Gen X Influencer Enrages First Class Flyers For Inappropriate Pointy End Attire

The first-class cabin still likes to pretend it operates by old-world rules. Soft voices, champagne on boarding, and an unspoken belief that everyone at the pointy end understands how to dress, behave, and belong.

Which is exactly why English content creator Sam Bills stepping onto a British Airways First Class flight to relocate to Australia wearing a singlet has triggered many a snooty point-end traveller online.

Bills, a Gen X influencer with over 100,000 followers, has built his platform on luxury travel, fashion and aesthetics. His feed is heavy on premium cabins, five-star hotels and carefully styled moments. He is not an accidental tourist wandering into First Class by mistake. Yet the humble “bluey” proved too much for some viewers, who immediately reached for their phones to deliver judgment.

“First class and tank tops… 🤦🏽‍♂️,” one commenter wrote. “Good to see you made a real effort when it came to your wardrobe for the trip. So low rent,” said another. “Flys first wearing only a tank top lol,” added a third, summing up the mood.

The outrage was less about fabric and more about symbolism and it’s not the first time we’ve seen this happen. DMARGE has had a long-running beef with Flight Hacks for wearing Birkenstocks and shorts in First Class.

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A post shared by Sam Bills (@samscottbills)

To many, First Class still represents a set of unwritten social codes, even if the airlines themselves abandoned them years ago. British Airways, for the record, has no formal First Class dress code beyond the standard rules around offensive clothing that apply across the aircraft. So, Sam ‘Dollar’ Bills broke no rules, but that did not stop the noisy commentariat from acting as self-appointed cabin police.

This tension is nothing new. Airlines have been caught in clothing controversies for more than a decade, and the outcomes are rarely consistent.

In 2017, United Airlines faced global backlash after barring two teenage girls from boarding a flight for wearing leggings while travelling on staff passes. United later clarified the rule only applied to non-revenue passengers, but the damage was done. Leggings became a flashpoint for who gets policed, and why. Qantas also banned activewear in its lounges a number of years ago. A move which angered many a content-creating Instagram ‘model’.

Budget carriers have leaned even harder into subjective enforcement. Spirit Airlines has repeatedly gone viral for denying boarding to passengers in crop tops or short shorts, citing clauses that allow crew to refuse travel for clothing deemed lewd or offensive. Ryanair faced similar criticism when a passenger was stopped over a strapless bandeau top, reigniting claims that women’s clothing is disproportionately scrutinised.

Influencers have also found themselves in the firing line.

In 2023, a US-based creator boarded an American Airlines flight wearing a sheer mesh top without a bra. Fellow passengers complained. The internet erupted. The airline confirmed no policy had been breached, though crew reportedly offered a blanket to defuse the situation.

Even premium cabins are not immune. In 2019, a Qantas Business Class passenger drew complaints after boarding barefoot in gym shorts and a sleeveless training top. No action was taken. No rules were broken. But the discomfort among fellow passengers lingered anyway.

That is the real story behind Sam Bills’ singlet. First Class is no longer a private members’ club governed by trousers and collars. It is a product defined by written rules, not imagined hierarchies.

DMARGE has covered the slow death of in-flight dress codes for years. Comfort won. Personal expression won. What remains is the nostalgia, enforced not by airlines but by passengers who miss an era that no longer exists.

We say you do you, Sam Bills. Everyone on board gets two tickets to the gun show.

What are your thoughts? Is dressing the part a must when travelling at the pointy end?