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Yesterday, I was scheduled to fly from Jakarta to Istanbul via Riyadh, but Saudi Arabian Airlines stopped me at the gate and told me I couldn’t board. Here’s what happened and how to avoid the same fate.
Yesterday afternoon, I arrived at CGK Airport in Jakarta, Indonesia, a comfortable two and a half hours before my 4pm flight. I checked in at the Saudia Airlines desk, asked the check-in agent for an exit row seat, and proceeded through immigration. After spending some time in the Saudia Lounge, I headed to Gate 6, where my flight was departing. But when I got to the front of the line, the gate agent gave me an awkward look. “Hmm, sir,” he said, looking around at his colleagues. “Can you please come here for a moment?”
I complied, didn’t know what the problem was, but waited patiently for his manager to come. “Sir, we are sorry, but we cannot allow you to ride,” the manager said firmly. “Saudia cannot fly with his pants on.”
Saudi Arabian Airlines said I couldn’t board the plane because I was wearing shorts.with… [+]
I was surprised to say the least. I’m used to traveling overseas, and in all my flying experiences I’ve never had any doubts about my attire. Still, it was clear this was no joke. “Do you have any underwear to change into?” the gatekeeper asked me. I told him that was not the case and he explained that he had only been in Jakarta for a week, where the weather was well above 90 degrees every day. Did the airline have extra pants for me to wear? “No,” he answered flatly. “If you’re not wearing pants, you’re not allowed on the plane.” While we were talking, the last passenger boarded the plane right in front of me, leaving me and the gate staff alone. As the boarding process neared its end, I felt like I was going to be left behind.
I pushed back. I said that I was not informed about the dress code at any stage along the way and that it was unreasonable for me to expect to know otherwise. While my manager consulted with one of his colleagues, I did a quick Google search to see if Saudia had published any formal dress code online. As it turns out, they were. Saudia’s official dress code is exactly one sentence long. “Saudia asks guests to adhere to the dress code of dressing in public taste or not causing offense to other passengers.” In this case, shorts fall into the offensive category.
I can understand if Saudia is concerned that visitors to Saudi Arabia are not appropriately dressed upon arrival. But that was not the case at all. I was told that shorts were allowed after the plane took off, but not during the boarding process. Of course, the question of whether shorts are good or not is not an issue. Even more puzzling is why Saudia didn’t inform me of my violation sooner. When I purchase a ticket, in a ticket confirmation email, when I check in at the airport, when I enter a Saudia lounge, or during any other interaction, they give me the appropriate information to let me know what’s coming. There was a lot of timing. In the middle. Although they threw me lots of upsell offers for hotels and car rentals, Saudia never once mentioned their expectations for how I should dress.
To make sure I didn’t miss any major oversights, I later revisited the booking process, reread every email I received from Saudia, and read as much fine print on the airline’s website as I could. There is no mention of Saudia’s dress code, except for the lone sentence on the hard-to-find web page quoted above. Why not let her know about the no-shorts clause when you check in with the agency 2 and a half hours before your flight? I don’t think that makes more sense than when the gate is about to close mosquito?
The issue here is not that Saudia has a dress code. If Saudia wants to impose a dress code on passengers, it has every right to do so. The same applies to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia itself. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has every right to ask people within its borders, including both local residents and visitors, to abide by the rules. The problem is that those rules are not being communicated. When an airline openly advertises that it flies to more than 100 cities in more than 60 countries and serves passengers of all cultures, it needs to make its unusual expectations clearer. . If you’re boarding a flight from New York to Dubai in July with a layover in Riyadh, shorts seem like a pretty reasonable outfit.
I’m not the only one who has this idea. After all, airlines run into this problem all the time. “I have seen several cases where passengers were not allowed to board the plane,” one Saudia flight attendant told me confidently. “We had to leave them behind.” When I asked her, in such a situation, would Saudia refund passengers or make alternative arrangements for future trips? Would you? “No, you have to buy another ticket on another airline,” she said flatly. A second flight attendant agreed. “It’s not unheard of to leave passengers at the gate,” she says with a shrug of her shoulders, adding, “Some countries are very conservative.”
When Saudi Arabian Airlines told me I couldn’t fly on the plane because of my shorts, I didn’t have any other pants.… [+]
So what happened to me? When it became clear that I had no choice but to find the pants myself, I ran the length of the terminal until I found a travel kiosk selling sarongs. I bought the first one I saw, rushed back to the gate, and tied it around my waist like a full-length skirt. The gate agent bowed to me, exchanged a few glances, hesitantly allowed me to board, and closed the gate behind me. As I was walking down the boarding tunnel towards the plane, one of the flight attendants caught up with me and apologized, assuring me that it wasn’t my fault for not knowing the rules. “This happens more than you think,” he admitted. Mr. Saudia did not respond to my request for comment.
With all this in mind, I’m actually one of the lucky ones. In the end, I managed to get on the plane. But I can’t help but think about what it feels like to be one of the stranded passengers. Not all airports have kiosks selling sarongs. Even in airports that do, not all passengers can run through the terminal with their luggage in a matter of minutes.
There is no doubt that Saudia is missing the mark when it comes to communicating with passengers. But the more pressing question is how the rest of us learn from their mistakes.
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