Posted on 11/24/2025 2:27:30 PM PST by Miami Rebel
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy on Monday urged Americans to dress better a way to alleviate stress while traveling during the holiday season.
Since the end of the government shutdown, Duffy has repeatedly claimed that air travelers have become more unruly and agitated in recent years. Part of his plan to return to a more courteous period of air travel is to emphasize the significance of dressing well on planes. The secretary has lamented the trend of travelers dressing in “pajamas” to make themselves more comfortable.
During a Monday press conference, Duffy theorized how improved dress could result in improved behavior in the sky:
But I think we have to think about, how do we do a better job? How do we maintain some of that frustration we have as we travel this Thanksgiving season? Maybe we should say a “please” and “thank you” to our pilots and to our flight attendants.
I think — again, I call this maybe “dressing with some respect.” Whether it’s a pair of jeans and a decent shirt, I would encourage people to maybe dress a little better, which encourage encourages us to maybe behave a little better. Let’s try not to wear slippers and pajamas as we come to the airport. I think that’s positive.
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While I too would wish for better standards of travel attire, this ship sailed decades ago. (The end of the great Steve McQueen movie Bullitt [1968] takes place in the San Francisco airport, in which men are wearing suits and hats!)
My preferences have as much sway as Duffy's, which is to say zero. Does anyone think that more than 1% of the American populace even knows who he is?
If he can promise me that I won’t be sleeping in the waiting area because my flight has been cancelled for two days, I will wear a tuxedo and top hat. But that isn’t going to happen. So its jeans and a sweater.
Seems a little racist.
People used to wear a suit to Baseball games.
No need to school marm it.
Men use to wear suits to baseball and football games
Are you kidding? I love it. Finally someone is telling the trash not to act like trash. It’s about time.
And coaches used to wear suits as well, before the likes of Belichick started wearing sweats.
Sec. Duffy, I don’t need to worry about dressing nicely.
I refuse to fly.
Problem solved.
BTW, I’m old enough to remember when airlines treated people like passengers and not cargo.
Just watch Leave It to Beaver.
Jeans and sweater is dressing up on planes these days.
Word to the wise: If your flight has extra seats and the crew is looking to upgrade a couple of coach passengers to business/first class, I can guarantee you that the slob wearing shorts, sandals and a Kansas City Chiefs jersey isn't going to be picked out of the passenger line and invited to the forward cabin.
In my early teen years my family made me wear a shirt and tie to travel. Hawaii, SFO, PBI, Heathrow, and round-trip once on the Concord. 12 to 16 range.
I’m old enough to remember Lombardi and Landry.
Those were the days.
Eary 70’s.
The sideline hat. Landry and Lombardi.
You oughta see some of the tattooed nose ringed messes I have seen in first class.
What Duffy fails to take into account is that air travel in that “golden age” was the preserve of the wealthy. Since then, airlines strived to reach the masses and increase their profits by making air travel relatively more affordable. To do this, they redesigned their seating to maximize capacity and cranked up the number of flights, so we have cramped, uncomfortable seating, a markedly less luxurious experience, and overcrowded runways with all the delays that entails, as well as a decidedly less sophisticated clientele that is more prone to wearing flip flops and pajama bottoms in public. A few more “pleases” and “thank yous” is not going to remedy that.
Correct.
However, we should meet the bare minimum.
No pajamas.
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