Two teenage girls wearing leggings weren't allowed on a United Airlines flight. A passenger overheard the exchange, and you know the rest: cue the Twitter mob. Mentions of United went from an average of 2,000 to 174,000 (and no, it's still not true that "any publicity is good publicity"-in this case, 70% of the tweets were negative).

For some reason, celebrities got into the discussion too. Patricia Arquette, for example, tweeted, "@United. Leggings are business attire for 10 year olds [sic]. Their business is being children." (Isn't Arquette's business being an actress?)

What people didn't realize is that the girls were flying on free passes for family of United employees, and the company's policy includes a dress code for representatives of the airline. United explained the situation in a statement on its website.

Although American Airlines has a policy similar to United's, Delta asks passengers to use their "best judgment" when deciding what to wear. Delta took advantage of the situation with a sarcastic tweet. 

Discussion:

• How well did United handle the situation? What points did the company emphasize in its statement?
• What's your view of Delta's tweet: clever, playful, schadenfroh (look it up), or something else?