vs. the size of people…the twitter saga of director Kevin Smith.
I have questions. Did Southwest Airlines have a valid reason for refusing to seat Mr. Smith on a flight to Burbank?
Hmmm. I don’t know. Could he buckle his seat belt? Mr. Smith says…yes, he did buckle his seat belt on a subsequent flight.
As the story goes, he had a reservation for two seats on a later flight but then decided to go standby on an earlier flight. There was only one seat left on the earlier flight. Was it a middle seat? If so, I can see where he might not fit, especially if no other passenger was willing to move to accommodate him and allow him an aisle seat. Seems like everybody hates the middle seat. If you sit on the aisle, you have a little more room. If you get the window seat, you not only have a little more privacy, you can look out the window and lean against the window sill to sleep. No matter your size, in the middle seat, you’re just plain old squished.
I’m one of those disgustingly polite people willing to take a middle seat because I fit, even if my fellow seat mates spill over into my territory…I still fit.
The fact is, airline seats are pretty dang small and there ain’t a whole hell of a lot of room. Most airlines pack as many people onto every flight as they can. That’s tough for larger than average people.
From my thinner perspective, the lack of leg room in all but the front row, and people who try to shove giant so-called carry-on luggage into the overhead bins, kind of bug me more than big people on either side of me. But, in defense of Southwest Airlines, I’ve flown with them for years and they have provided excellent, convenient, consistent, professional service and I’ve never once seen them ask a plus size person to get off a plane. Southwest is one size fits all, so when I want more space on long flights, I fork over my hard-earned dollars for Business Class on another airline.
I can only imagine Mr. Smith’s indignation and embarrassment and I would not want something like this to happen to one of my best friends who happens to be a very large woman, but I’m wondering if you kinda sorta had to be there. Maybe SWA just picked the wrong guy to mess with. I guess what concerns me is something larger, no pun intended…men and women in the developed world are growing, as are the health problems related to obesity, while the seats on SWA are not…
Tomorrow, back to romance.
No related posts.
Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.
I look back longingly on the days of airline travel - I was a teen - when I didn’t feel smashed in like a sardine in a tin can. Because of economic pressures, that space will never exist again. Most people do fit into the airline seats safely, which again makes me wonder if someone refused to move and made a fuss.
My issue with flying is that I’ve had two reconstructive surgeries on my knee and I can’t sit crunched into the seats that have no leg room for more than a couple hours. I know people get pissed and look at me sideways because I appear totally healthy, but if I’m boarding a long flight on SWA, I will actually go up and ask for one of those disability boarding passes so I can get a bulkhead seat or an aisle seat. I have to be able to straighten my leg out. Like I said, I couldn’t care less who sits on either side - my issue is leg room.
Yup. They picked the wrong guy to mess with. He’s got a hella big platform out there in etherland.
I think he pointed out that the only difference between him and the other borderline size (not clear whether they need two seats or not) folks is that he has a platform to publicize the issue.