plan your outfit for your flight

while most of the trouble we hear about airlines in the philippines involve delays, there's no telling if they suddenly make like southwest airlines and enforce a random dress code on passengers.

throughout the year, i've been hearing all sorts of news about members of flight crew asking passengers to leave the plane for the strangest reasons.

there was kate penland who flew aboard continental express with her son. as their plane started taxiing down the runway, penland's son said, "bye, bye plane," which apparently ticked off a flight attendant: "it's not funny anymore, you need to shut your baby up." as a consequence of penland's baby's babbling, they were asked to get off the plane in houston. full story here.

another child-related incident happened on a freedom airlines flight, when emily gillette was asked to "cover up" while breastfeeding her baby. apparently, you don't get much freedom on a freedom airlines flight. this caused a furor among mothers everywhere. full story here.

and then there are the clothing-related incidents. one of the more popular incidents is that of kyla ebbert's, who was escorted off a southwest airlines flight for wearing this:

i see nothing wrong with her outfit, and her case was actually televised on the today show. southwest apologized to ebbert publicly on the dr. phil show, and offered her free travel tickets, which she declined. southwest actually had the gall to turn the incident into a fare sale. and what's more, this case came from an airline which had their flight attendants wearing this in 1972:

jetblue airways joins the airline dress code hoopla with raed jarrar's case. jarrar was wearing a shirt that said, "we will not be silent," in english and arabic script. he was asked to change his shirt or turn it inside out, which he refused. he was then later given a shirt to put over his own, which jarrar then gave in to, lest he miss his flight. what's more, an airline official actually told him that, "going to an airport with a T-shirt in Arabic script is like going to a bank and wearing a T-shirt that says, ‘I’m a robber.” jaw-dropping, ain't it? full story here.

but southwest will not be outdone. they score another bad point in airline service with joe winiecki, who was wearing a t-shirt that said, "master baiter." he was approached by a flight attendant, asked to change his shirt, turn it inside out, or get out. not wanting to miss his flight, winiecki changed his shirt. and yet southwest still maintains they don't have a dress code. full story here.

i'm hoping these incidents won't make their way over here. imagine flying to caticlan in jeans and having to change into shorts before you get on the pumpboat. we can also consider taking masking tape to cover our and children's mouths to make sure nobody says the wrong thing while on board.

all of a sudden, my cebu trip comes to mind. i was in the pre-departure area of the cebu airport, waiting to board our plane. i notice that there's a tv in the lounge, but had to do a double take when i saw what was on. they were actually showing air crash investigations, followed by seconds to disaster. imagine how people who have a fear of flying would have felt. thankfully, no such people were on my flight, and no protests were made. still, such callousness should not be tolerated.

if we passengers can't say "bye bye plane," or "hi, jack!" or "you're da bomb!" then you airline and airport folk should not be allowed to scare us out of our wits before we fly.