Too Sexy to Fly

I'm sure everyone heard the buzz when Southwest airlines asked a girl not to fly because her outfit was "too revealing" . When 23-year-old Kyla Ebbert got on the plane in a denim skirt, tank top and sweater, she was told she needed to change or get off the plane. Ebbert did not have a carry on bag and could not change so she was escorted off of the plane. She was told by a man who worked for Southwest that her outfit was too provacative for a family airline. Ebbert got back onto the plane and wrapped herself in a blanket for the remainder of the flight.

Southwest Chief Executive Gary Kelly did publically apologize to Ebbert shorty after. This is a good example of crisis PR. Kelly did act very quickly in attept to resolve the issue, however, it was not immediately successful.

When that was not a success, the airline made a joke of the situation by referring back to their image in the 1970s as "The love airline" because their stewardesses were required by dresscode to wear hot pants. Colleen Barrett, company president, then took a different approach when she anounced a miniskirts-and-hot pants fare sale. Kelly then makes fun of his own airline by talking about the changed they have made since the hot pants days of Southwest Airlines. Part of their crises method was focused on the customers. Kelly said they need to "lean towards customers" rather than these silly types of things.

Press Release:
Southwest Airlines Apologizes to Woman Told to Cover Up, Announces 'Skimpy' Fare Sale
Saturday, September 15, 2007

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DALLAS — Southwest Airlines Co. says it is apologizing to a young California woman who was told her outfit was too skimpy to fly, and it's using the brouhaha as a marketing ploy — announcing a "miniskirt fare sale."

The aggrieved woman, Kyla Ebbert, took her case Friday to "The Dr. Phil Show." Host Phil McGraw read an apology from Southwest Chief Executive Gary Kelly during the show, which is scheduled to air Tuesday.

Ebbert said she was on a Southwest plane ready to take off from San Diego on July 3 when an airline employee asked her to change her miniskirt, top and sweater or get off.

In a compromise, the 23-year-old was allowed to stay on the flight to Tucson, Ariz., after pulling her skirt down and her top up.

Kelly said the airline apologized to Ebbert in August and thought the affair was over. But in the past two weeks, Ebbert went on NBC's "Today Show" and then "The Dr. Phil Show."

Ebbert's account, and a similar one by another young California woman this week, led to unfavorable press coverage and Internet chatter about Dallas-based Southwest. Newspaper columnists and bloggers derided the airline — which put its stewardesses in hot pants and called itself "The love airline" in the 1970s — as prudish.

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So Kelly decided to change the tone Friday by issuing another apology to Ebbert — company President Colleen Barrett was dispatched to phone her — and announce a miniskirts-and-hot pants fare sale.

"It is quite humorous, given that we were born with hot pants," Kelly said. "We're trying to be good-humored about all this."

Kelly declined to give his opinion of Ebbert's July 3 outfit, and said the airline needs to "lean towards the customer."

"We don't have a dress code at Southwest Airlines, and we don't want to put our employees in the position of being the fashion police," he said, "but there's a fine line you walk sometimes in not offending other passengers."

Kelly said Ebbert is a regular customer of Southwest and he hopes to keep it that way.

On Friday, the airline offered Ebbert two free round-trip tickets, and it issued a double entendre-laced press release announcing "skimpy" sale fares of $49 to $109 each way, available for 10 days.

Efforts to reach Ebbert were unsuccessful.

Airline officials said they hadn't contacted another woman, Setara Qassim, who told a TV interviewer this week that a Southwest employee made her wrap a blanket over her short dress with plunging neckline. Southwest officials said they had no record of Qassim, 21, filing a complaint.

For Ebbert's Today Show interview:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lthoHbTo3Ck