The Department of Transportation is warning travelers to watch what they wear when heading to the airport, but passengers online are weary of the new fashion advice.
In a new civility campaign published last month, the department asked travelers to “restore courtesy and class to air travel” ahead of the busy holiday season. Among other questions, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy asked travelers if they were “dressing with respect.”
“The campaign is intended to jumpstart a nationwide conversation around how we can all restore courtesy and class to air travel,” the DOT wrote in a statement. “This won’t just make the travel experience better for the flying public—it will ensure the safety of passengers, gate workers, flight attendants, and pilots.”
The department added: “There’s no question we’ve lost sight of what makes travel fun—the excitement, the relaxation, the cordial conversations.”
The campaign was amplified by a social media video posted to Duffy’s Instagram account showing clips of passengers boarding flights in retro outfits and footage of an old Pan American World Airways plane before showing more modern clips of onboard fights.
“Things aren’t what they used to be,” Duffy said in the video. “Some would call it the golden age of travel. Let’s bring civility and manners back.”
Travelers were quick to respond on social media, debated the new recommendations with many passengers pointing out planes aren’t the most conformable environments these days.
“And how many more seats have they crammed into planes since 2019? How about treat passengers with dignity and respect, and maybe more passengers will be respectful in return,” one traveler wrote under Duffy’s video on Instagram. “I don’t see how this is can be a ‘golden age of travel’ when they make it so freaking uncomfortable.”
Another traveler suggested airlines bring “back seats that fit everyone” along with “food service on all flights. Bring back not being charged for seats and bags. Bring back reimbursement for disruption in service” and more previously-standard perks.
In a Reddit thread asking if it was necessary to dress up when flying, travelers were mixed. “When the world as a whole dressed entirely more formally, flying was much more comfortable, and vastly more expensive so more the realm of the wealthy,” one traveler wrote. “For long flights I dress as comfortably as I can. ”
However, one traveler said they “wish people would stop wearing their yoga/gym clothes on the plane” while another asked passengers to “please cover your feet (no flip flops) and no one wants to see your pits, either. There’s a distinct difference between ‘comfortable’ and ‘offensively casual’. A bit of decorum isn’t too much to ask.”
In addition to asking travelers to dress nicer, the Transportation Department also told passengers to ensure they were helping pregnant women and the elderly with placing their bags in the overhead bins, “keeping control of your children,” saying thank you to flight attendants, and “saying please and thank you in general.”