Airlines around the world continue to draw a hard line when it comes to following outfit regulations. Photo / Unsplash
Deciding what to wear to the airport can been difficult, especially when a wrong sartorial choice can get you kicked off the flight.
Amidst mask mandates, Covid-19 tests and travel insecurity, it seems some airline carriers have still remained strict when it comes to enforcing clothing policies.
Five women share stories of getting kicked off (or getting close), as a result of their outfits.
In July Air New Zealand apologised to a customer who was told to cover up as her outfit was inappropriate.
Courtney Newbold was returning to Auckland from the Cook Islands when a member of the cabin crew took issue with her bare midriff.
At first, Newbold thought the crew were warning her that the aircraft would be cold. "Then the flight attendant said 'You are showing too much skin'," Newbold told the Herald.
Newbold then posted on the airline's Facebook page complaining that no one had warned her that her outfit would be an issue during the two hours' wait for her plane "but rather right when I was boarding and could not procure clothing out of thin air?"
According to Newbold, men and other women were also baring a similar amount of skin after being on holiday.
Australian 23-year-old Catherine Bampton was left "publicly embarrassed" after being told the pilot of her Virgin Australia flight from Adelaide didn't like people "showing a lot of skin".
A female staff member told Bampton, who was wearing a halter neck top, that she could not board the plane due to her clothing according to news.co.au.
"I was in so much shock and was so confused because my clothes weren't revealing. It was so embarrassing and humiliating," Bampton said.
Fellow passengers were staring in shock, she added. After putting a jacket over her top, Bampton was allowed to board the plane.
In a statement about the event, a Virgin Australia spokesperson said "The dress guidelines on our aircraft are similar to other airlines here in Australia and the vast majority of those who fly with us meet or exceed them."
An OnlyFans model Isabelle Eleanore said she was "humiliated" after a Jetstar employee described her crop top as "inappropriate" and asked her to cover up.
Eleanore was catching a flight from Australia's Gold Coast to Melbourne in February when she was confronted about her outfit. She said the incident happened after already dealing with eight staff members.
The social media influencer was asked if she had a jumper when boarding the plane.
"I'm like no I don't have a jumper, expecting her to be like, 'you're going to be really cold'," Eleanore said. After describing her top as a bikini, the crew member said she would be unable to fly unless she wore a high vis vest from the aircraft.
Embarrassed and confused, Eleanore said she didn't want to get kicked off the flight, so followed instructions.
"If I had small breasts they wouldn't have said something," she said.
Jetstar later apologised for the handling of the incident.
A popular bodybuilder was banned from a flight after the crew said her clothing would "disturb families".
While trying to board her American Airlines flight to Texas from Miami in July, Deniz Saypinar was told her outfit of denim shorts and brown tank top made her look "naked".
The 26-year-old Turkish influencer explained: "I like to wear feminine clothes that reveal my femininity, but I never dress in a way that will offend anyone," she told her 1.1 million Instagram followers.
"I'm mature and civilised enough to know what I can and cannot wear. I don't deserve to be treated like the worst person in the world for wearing denim shorts."
Saypinar said she felt "insulted".
One young woman took to TikTok after a flight attendant threatened to kick her off a flight for her outfit in August.
Sierra Stedman shared a video, which show her crying uncontrollably as she described the events.
The video has more than 15.3 million views and more than 16,500 comments.
"I've never felt more degraded, ashamed, embarrassed, angry or sad. F ALASKA AIRLINES!!!" she wrote.
In the comments, Stedman said she was grabbed by the flight attendant when she tried to walk away, despite agreeing to zip up her sweatshirt during the flight.
"Outfit appropriation set aside, there was no reason to physically & verbally assault me & humiliate me especially when I complied with her request," she wrote.
Ray Lin Howard also took to TikTok to share an incident where she was supposedly escorted off a flight for wearing a crop top and discriminated against for being a fat, tattooed, mixed-race woman."
The 33-year-old said she was removed from an Alaska Airlines flight and filmed an interview with police following a row about the "inappropriate" outfit.
After a flight attendant asked Howard to put a shirt on over her sports bra, she complied and put on a pink crop top with short sleeves.
"Then they approached me again, saying I can't wear this, my stomach is showing, and it's inappropriate," she said.
The third time Howard was approached by staff, the police were called.
If you're going to kick me off, kick me off. I've done what you asked me to do. I want you to leave me alone," she said to the crew.
Howard said this wasn't the first time she had been discriminated against because of her size.
"Throughout my life as a fat person, I've had to deal with fatphobia, especially growing up in the Midwest, but not to this degree," she said.
In the video, police agreed that Howard had not committed an offence and later, she revealed the airline had called to apologise.
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