Originally Posted by
Mach 84
""" ...would say it was a lack of leadership on the part of the Captain.""""
At many airlines now, unless it is a direct safety issue, pilots stay out of any issues with passengers and let the ground personnel deal with them. At my airline, a few Captains got involved in passenger issues in the past and ended up being in the wrong (they misunderstood airline policy that ground personnel are familiar with, etc) and now are basicly told they are responsible for getting the airplane from A to B in a safe manner but leave any passenger issues to the ground people. Unless the issue obviously involves security or safety I personally I prefer it that way too. One less thing to deal with and when dealing with people it can get ugly quickly.
M84,
As I said based on the info in the media this young lady didn't have anything on that was any worse than most flights I have flown. There is always someone pushing the envelope. I might add as the father of four teenage girls I would disaprove of her outfit completely. If you are the Captain I would hope you are very familiar with company policy and not allow a flight attendant that much authority to question an outfit that is allowed on most fights to and from LAS. Ultimately you are responsible for everything on your flight including allowing someone to be denied boarding. We now have grooming and uniform standards at SWA that are way to lax and to possibly delay the flight when the male flight attendant looks like Curt Cobain of Nirvana one month after he died questioning someone on their outfit is rather funny.
Do as you wish but I won't wimp out on any issue with regards to my flight.
Delay my flight for something like this and I will remember you forever. Never let me catch you out of the company standards for anything.