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I'm on the tail end (sitting in the Admirals Club on the way home) of a long eight-day business trip to Stamford, CT, New Rochelle, NY, and Toronto, ON. So forgive me for the lack of timeliness on this post...

I left LAX on October 31, which happened to be Halloween. Before I go any further, I should provide full disclosure and tell you about my bias. I think Halloween is a stupid holiday. It has no real purpose, and is especially stupid when celebrated by adults. If children want to dress up and beg for candy on Halloween, I'm certainly not going to be the Scrooge who stands in their way. But adults have no business dressing up in stupid costumes for no apparent reason.

Which leads me to my point...

On October 31, I was at LAX flying to ORD (and then on to HPN). Here's what I saw:

One of the agents at the check-in counter was dressed as Michael Jackson. Another was dressed as a baseball player.

After going through security (where a bunch of idiots were dressed as TSA agents), I stopped by the Admirals Club, where the two AAngels at the front desk were dressed as witches.

When it was time to head to my flight, I arrived at the gate to find one agent dressed in a giant poofy chiffon gown and the other dressed as a garbage can. She was seriously wearing a garbage can around her body, with holes cut for her legs and arm, a garbage bag over the top part of her torso, and a garbage can lid on her head. (Another agent, who seems to share my feelinsg about Halloween, was dressed in an AA uniform.)

Set aside my anti-Halloween bias. Lets assume I love the holiday. Even then I think I would be telling you that I think it's silly and unprofessional for employees of a major airline (an airline dealing with serious financial problems, including some painful-for-both-sides labor disputes with employees) to dress up as trash cans. Or dead pop stars, prom queens, or baseball players. One thing I like about American Airlines is the way they symbolically represent their professionalism with their neat, pressed uniforms. When I see AA employees, something about their appearance says, "I work for a serious company, and I take my relationship with customers seriously." An employee who comes to work in a trash can sends the message that they don't take themselves, their job, or me seriously.

As I sat at the gate, I wondered to myself what I might say if I were to board the plane to find the flight crew — especially the cockpit crew — wearing costumes. I might have gotten off the plane. I'm not sure I can trust the judgement of someone who comes to work dressed like such an idiot.