Kevin Smith, the writer and director of the movie Clerks (among many others), was apparently kicked off a Southwest Airlines flight on Saturday on the grounds that he was too fat (and therefore a "safety risk"), even though he'd already been seated on the plane. In response, Smith began sending out a stream of profane but funny tweets directed at the airline. (""Hey @SouthwestAir I've landed in Burbank. Don't worry: wall of the plane was opened & I was airlifted out while Richard Simmons supervised.") Of course, this has now become national news because Kevin Smith is a celebrity, and a witty one at that. Last night, ABC World News did a 2 minute segment on this whole thing that I've embedded below.
Southwest Airlines claims they've had a "customers of size" policy for over 25 years. Even if so, boy-oh-boy did that plane's captain pick the wrong schlub to make the object of some very rare, selective enforcement. And then Southwest's customer service department compounded the error when they promptly tweeted out to him their derisory offer of a $100 travel voucher as compensation, mistakenly treating him in that same cheery but abjectly inadequate way they would any ordinary passenger.
Southwest Airlines claims they've had a "customers of size" policy for over 25 years. Even if so, boy-oh-boy did that plane's captain pick the wrong schlub to make the object of some very rare, selective enforcement. And then Southwest's customer service department compounded the error when they promptly tweeted out to him their derisory offer of a $100 travel voucher as compensation, mistakenly treating him in that same cheery but abjectly inadequate way they would any ordinary passenger.
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I understand that Smith had complied with the airline's policy and had purchased two tickets but he switched flights and only a single seat was available. That being said I have had people like Smith squeeze into a seat next to me and I think the Southwest policy is a good one and that it should be enforced.
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