonymous does not mean we are invisible.

How a person dresses on a plane has zero bearing on another person's travel experience. Full stop. 

Ultimately, what another person wears on an airplane is none of your goddamn bee's wax, unless, of course, the clothing physically enters your space or the soul in question is wearing a t-shirt advertising the Nazi party or — I dunno — a Dave Matthews Band tour or something equally offensive. Otherwise, that person's only responsibility to you and the airline staff is to be reasonably polite and try not to wear clothes that smell badly.

Showing up to the airport freshly showered and wearing a clean pair of leggings (and a SMILE) is the farthest I'm willing to go, respectability-wise. Others might want to go farther and wear a three-piece suit and that's up to them. Come the day that we all get stuck at the Detroit airport over night and have to sleep on the floor (it's happened to me), we'll see who's happier with their decision.

However, double standards and inconsistently enforced dress can disrupt a passenger's travel experience. United's #LeggingGate problem shows why dress codes are outdated and oftentimes sexist—they're used to control how women dress, but not men. 

I personally don't think leggings are pants. They're tights with the feet cut off. The point here is that the Airline has a dress code for employees, relatives and friends of employees flying on a free pass to dress according to the policy. I mean come on people, you're flying for free, or close to it, put your pants on! GEEZ!!!