Radio host criticises Qantas after being told to button cardigan in lounge

Nikki Osborne was told to button up by airline staff.

An Australian woman claims she was left humiliated when her outfit was deemed too inappropriate for a Qantas airline lounge.

Radio personality Nikki Osborne was passing through the airline’s Brisbane lounge on a work trip when she was told she needed to cover up.

In her Q Weekend column, Osborne said she was left feeling “degraded” after an airline employee asked her to button up her cardigan.

She said she was told she needed to adjust her outfit, not just to meet the lounge dress code, but “to protect the other cultures in the lounge”.

The 44-year-old said she was wearing a pink bodysuit, with her cleavage already covered by a white cardigan.

“To have a woman suggest that my choice of dress is inappropriate really hit hard”, Osborne said.

“It was actually hard to process that I’d been made to feel like a tart in my hometown, in front of my male colleague too.”

A phone call after the incident saw staff double down, going over the items Osborne had been wearing that day.

Qantas did, however, assure her the incident would not be repeated, and she said she would continue to fly with the local airline.

Osborne also wrote about the public’s disappointing response to the incident, which she initially spoke about on her radio show.

“So many people, without hesitation or any knowledge of what I was wearing, were lumping on about keeping trash out of the lounge. I’m trash now? How did this happen?!”

The Qantas airline guidelines require lounge guests wear smart casual attire, explicitly prohibiting “revealing” clothing.

Other banned items include UGG boots, jandals, beachwear and “head-to-toe” gym clothing.

Qantas describes the dress code as “intended to create an environment everyone can enjoy” and grants individual lounge managers discretion to extend the rules to other types of clothing.