Woman boards Delta flight to New York. Then a flight attendant allegedly asks her to cover up: ‘Are you refusing to follow protocol?’

A TikTok creator who posts as Kay Rose described a Delta flight attendant asking her to cover her outfit after she boarded a morning flight to New York. She laid out the account in videos that drew a large audience online.

In her first TikTok clip, on-screen text read, “traveling, except the saxophones kept getting louder because I almost got kicked off the plane for my outfit.” The caption said, “I didn’t know athleisure tank tops were allowed on @delta flights?”

The video showed Rose and a friend standing in a gate area with rolling luggage. Rose wore a brown tank top and striped pants. Her friend wore a white top and black pants and held a fluffy item Rose later called a baby Lola blanket.

Kay Rose said the request came after she had already boarded

Rose said in a follow-up TikTok video that the first clip was filmed before anyone told her the outfit was a problem. She recounted TSA losing her wallet and said no gate or front-desk staff commented on her clothes as she boarded.

She recalled walking past first class on the 6:30 a.m. flight when a flight attendant called out “Miss” and asked to speak with her. According to Rose, the attendant asked, “Do you have a blanket or a sweater?” and then asked her to put it on.

Rose said she had a blanket and assumed the request was because she was not wearing a bra. She told viewers she does not wear bras, described herself as small-chested, and added that the tank top was double-lined and not see-through. She sat in the window seat with the blanket on her, she explained, because she sweats and has anxiety on planes and cannot wear a hoodie or sweater.

Rose said the attendant later walked by, called her Kayla, and told her she had not followed protocol. Rose quoted the attendant as asking, “Are you refusing to follow protocol?” The incident is part of a broader pattern of passengers being questioned about their attire or status on flights, such as when a Black woman flying first class to Miami was interrupted by an American Airlines flight attendant to check her boarding pass.

She maintained that she had offered a blanket, not a sweater, and that no one had explained what was wrong with the outfit. The attendant asked to move the talk somewhere private, Rose said, and she declined. Her friend Anna had a cardigan, and the attendant told her to put it on, according to Rose. She wore the cardigan unbuttoned for the rest of the flight and said she was sweating.

Rose said the attendant never said whether the issue was her midriff, her shoulders, or something else. She later looked up Delta’s policy and believed it barred explicit clothing, pajamas, swimsuits, and sports bras, none of which she said she was wearing. She identified the attendant as Barbie and said she planned to file a complaint. A passenger seated near them told her, “I’d go to war for you,” she added.

Delta’s domestic general rules state the airline may refuse to transport any passenger or remove a passenger from its aircraft at any time for listed reasons. Those reasons include a passenger’s failure to comply with Delta’s rules or the contract of carriage.

The rules also say Delta may refuse transport or remove a passenger when doing so is reasonably necessary in the airline’s sole discretion for the comfort or safety of other passengers or employees. Such rules can lead to disputes over attire, as an Alaska Airlines flight allegedly refused to take off until a passenger fixed her shirt.

Examples listed in the rules include a passenger who is barefoot, a passenger who fails to obey a flight crew member’s instruction, and a passenger whose conduct, attire, hygiene, or odor creates an unreasonable risk of offense or annoyance to other passengers. However, Delta’s policy does not specify any particular type of clothing that passengers must wear.

The first video had 2.6 million views, 145,600 likes, and almost 1,900 comments. Rose’s follow-up caption tagged Delta and said she would be waiting for a response. One commenter wrote, “I think some of these gate agents get a little jealous and power hungry.” Another wrote, “Why are we getting dress coded on planes in 2026”

One person said they had also been dress-coded on a Delta flight for wearing an Align tank and that customer service later sent $300 after they emailed. Another commenter wrote, “and it’s always for women. when do they every dress code men?” Someone else wrote, “Most airlines don’t allow tummy’s to show”

Another wrote that if airlines can dress-code people, they should also hygiene-code people. One commenter wrote, “Airlines used to be luxury and that’s why people used to wear their finest clothes on planes. It might be stemming from that? But it’s definitely not luxury now treating us like sardines.”