Spirit Airlines’ new dress code sparks fury after woman denied boarding because of shorts – but she’d worn them before

SPIRIT Airlines’ strict new dress code sparked an explosive row after a passenger donned in tiny shorts was barred from boarding.

Tanasia Grayer – who had previously flown in the same outfit – even covered her revealing attire with a hot pink robe, to no avail.

Getty – Contributor

The passenger and her sister had tried to board a Spirit Airlines flight from Miami home to Chicago[/caption]

CBS Chicago

Tanasia Grayer, above, said she had previously been allowed to board a Spirit Airlines flight while wearing the same clothes[/caption]

CBS Chicago

Grayer said her blue shorts were just “regular shorts”[/caption]

CBS Chicago

But the airline barred the Chicago woman from boarding the plane last Wednesday, after a staffer said she was revealing too much[/caption]

Grayer claimed she wasn’t allowed to board a homeward-bound flight from Miami to Chicago last Wednesday after she was accused of baring too much.

But the airline – which is known for its signature “bare fare” – said it was due to her “disruptive behavior.”

She spoke about her embarrassing ordeal to CBS on Saturday, after a very public row with a sheriff at Miami airport.

The broadcaster said the battle stemmed from a pair of shorts that Spirit Airlines deemed were too short.

The firm recently announced a stricter dress code for its passengers, saying that those without “adequate covering” will not be permitted to board.

But Grayer is adamant she was dressed appropriately.

She had been allowed to board a Spirit Airlines flight to Miami – with no dramas – while wearing the same hot pink robe over blue shorts and a matching top.

She described them as just “regular shorts.”

Yet a clip of her confrontation with airport authorities showed her telling a sheriff: “You are going to have to get out of my face.”

Barring her access to the flight, he responded: “You don’t get to tell me what to do.”

She told the sheriff in the clip: “I’m right here, you need to get out of my face. You don’t need to address me like that.”

Grayer told CBS that she and her sister, Jessica Kordelewski, were getting ready to board the plane, “and the lady at the front desk , she stopped me and said ‘you’re not getting on the plane like that’.”

BUTT OUT

Grayer said that she asked “like what?” The staffer replied, “with those shorts.”

However, she said she had worn the same shorts on Spirit’s outbound flight to Miami, and was allowed to board without a problem.

“They said that ‘you can’t have the bottom or your butt out, (but) that’s why this robe is on. That’s why this robe is on so that I’m not too revealing.”

She added: “I was in the airport for 40 minutes, y’all should’ve told me.

“That way I could’ve went and changed my clothes to put anything else on.”

Her sister defended her right to wear what she felt comfortable in – but ended up getting arrested.

Kordelewski can be heard yelling in the video to the sheriff: “This is crazy, this is insane.”

She was booked and later released in Miami for disorderly conduct at the gate, which caused the flight to be delayed.

Kordelewski told the station: “I’m going home, getting on a flight and going home.”

The sisters booked another flight to Chicago with a different airline – as Kordelewski is now on Spirit Airlines’ “no fly” list.

HEALING

They told the station that they were currently “healing and processing everything we experienced in Miami.”

Grayer added that, in future, she would avoid wearing the same outfit rather than risk being thrown off other flights.

SPIRIT RESPONDS

Spirit Airlines said in a statement that Grayer had “refused to comply” with its dress code despite being given an “opportunity to do so.”

A spokesperson said their records showed “a guest was not in compliance with our Contract of Carriage and refused to comply when provided an opportunity to do so.

“The guest and their travel companion were eventually denied boarding after displaying disruptive behavior.”

The U.S. Sun has contacted the airline for further comment.

Last October, Spirit kicked off two women for wearing crop tops.

A flight attendant asked the duo to leave the flight to New Orleans.

TATTOOS

In January, Spirit revised its passenger policies to enforce a stricter dress code.

This change gave the airline the right to deny passengers if they’re wearing see-through clothing, exposing their breasts, buttocks or other private parts, or wearing lewd, obscene or offensive clothing and tattoos.

It means that Spirit has become more aligned with several other major carriers, including American Airlines, which also has a policy against barefoot passengers.

MODESTY

Dozens of viewers have criticized Grayer for wearing shorts in public that they regarded as being “too short.”

An aghast viewer told her off, writing: “Those are not ‘regular shorts’ – those are undergarments and a bathrobe.”

One woman commented on the show’s YouTube clip of the row: “I feel sorry for all the people who had to be delayed because of this nonsense.”

Another wrote: “Girl, those are NOT regular shorts. Hats off to Spirit!!”

A man suggested: “She should have more modesty. She was dressed improperly for travel.”

And one person ranted: “Sister, you know good and damn well that those shorts are too short to walk around in public like that.

“So you shouldn’t play like Spirit airlines was in the wrong for telling you that can’t board the plane for the inappropriate attire.

“That outfit is something that (you) wear at home behind closed doors for your significant other to see you and not for the whole world.

“There are restaurants and stores that would have probably called the police on you for indecent exposure.”

COSTLY DELAYS

Grayer’s barring comes weeks after the Transportation Security Administration rolled out multiple significant changes that travelers need to be aware of to avoid costly delays at the airport.

This includes new CAT-2 machines which have been installed at 84 airports across the US, which use facial recognition to verify the identity of passengers.

The TSA has also warned passengers about seven items that are prohibited from checked luggage after a new ban was brought in earlier this year.