http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/02/14/director-kevin-smith-too_n_461803.html
Some of you may have already heard about this, but recently film director Kevin Smith was removed from a Southwestern Airlines flight because the airline personnel claimed he was "too fat" to fit into the seat. Southwestern Airlines has a policy that states that if you cannot fit between the armrests of seat, you must get another ticket for the seat next to you in order to fly. Smith claims that he comfortably fit between the armrests, but was removed from the flight anyway.
I find it interesting that the resolution airlines have for overweight individuals that cannot fit into standard seats is to order another seat. Doesn't this seem wrong to a certain extent? Shouldn't there be better alternatives available for people that cannot fit into the standard seat (which usually are not all that big in the first place)? Doesn't this appear to be discriminatory towards overweight people even though it is part of the airline's policy? Any ideas for a better way to go about situations like this? I also thought it was strange that both Smith and the Airline are communicating via twitter....but that's a whole different issue...
Some of you may have already heard about this, but recently film director Kevin Smith was removed from a Southwestern Airlines flight because the airline personnel claimed he was "too fat" to fit into the seat. Southwestern Airlines has a policy that states that if you cannot fit between the armrests of seat, you must get another ticket for the seat next to you in order to fly. Smith claims that he comfortably fit between the armrests, but was removed from the flight anyway.
I find it interesting that the resolution airlines have for overweight individuals that cannot fit into standard seats is to order another seat. Doesn't this seem wrong to a certain extent? Shouldn't there be better alternatives available for people that cannot fit into the standard seat (which usually are not all that big in the first place)? Doesn't this appear to be discriminatory towards overweight people even though it is part of the airline's policy? Any ideas for a better way to go about situations like this? I also thought it was strange that both Smith and the Airline are communicating via twitter....but that's a whole different issue...
This reminded me of a story that happened to my friends boyfriend. He lives in South Carolina and had to fly home from visiting her, and he had to sit in between two obese people, where one of the people had to get two extra seat belts, and the other had to get three. Of course, this was a couple so its different for them, where its not just one person, but where they could have bought the seat in between them or had seats next to each other. So my friend, had to sit uncomfortably in between them. Where it would have been nice to sit somewhere else, or if they had bought the ticket in between their two seats.
I also understand how discriminating it can be where they would have to buy an extra plane ticket because they can't fit in the seats comfortably and the seats are rather small to begin with. So I can see both sides of the story, and i don't know whther the airline should make bigger seats or better track where they are putting people, but now you can choose where you want to sit.