We’ve all heard the story by now. Kevin Smith the overweight movie producer gets kicked off of a Southwest Airlines flight for being “too fat to fly”. We’ve heard Kevin’s side of the story, Southwest Airlines’ side and the opinion of every other person in the universe. So, I know you guys are anxious to hear what I think, right?!
Bottom line, there has to be a better way to deal with overweight and obese customers, other than to wait until they are on the plane getting ready to buckle in. That’s just tacky. According to Kevin Smith, he was able to put his armrests down and still be comfortable in his seat, which is the definitive gauge for a “Customer of Size”, per Southwest Airlines policies. At least one of their employees thought that he was a “Customer of Size” who required two seats, and asked him to leave the aircraft. After he was already seated. Harsh.
Southwest Airlines acknowledges that this wasn’t the best way to deal with the situation, but they do stand by their policy. The reality is that obesity is a growing problem in this country and the number of people who are “Customers of Size” will continue to increase. Is it fair that they have to pay for two tickets every time they want to take a vacation? Not really. Is it fair for me to be squished in my seat because the person next to me has their arm all up in my space? No, but let’s face it, those seats are small to begin with! I think the best solution would be for airlines to make the seats in one of the rows larger to accommodate larger passengers. They can charge a little more for those seats, and everyone can be seated comfortably.
That’s just my humble opinion. There are going to be people on both sides of this issue for a long, long time. What side are you on?
- Eunice
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Labels: Breaking News, Eunice, Obesity
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What a terrible "policy". There has to be a better way to handle this than picking a passenger out in front of the ENTIRE flight and telling him to leave. It makes you think how many people they've actually done this to...and that they picked the wrong one this time! I'm with Kevin - and that response on SWA blog..a total joke!
I say we boycott Southwest....