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Last summer, United and other airlines faced controversy when allowing front-line employees to wear Palestinian flags on their uniforms. Other airlines, like Delta Air Lines and JetBlue Airways, updated uniform policies to prohibit employees from being able to choose pins and other elements that were not officially approved by the airlines after similar controversies struck (more here and here). United, however, continued to allow a choice of 18 approved pins. That all changes on May 28th, when the American flag becomes the sole allowable pin to be added to a uniform at United.
United stood alone and even went as far as to say:
Our uniform policy has long included an option for flight attendants to wear flag pins to designate specific language skills so that our customers who are more comfortable in a language other than English can know who on our crew speaks their preferred language. We also allow flight attendants to wear flag pins that represent their pride in a place to which they may have a special connection.”
Matthew at Live and Let’s Fly first shared the internal policy change this morning. I said it last summer and I stand by my thoughts. Employees should not be allowed to customize their uniforms. Whether it’s something I support like breast cancer awareness and LGBTQ+ Pride or something I oppose like a swastika, accessories, pins supporting causes, and other non-uniform elements should not be allowed.
As Matthew pointed out, I have to believe that part of this decision is related to whatever partnership and potential merger with JetBlue that United is cooking up. This plays well to the Trump administration’s sensibilities and could help further grease the wheels like the inauguration donation that was made and the cheerleading around tariffs that Scott Kirby has publicly done.
Anthony’s Take: The timing is a little too coincidental with this announcement coming on the heels of the JetBlue partnership. While I agree that employees should not be customizing uniforms, I’m skeptical that it was all coincidental.
(Featured Image Credit: United Airlines and Live and Let’s Fly.)
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Advertiser & Editorial Disclosure: The Bulkhead Seat earns an affiliate commission for anyone approved through the links above This compensation may impact how and where links appear on this site. We work to provide the best publicly available offers to our readers. We frequently update them, but this site does not include all available offers. Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed, or approved by any of these entities.
