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July 28, 2010
Oh Southwest
airplanewindow, originally uploaded by snoopoz.
Back when I had my last job, I flew all the time. I basically flew for a living. Four cities in five days was not uncommon, and so I got to know airlines pretty well. I flew Southwest so much, I actually qualified for a pass that lets me take someone with me, for free, for a whole year. You believe that shit?
And do you know how often I had a problem with Southwest? Never. So that's why it puzzles me when people have problems with this airline. To wit, the airline is in some doo-doo again, over an obese passenger. This time, however, it's because a skinny girl was asked to leave so a big teenager could take two seats :
The latest incident happened earlier this month on a Southwest flight from Las Vegas to Sacramento. A thin woman bought a full-price standby ticket. It was the last seat on the flight. She sat down, then the obese passenger walked on board. After weighing their options, the flight crew asked the thin passenger to leave so the obese passenger could have a second seat.
Southwest Airlines stresses it was a very difficult situation.
Southwest Airlines spokesperson Paul Flannigan told The 33 News, "The passenger in question was a minor who was traveling alone. Normally, if the passenger were an adult, she would be required to purchase an extra ticket, but we did not want to leave the 14-year-old stranded."
*Shakes head*. Now, as an attorney commented later in that story, it would have made much more sense to ask for volunteers to leave the plane, rather than kicking off the last person. I also think it's reasonable that a 14 year old shouldn't be getting forced off airplanes, even if it's at the expense of others. There has to be a middle ground, in that people who take up two seats have a right to fly, but not to the point where they can freely take up two seats when all seats on an airplane are supposed to be occupied. It turns out the Southwest personnel who handled this incident did so in a way that made sense (put the last person to buy a ticket on a later flight), but unfortunately also managed to stir up outrage because the person who was removed happened to be "skinny," although there really is no indication of how skinny this person is. If she was 100 lbs and 4'11", would she rather sit in the seat the teenager was spilling into? Possibly.
This reminds me of the last time I went down to Florida. My Southwest flight was fairly full, but I do not believe it was completely full. I take up my usual window seat, and am feeling fairly decent about my chances of having an empty middle seat. Then, a large man and his gangly teen-aged son walk in and take up the two seats next to me. The man must have been close to 300 lbs, the son the smaller side of 150. For whatever reason, the large man takes the middle seat, with his elbows and stomach spilling over to my seat, while the son curls up in the aisle seat. He may as well have been sitting in a bean-bag chair at home, that's how spacious it was. Thus, I spent the next 2 and a half hours pressed against the window as this man struggled to buckle his seatbelt. I wasn't as much annoyed that he sat next to me as that he clearly had an option to sit in the aisle, yet somehow decided it was preferable to jam himself into the middle seat, where he could get fresh with a complete stranger. Humpfh.
entry no. 1493
Posted at July 28, 2010 01:22 PM