Kyla Ebbert (not Kayla, as some have said) and Setara Qassim have both recently gone public (ie NBC’s Today Show) with the news that Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE: LUV) singled them out on their flights for wearing what the Southwest flight attendants and employees claimed to be outfits that were too revealing. They both eventually took their paid-for flights, but only after humiliating public scenes complete with lectures and reprimands, then being forced to cover up with airplane blankets for the duration of their flights. I include the photos of Setara (above) and Kyla (below) here for you to judge whether or not their clothing was inappropriate.

Personally, I don’t think Kyla Ebbert’s or Setara Qassim’s outfits were inappropriate or offensive, at least not in our modern western civilization. But this is not the point I want to dwell on today. What concerns me is the inconsistency in policy and enforcement at Southwest Airlines, the inconsistent message. Amazingly, after being cornered, humiliated, and almost kicked off her flight from San Diego to Tucson, Kyla Ebbert wore the exact same outfit on her return flight to San Diego on the same day on the same Southwest Airlines, and not only were there no complaints or resistance from any Southwest employee, but one of the Southwest flight attendants on her flight actually complimented Kyla on her cute outfit. This is the inconsistency of which I speak.

Southwest Airlines admittedly has no stated dress code policy, yet they give power to a frontline employee (flight attendant and/or customer service rep) to essentially create a dress code on the spot and attempt to enforce it according to their own personal sense of judgment. Or perhaps it was that another Southwest customer complained about the outfits of the two young women, and so the Southwest employees tried to appease one customer (the complainer) at the expense of another (the young women)? It sounds like that was the case to me.

Either way, this still leaves me questioning the wisdom of giving this much power to frontline employees without giving proper corporate direction. When is empowerment too much? I bet those Southwest employees never thought these stories would make it into the national media spotlight and cause such potential damage to their own company. What is Southwest thinking now about dress code? About employee empowerment? Two cases out of millions of customers can really come back to bite them.

Don’t get me wrong—I am in favor of empowerment and of the right of a company to refuse service or products to any customer. But let’s do it consistently! Southwest has come out with a statement saying “When a concern is brought to our employees’ attention, we address that situation directly with the customer(s) involved in a discreet and professional manner.”

Nice try, Southwest, but your employees dealt with Kyla’s “situation” neither “discreetly” nor “professionally.” How much control do you have over your own “policies” and employees? Kyla was publicly berated in front of many other passengers a violation of a policy that doesn’t exist. Which customer is more important to you? Which customer is going to be more offended in the end? Hopefully, Southwest will learn a lesson here about consistency and policy—a lesson all companies would benefit from.