A WOMAN FLYING with Southwest Airlines from Las Vegas to New York earlier this month was asked by the airline to button up or she would not be allowed to fly, Jezebel reports.

The customer was wearing a (slightly low-cut) cotton dress, an open flannel shirt and a scarf as she boarded her plane and was told by airline staff that her cleavage was “inappropriate”.

The woman, who is referred to as ‘Avital’ by Jezebel, refused to cover up while boarding the plane, despite threats by airline staff that she would be kicked off the flight.

“I didn’t want to let the representative’s Big Feelings about my breasts change the way I intended to board my flight,” she explained. “And lo and behold, the plane didn’t fall out of the sky…my cleavage did not interfere with the plane’s ability to function properly.”

The airline apologised to Avital and offered her a full refund but said that their Contract of Carriage allows them to refuse to transport a customer “whose clothing is lewd, obscene or patently offensive”.

This is not the first time Southwest Airlines has enforced these rules on women whose attire was not deemed fit for flight. In 2007, a woman was escorted off a plane for her ‘inappropriate’ outfit and a week later another was forced to wear a blanket through the whole flight over her low cut top.

More recently a woman was told by Southwest staff that she was ‘too fat to fly’ on their plane and filed legal action.