Spirit Airlines said that a legal agreement called their ‘Contract of Carriage’ may explain why two women were kicked off a flight for wearing crop-tops.
Tara Kehidi and Teresa Araujo boarded a flight headed from Los Angeles to New Orleans on Friday when a male flight attendant told them to cover up.
The frustrated passengers asked for an explanation, but the confrontation escalated and they were removed from the flight without a refund.
Spirit Airlines told DailyMail.com they are investigating the situation, but all passengers are technically notified they have to dress a certain way to board flights when they sign their 60-page Contract of Carriage.
‘Our Contract of Carriage, a document all Guests agree to upon making a reservation with us, includes certain clothing standards for all Guests traveling with us,’ the airline said.
It goes through the definitions of airline phrases, fare details and cancelation policies. This contract was last updated on August 14.
But the long and hardly-read contract includes a brief section about passengers onboard clothing.
A part of the ‘Conduct/Condition’ section states that someone ‘shall not be permitted to board the aircraft or may be required to leave’ if they are ‘barefoot or inadequately clothed, or whose clothing is lewd, obscene, or offensive in nature’.
There are no other mentions of a dress code throughout the document.
The document also mentions that guests who are removed from a flight are not eligible for a refund.
Spirt Airlines has not responded to DailyMail.com’s request for further comment on the contract.
Even with Spirit Airlines shedding light on the contract, Tara and Teresa don’t think their outfits fall into the ‘lewd’ or ‘obscene’ category.
Teresa and Tara posed for a mirror selfie before their flight, showing off their outfits
The women even called Spirit Airlines, looking for a possible reason why their shirts were too inappropriate for the flight.
‘We called Spirit support and they’ve even said there’s nothing against crop tops on their dress code. It’s not under lewd or anything or anything like that,’ Tara said to DailyMail.com.
When Tara and Teresa got on the plane, they took off their sweaters because it was very warm.
That’s when the flight attendant approached them and the conflict began.
Tara recalled that he told them ‘You guys need to put your sweaters back on right now.’
Teresa posted the ’embarrassing’ incident on TikTok to share with her nearly 40,000 followers
‘We were sweating because it was so hot, so we took the sleeves off our sweaters, but we were covering our stomachs and cleavages with the sweaters because apparently that was so offensive to him ,’ she added.
When he came back around to them, the situation escalated and he brought over his supervisor, who did not have an issue with what the women were wearing.
But the supervisor told them they had to listen to the attendant, who made the call to kick them off the flight.
Tara and Teresa offered several times to put their sweaters back on, but they were still escorted off the plane.
They recorded the incident and posted it on Teresa’s TikTok. She is a travel influencer with nearly 40,000.
Teresa and Tara called the airline about the situation and were told there is no policy against crop-tops
Tara said: ‘They were using intimidation and power tactics on us. We’ve never been in a law situation getting in trouble, so we were like “oh my god, what do we do?”‘
The pair had to pay $1,000 to rebook a flight with a different airline. After all the hassle, Tara said they are not even enjoying the trip, which was booked for her birthday.
Another passenger was also told to leave the flight for an alleged dress code violation, KABC reported.
Carla Hager was sitting in front of Tara and Teresa when the flight attendant started bothering them about their clothing.
She told KABC: ‘I said “well, if your body is inappropriate, then so is mine because I also have a crop top under my sweater.”
Spirit airlines is investigating the situation and pointed to their contract of carriage to offer an explanation
‘And I took my sweater off and I was like “so if they’re kicking you off the flight, then they’re also going to have to kick me and my toddler off of the flight.”‘
As a result, Hager and her toddler were removed from the airplane too.
‘It’s just pure discrimination. He wouldn’t give us a reason why he was kicking us out other than “oh, I told you to put a sweater on.”‘
