A Frontier Airlines passenger recorded her encounter with a flight attendant who told her to change her shorts mid-flight or risk being detained by law enforcement.
The TikTok user who goes by Nereidaa (@90sbabygirl) posted a set of now-viral videos showing the confrontation.
The first clip of the interaction begins by showing the flight attendant, who identifies herself as Katie, saying, “I’m not even gonna tolerate that because I don’t racially profile at all.”
Nereidaa asks why she’s singled out on a plane where other female passengers are also wearing shorts just as short as hers.
She also explains that she looked up Frontier’s dress code policy for passengers, which says the airline does not allow passengers to wear see-through clothing. The flight attendant interrupts her and says, “Your pants are see-through.”
Nereidaa pans the camera down to show her shorts and argues that people can’t see her skin through her clothes.
As the back-and-forth continues, Katie finally makes a decision to call another cabin crew member, alleging that she’s being harassed.
“I’m like being, harassed, in the back. Like extremely. OK. Um, her camera is less than a foot from my face,” the flight attendant says over the phone before explaining how the confrontation started.
“And I told her that she had to change it once we were in the air so her flight didn’t get canceled and our flight didn’t get canceled,” Katie continues.
Nereidaa also posted another clip showing another female passenger wearing short-shorts and a photo of a formal notice to cease “objectionable and illegal behavior.” The warning says that federal law prohibits interference with an airline crewmember, smoking on a flight, or drinking any alcoholic beverage not provided by a flight attendant.
In a detailed explanation about how the incident started, Nereidaa shared that she rushed to catch her flight at the Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport after a rainy trip to the city, and the clothes she wore to the airport were the only clean, dry ones she had.
As she waited at the gate, Katie, the flight attendant, approached her and said she needed to change before boarding the plane because her shorts were too short.
“At first, I agreed – caught off guard and wanting to avoid conflict,” Nereidaa wrote. “But I quickly noticed several other passengers wearing similar outfits, and I began to question why I was being singled out. I approached management, explained that my only alternative was wet clothing from the trip, and pointed out that others were dressed the same. I was told my outfit was acceptable, so I did not change.”
Nereidaa said she boarded the flight without issue and passed several flight attendants and agents who said nothing about her outfit.
Mid-flight, after leaving the lavatory, she was confronted by Katie again, who instructed her to change her shorts mid-flight, which is where their contentious debate began.
After about 10 minutes, she was instructed to return to her seat, given the federal notice and was told law enforcement would be waiting for her when they landed if she didn’t comply with the flight attendant’s directions.
Katie also reportedly alerted a pilot about the situation, who told the flight attendant to leave the passenger alone, Nereidaa shared.
“To avoid further conflict, towards the end of the flight, I put on a pair of damp black shorts over my original ones. I was never approached by police after landing and was not officially reported,” Nereidaa wrote.
Nereidaa later posted screenshots of her correspondence with a Frontier Airlines representative who apologized and told her that an internal team is now investigating her case.
Her videos got more than three million views on TikTok and thousands of comments from people who thought the flight attendant went overboard. Many even believed she was drunk from the way she was slurring some of her words.
“I watched all the parts & this is absurd,” one commenter wrote.
“Not her call for help saying SHE is the one being harassed,” another person added.
Atlanta Black Star was unable to locate a passenger dress code policy on Frontier’s website.
The airline’s contract of carriage states that Frontier can refuse to transport any passenger who “is barefoot and over 3 years of age, unless required to be barefoot for medical reasons, or who is not otherwise fully clothed in clothing that is not lewd or obscene, threatening, intimidating, or would be objectionable to reasonable persons.”
