Comments on: Denied first class because of a track suit?

By: GFowler

GFowler — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 14:43:02 +0000

This incident bring to light the poor service many of us have received by UX at IAD and hopefully will result in a shakeup and improvements.

See the followup at http://content.usatoday.com/topics/post/Organizations/Companies/Transportation,+Travel,+Hospitality/Airlines/United+Airlines/620001025.blog/1

United is out with its side of the story. Airline spokesman Robin Urbanski told me in an e-mail Thursday evening that the airline does not have a policy that would prevent a customer from sitting in first class for dressing too casually. Instead, the gate agent apparently thought the customer in a track suit was an airline employee. If that would have been the case, an employee would have been subject to a dress code.

“We are working with our sub-contractor that was helping us with this flight to investigate what happened and ensure something like this does not happen again,” Urbanski said in the e-mail. “This was an unfortunate miscommunication with the gate agent who speaks English as a second language and was simultaneously assisting another customer when he believed Mr. Alvarez to be an airline employee in which a dress code policy is required.”

By: Simon

Simon — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 18:14:39 +0000

@399Retouch – he was wearing his “complete Puma outfit” (nice plug!) – the same one he was wearing during the interview.

I did notice his shoes were not Puma though (minor technicality I know, when the rest of the story is highly credible).

By: 399Retouch

399Retouch — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 15:32:22 +0000

I guess that “track suit” could mean a clean garment with long pants, or a clean garment with tiny running shorts, or a garment unwashed since yesterday’s marathon.

In my opinion, the gate agent would have been correct for the latter two possibilities.

By: sam

sam — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 09:31:56 +0000

another thing i don’t get, if he fly the some route every week shouldn’t he have almost 100 EQS and be on a first name basis with all the GAs by now?

By: sam

sam — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 09:29:23 +0000

i agree with oliver, there’s got to be more to this story, i just can’t see something like this happening for no reason. We all know how annoying some passengers can be, especially a premier with a sense of entitlement. I would really like to hear the GA’s side of the story.

By: UA_Flyer

UA_Flyer — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 02:02:20 +0000

I am flying international F next week, and I will wear my jogging suits to see I get kicked out of F.

By: lucky

lucky — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 23:24:50 +0000

@ whakojacko — The hate is for people with dirty feet that wear flip flops. Have dirty feet? That’s fine. Wear flip flops? That’s fine. Just please not both.

By: whakojacko

whakojacko — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 23:22:01 +0000

“He’s not even one of those people with dirty feet that wears flip flops….”
Why the hate? My feet are pretty clean

By: Matthew

Matthew — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 22:33:36 +0000

@Gene: My thoughts exactly. I’ll be going through IAD Friday and Saturday this week!

By: Oliver

Oliver — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 21:56:35 +0000

There’s gotta be more to this story. This guy can’t possibly have been the first track-suited (or otherwise “dressed down”) F passenger that this GA ran across.

BTW, glancing over his complaint email in the video, this VP ought to take a writing class.