Yesterday morning a United Airlines gate agent stopped two girls from getting on a flight because they were wearing leggings.
Twitter scold, and Mrs. Kravitz-wannabe, Shannon Watts chronicled what happened on Twitter:
“She’s forcing them to change or put dresses on over leggings or they can’t board. Since when does @united police women’s clothing?”
Then more scolds jumped on board, calling the barring sexist, arbitrary, and horrendous.
But Shannon Watts didn’t know the full story. She was looking to jump to a conclusion and was ready to shame whoever she could.
It turns out the girls in the leggings were traveling with a United employee pass and “were not in compliance with dress code policy for company benefit travel,” according to United Airline spokesperson Jonathan Guerin.
Guerin said that an internal policy for people using the travel benefit specifically forbids leggings while traveling:
“Our regular passengers are not going to be denied boarding because they are wearing leggings or yoga pants. But when flying as a pass traveler, we require [them] to follow rules, and that is one of those rules. They were not compliant with the dress policy with the benefit. This morning, the attire of the pass travelers on this flight didn’t meet the dress code policy.”
Guerin also noted that the girls were aware of the rules. Sorry, rules are rules, no matter how stupid you think they might be.
And if you’re benefiting from an employee pass, you have to obey their rules.
Shannon Watts needs to mind her own business.
Read more at the Washington Post.