It was bound to happen...

and it did. When I travel on business, it's always BF. I've logged over 30k air miles with not one comment,,,,until this last trip. I went to SLC and the trip there was uneventful. BUT, the trip back started a ball rolling. I was BF from the time I entered the terminal building, I made it thru security, and found my way to the gate. Since I have Medalion status, I get to board before the rest of the herd. I think this is where my trouble started. The GUY at the gate took my ticket and noticed I was BF. He asked if I had socks OR shoes to which I answered "yes, they're in my bag". He said "you have to wear one or the other". I just ignored him and boarded the plane. I had an aisle seat and there were 3 male flight attendants. I didn't get hassled during the flight because it's popular for shoes to come off during the flight. It was after we landed and we were sitting at the gate waiting for the jetway to take position that the trouble started again. I was one of the first at the door and one of the MALE FA's asked if I had any shoes. I said yes, but I wasn't going to put them on because my feet had swelled up during the 3 hour flight and my shoes were uncomfortable. (I lied, I wear my Tevas if I have to). He said, "You have to wear shoes on the plane. I said "where does it say that?", he said "it's in our employee manual." He offered to show it to me. He then said "it a health issue" to which I replied "no it isn't, it may be a safety issue, but it sure isn't a health issue". He then said, "besides, these floors are filthy and I wouldn't want to walk around BF on them." The I said, "As a passenger, I'm more creeped out by the fact that I just spent 3 hours in a seat that someone else sat in that had who knows what illness, not to mention the fact that I had to touch the same seat belt buckle they did and you fed my snacks that I could only put in my mouth with my hands. I could care less about having dirty feet." Then he started to come around and then some other passengers joined the conversation. One mentioned that restaraunts require shirts and shoes for health reasons which I quickly nipped in the butt. I said, "these policies are set by the individual business establishments due to deemed socially acceptable behavior and not due to health reasons." I walked off the plane still BF. I found my next gate where a female was attending. She didn't give me a second look, but the MALE flight attendant did. He said "you have to wear shoes on the plane." He said it three times and I ignored him the last two times since I replied to him once. I told him I would put them on when I got to my seat so I woudn't hold up the rest of the line while I dug into my luggage for them. I did leave the plane with my Tevas on which was a disappointment, but what the heck. I can still go BF in the terminal building. You will notice that the only trouble I got was from Male employees most likely trying exercise their authority.

 

I've flown a lot myself and practically never have a problem being barefoot. But I know it can happen, a lot depends on luck. I think you handled yourself admirably. But for those of us who do travel a lot, I think some details you left out would be helpful. You mentioned SLC. I presume that's Salt Lake City? You mentioned going to a different gate during your return trip, so what other airports were involved on your trip? Also, and this is the most important question, what airlines was it?

 

Sorry for any missing detail.

Yes, it was Salt Lake City. I flew Delta thru Atlanta.

I've never had a problem (yet) in an airport, including the shops and restaraunts. I love to wander thru Brookstone, The Sharper Image, and Palm One BF. My faves are restaraunts. So cool to be able to sit down and eat among other people knowing that you're different. I haven't tried the Crown Room yet.

 

I've flown barefoot quite a few times too although in the UK and Europe rather than in The States.

I've flown on British Airways, Scandinavian Airways, British Midland and Easyjet within the UK and between the UK, Holland, Spain and several destinations in Scandinavia.

I've only ever had a 'problem' once. A British Airways Stewardess in Alacante Airport in Spain asked me to put shoes on to board my flight. She was very polite and just asked if I would please put on some shoes to board the plane. I really couldn't be bothered to argue or point out that I had flown out from the UK barefoot without any problem. I slipped on a pair of flip flops to walk up the gangway and to my seat where they came straight off again and went back into my bag where they stayed. I disembarked barefoot and nothing was said.

Apart from that I've had a few of the usual glances and 'double takes' from staff on various occasions but nothing was ever said.

I really do believe that it is just luck and who you happen to get on the day that makes the main difference. If you happen to get a fussy or over officious individual then I guess you can have problems.

For the most part though, I've found flying barefoot to be an extremely enjoyable and trouble free experience and would recommend it to anyone.

 

You got that absolutely right. You just have to be prepared and just be cool about it in case it happens. The majority of the time, nothing will be said.

That's been my experience and feeling as well. I've actually flown barefoot, including boarding, on just about every airline there is in the United States, including Delta, in the last several years. I can think of maybe 2 or 3 remarks made by employees during all that time, but none actually caused me to have on footwear more than about 10 seconds at any time. It's so enjoyable to fly and travel barefoot that it's definitely worth the very slim possibility that some uptight employee might say something sometime.

 

I hope this incident won't discourage anyone from flying BF in the future. It's great fun and I've done the SLC- ATL without a problem. Delta is not any more strict than other carriers. Just a few employees seem to notice.

 

The world is chockablock full of control freaks. Well, at least our free country is anyway. Perhaps we're the worst here about such things. Too bad. Anyway, as you and others have said, it's about not being noticed by these types. Plenty of folks will either let it go, or make a comment and then let it go.

Not knowing which type I'll get is what adds to the angst. And having the discipline to just give the silent treatment, rather than trying to argue it out with someone who may be too pig-headed to reasonably argue with. I'm trying very hard to perfect my "ignore" mode.

 

I left Sunday night on another biz trip and decided to try my luck again. This time, everthing went very well. For the ride out there, I was in first class in the first row and I boarded BF and left BF. The second leg was on a CRJ, which boarded outside. It was colder than heck in Atlanta and I decided to wear my Tevas. While in the ATL airport, I roamed all over BF as I usually do. It was late, almost 11 pm, and there were many bf people, more than I've ever seen. The return trip is going to be completely bf, from start to finish. I'm even planning to stop in at a Brookstone to pick up a pair of noise cancelling headphones and have a meal at a Sam Adams.

 

What???

You saw other barefoot people in the airport? I have never seen anyone barefoot (other than myself of course) in any airport in the United States. (I have in one foreign airport.) And it sounds like you're saying you've seen barefoot people in the airport before. If that's true, are you talking only the Atlanta airport?

That's really amazing, and I'm very happily surprised if that's correct.

 

I wanted to comment on your observation that only the male FA addressed the situation.

I wonder if the airlines have the men address confrontational issues as a policy? It might not be gender bias.

Many of the men in the Airline industry are gay, so you might be attracting more attetion then you think... (I just had to throw that in for grins, even though I am sure to take some heat from Straight Male FAs)

We could go a step futher and suggest the male FA who did NOT mention the issue have foot fetishes and enjoyed seeing your BF. On the other hand, it might be the gay guys checking out your style when they notice you are missing the latest fashion of Kenneth Cole, or whatever they think is HOT this month.

OK, forgive me if I didn't take this too serious, I did enjoy reading the post. Thanks for sharing your story.

My "interesting" airline story involves a women who didn't keep her BLUE JEANS on. But that will only be told by request.
James

 

I've seen bf people in Phoenix, Atlanta, Cincinatti, Chicago and in Canada. However, it's usually only 1 or 2 at a time. It's also rare and you have to be looking for them. You can see a lot of bf people waiting at the gate, but I don't count them.

 

Comments above.

 

When I said I have never seen anyone barefoot in an American airport, I meant actually walking around barefoot with no shoes in sight. I have in fact seen a lot of people sitting with their shoes off, but usually the shoes or flip-flops are in plain sight. I've also seen a few, where it's been crowded, sitting in the floor barefoot or even lying down resting or sleeping with their shoes off. A couple of times I've seen someone sitting or lying down while barefoot and did not see any shoes around them, but in those cases I've observed as soon as they stood up and started to walk around, they always seemed to come up with some kind of footwear to put on before taking any steps.

So, the barefoot people that you have seen, were they walking around, or just sitting?

 

Walking around. It's been mostly women carrying their high heel shoes.

On my return trip, they dumped me off at the farthest reaches of the airport and, of course, my next gate was at the opposite end. What a nice BF walk that was. The metal moving sidewalks are killer. They're O.K. to stand on, but walking on them is like walking on knife blades. I ate at Friday's bf with no problems. When I boarded my last flight, the female FA said "looks like you've gotten comfortable already". I said, "it's the only way to travel". She said she wished she could shed her shoes. The flight was full, and luckily, was only 45 minutes long. I walked off the plane, thru the terminal building and out to my car in the parking garage still bf. Thankfully, the weather was really nice and the pavement was still warm even though it was dark. Since the airport is just down the road from my office, I stopped in to drop off my laptop and other crap. Our Human Resource person was still there (at 8:30 pm). She caught me by surprise. She didn't say anything which surprised me.

Now to wait 'til the next trip next week.

 

That's been my experience. Nobody actually walking around similar to me with no shoes in sight. And the sitting ones, I'm glad they do it, but I don't count them as barefooters.

We're still talking Delta I guess. I've had good luck with Delta as well.

 

Yes, it was Delta. I don't fly any other airline.

 

And I don't see why these airline employees have such a big beef about people going barefoot on the plane! After all, security wants you to take OFF your shoes and put them through the scanner and walk through the metal detector that way. Perhaps that would be a good excuse to pose to the airline employees..."Well, sir, I knew that security would want me to take off my shoes anyway, so I just decided to go without them. Besides, if everyone went without their shoes on the plane, going through security would only be that much quicker!"

 

The less clothes you wear on the plane the less places there are to hide anything dangerous and thus the happier these paranoid airport employees should be. Anything that makes their job eaiser should be a welcome sight for them.