Trump’s Transportation Chief Thinks Passenger Manners Ruin Travel—Ignores Airline Abuses, TSA Chaos, and His Own Boss’s Behavior


Department of Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy appears in a video with an etiquette coach (who has a book coming out) to promote ‘rules of the air’.

This is basically his “civility campaign” dressed up in what non-natives think is trending internet language (“red flags / green flags / beige flags”). It’s Duffy’s “Golden Age of Travel Starts with You” effort, which misses the point about the role of the department and what actually drives behavior.

I’m sympathetic to a desire for people to dress better and act better, but that’s a personal preference bounded by:

  • The small-d democratization of air travel, by which people from all walks of life and backgrounds come together inside a small metal tube.
  • The stresses of air travel, often imposed by the government itself from TSA lines, barking and frisking to delays caused by government-provided air traffic control.
  • Failures of airlines to provide a clean, comfortable product – where they’re shielded by government-provided immunity from liability to deliver on promises (Airline Deregulation Act preemption of common law tort claims).

People start where they are, have access to the air, but the air is uniquely unpleasant as a largely government-controlled monopoly that protects incumbent carriers and limits variability in business models.

Here’s Duffy and his etiquette coach:

The core message: holiday travel is stressful so passengers should stop being annoying. DOT isn’t going to enforce rules against airlines, and under federal law and Supreme Court precedent they’re your only avenue of redress, so you’re on your own. Here are their specifics (some of which are quite correct).

Don’ts (their “red flags”)

  • Don’t clog the boarding flow: don’t plant yourself in the aisle to rearrange your stuff while everyone’s trying to get to their row.
  • Don’t bring foods that punish the whole cabin: avoid strongly smelly items, messy foods, or anything loud/crunchy/obnoxious.
  • Don’t go barefoot in shared spaces: this is basic hygiene and for other people’s comfort.
  • Don’t play audio out loud: if you’re watching/listening to something, use headphones.
  • Don’t take calls on speaker (or be that loud caller): keep conversations quiet and private; don’t turn the cabin into your conference room.

Oh, wait.

Do’s (their “green flags”)

  • Offer practical help when it’s genuinely helpful: assist someone struggling with a heavy bag getting it into the overhead bin, lend a hand at baggage claim if someone’s having trouble managing luggage.
  • Give parents a break: a small supportive comment or a bit of patience for a solo parent with little kids counts as “good citizenship.”
  • Act like a decent representative of the country: if someone’s visiting and unfamiliar with the U.S., be extra civil and welcoming.

“It depends” (their “beige flags” / gray areas)

  • Seat switching: It’s acceptable to ask, but only if you’re prepared to take “no” immediately and gracefully. If you do ask, don’t propose a downgrade; try to propose something roughly equivalent.
  • Reclining: Don’t reflexively slam your seat back. Check what the person behind you is doing. If it’s meal/service time or they’re working, treat reclining as inappropriate. If it’s an overnight situation and the row is already in sleep mode, reclining is more defensible.
  • Armrests: the middle seat gets both shared armrests.

The key for me is in the introduction to the video. Duffy opens by gesturing at air traffic control modernization as the huge need in aviation, and it’s the number one responsibilty under him. But he immediately pivots to passenger manners. It’s an unintentional parody of misplaced focus: “yes, I’m on the big safety infrastructure thing. Anyway, reclining.” And passenger etiquette is just not the binding constraint on safety or system performance.

Meanwhile, it’s hard for this administration to sell “be polite and show class.” Maybe Duffy could pitch it to his boss first? Just to name a few:

The etiquette red flags are correct, just a bit ‘Bill Clinton promoting school uniforms’ kind of stuff, small ball and inappropriate as the role for the federal government.

I’d push back a bit on helping with bags. Ask first and be careful. You don’t know what you’re lifting. People can misunderstand the help and escalate conflict (“don’t touch my bag”).

In any case “etiquette causes inflight conflict” doesn’t quite work empirically. Conflict incidents spiked due to mask mandates in 2021. They stayed elevated because of (1) much greater tendency to report and track incidents following the huge spike, and (2) much lower percentage of frequent travelers who ‘know the drill’ and tend to be more culturally homogenous.

The focus on dress, too, reads like old man yelling at clouds, insisting everyone conform to the norms of the laptop class in order to ‘belong’. And the only ways that attire really matters reducing conflict is (1) if we ban MAGA hats and politics generally from the cbain, and (2) more demure attire so wives and girlfriends don’t get angry at their partners for gawking.

Is there any indication that the ‘Golden Age of Travel’ campaign has affected actual passenger behavior at all?

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Trump’s Transportation Chief Thinks Passenger Manners Ruin Travel—Ignores Airline Abuses, TSA Chaos, and His Own Boss’s Behavior

Igor Jeuhan