Personally, I think the whole "coat and tie" thing being a good idea is misplaced. If the company were to institute that policy, it would prolly start with pilots(you know, the people that the customers KNOW are Delta employees). So, year round coat and tie while in uniform at work? No thanks....been there done that.

Flying to Honolulu, coat and tie? Yeah, that sounds comfortable. South Florida, Miami maybe, summer... 98 degrees, 98% humidity... hmm, really? This is where we want to go?

As a non-rev, commuting to France to backpack the alps having to wear a coat and tie (so carry it with you on your 120 mile hike or having to find some other arrangement), come on really? Going to Palau for a dive trip, coat and tie in your limited space... hmm. Cambodia to see Angkor Wat... coat and tie in your backpack? Really?

Funny story. Back in the "good 'ol days" when life was so grand and we were non-revving with my wife and kids to Honolulu. To sit in first class coat and tie was not even required. Eight year old son, who weighed about 60 pounds, had on his khaki Ralph Lauren pants and shirt. Show up to check in coming out of Honolulu with first class seats available for the whole family. The gate agent tells us my son is not dressed appropriately. He has "cargo" pants on. I promptly take him to the bathroom and give him a pair of my "dress" pants that are 10" too long in the legs and 10" too big in the waist, cinched up with a belt. We returned to the gate, where he was now deemed appropriately dressed (although he looked totally ridiculous), picked up our first class seats, and winged our way home from a lovely vacation. I know... I know. Blame me for subverting the system and causing the first domino to fall in the never-ending degradating spiral of non-rev apparel. (I'll be the first to admit, they do need black and white rules so things are not left to gate agent discretion in order to rein in all the cries of discrimination/not fair.) Remember, all this transpired prior to Al Gore inventing the internet and the only way to know all the nuances of the rules was to go into the Chief Pilot's office and thumb through the thousand or so pages of minutia. Who would have thought a pocket on the outside of a $50 pair of pants on an eight year old child would be deemed "inappropriate"? Oh well. I got the last laugh on that one, and attempted to teach Ma Delta once again, "Be careful of unintended consequences." (This goes both ways in this discussion, which is why I brought this up.)

I think a pretty fair policy is, look better than the class of clientele that we cart around the system with some discriminators for destinations. But to think coat and ties for non-revs is a step forward or needs to be instituted, come on! Business casual seems reasonable but as my story above points out, even that has some pitfalls.

Great post! People only tend to remember the good things.

Oh, and what about reroutes? Remember that you could be rerouted indefinitely as long as you didn’t pass through your base? I remember guys getting stuck out west for multiple days at a time on the 727.

Some things are worse, some better and some are just different. I feel like people think if they only point out the things that are worse (not restored or whatever) that somehow it is going to magically lead to the ultimate contract.

I feel like honest, fact driven arguments will carry the day as those that know better (the company, NMB) will see right through incomplete data.

Excellent story. The coat and tie requirement was ridiculous. Even more ridiculous was the "make sure you don't mention your nonrev status to the paying pax, as we don't want them to know you are flying for free." Really? Let's see..."hmmm, I see an eight-year-old wearing a coat and tie. Gee I wonder if he just might be an employee's kid riding standby."

While I admit that some employees have taken the relaxed dress code too far, let's get real. Many control freak gate agents liked to wield the dress code as a hammer against standby passengers. I remember once when trying to nonrev I was wearing my black uniform pants, black shoes, a black turtleneck and a navy long sleeve button down shirt. I had no desire for first class, and this was appropriate for a coach listing (business casual, and I looked classier than about anyone riding in coach on that flight). The gate agent, a crusty grumpy fellow, would not list me, because my navy, cotton button down royal blue shirt was a tad faded, and in his opinion, that constituted "a denim look." Unbelievable. So, I rummaged through my dirty laundry, found a wrinkled multi-colored long sleeve button down shirt, and asked him, "is this ok?" Amazingly he said yes! I looked (and likely smelled) much worse.

The day we relaxed the dress code was a great day (one of the few good Leo Mullin legacies). It disappointed a lot of control freaks in ACS however.

I get some of the angst against how far some nonrevs are taking the relaxed policy. The real easy solution is, require business casual for first class. Most nonrevs hope to get FC, even if it rarely happens. Many would improve their attire just for that reason alone. When in most instances the nonrev gets a coach seat anyway, at least he or she looks better.

Ugh.
And I am continually thankful that I started this career well after smoking was eliminated from all flights.

The tar and nicotine kept the outflow valves lubed and working smoothly! I know a new hire who was a two pack a day smoker. Went out to do a practice walk around on a 727. Never smoked again after viewing the outflow valve.

don't forget how horrible the vacation bank used to be…and old sick policy.....and.....and.......

Well...I mean, you were wearing a turtle neck... :D

I'm amazed at how many pilots push the jumpseat dress code. Not too long ago, we had one of our our pilots jumpseat to Cancun with a beard. It wasn't full grown, but it was obvious he hadn't shaved in 3-4 days. I've seen numerous guys show up in jeans. I've never seen a captain deny anyone.

The same goes for flight attendants. Jeans and open-toed shoes are the most common violations I see.

If I told you it was a mock turtleneck, would that make it any better? :p