Because I Really *Don't* Have Something Better To Think About
Irradiated by LabRat
So, by now the internet has reacted in its usual frenzy of contradictory action after director Kevin Smith (of whom I am mostly a fan) was booted off a Southwest Airlines flight for allegedly violating their “customer of size” policy, which is no doubt known to employees under some variant of the “flying whale” policy.
Southwest apologized. Smith wants more than that, he wants them to admit they were in the wrong. He says he had the armrests down and his seatbelt buckled and was therefore fine, but the policy actually says:
Customers who are unable to lower both armrests and/or who compromise any portion of adjacent seating should proactively book the number of seats needed prior to travel.
The flight attendant responsible says it was a “judgement call”. I would bet money that the part of the policy he supposedly violated fell under that second and/or rather than the armrests and seatbelts thing. Smith’s a big guy, but he’s not anywhere near morbidly obese- but on the other hand *I’m* not obese, I’m much shorter than him, and on some airliners I’m pretty near the boundaries of that comfortable part.
I sympathize with Smith. Those seats really are on the tiny side, and that had to have been epically humiliating, as I’m sure it would be to anyone at all on the wrong side of the policy- especially when you don’t really need to be all that fat to cross the lines as dictated by the standard. I’ve seen a fair amount of opinionating that the policy itself should be scrapped as inhumane.
At the same time, though, space on a passenger jet is incredibly valuable per square inch. It’s why the seats are so tiny to begin with- profit margins are getting thinner and thinner for airline corporations, and it’s an easy place to try and ride the razor edge. Not only is it very much a nontrivial cost for that airliner to absorb to give an extra seat for the price of a single seat to someone large enough to need it, the passengers adjacent to one overflowing into other seats paid for their space too. I know before the introduction of policies like this, I was sometimes forced to share up to a third of my seat with someone else because they were too physically large for their own. Aside from being a horrid experience for someone with as much sense of personal space as I have, it was also, effectively, being cheated out of something I had paid for.
Airlines are not public transportation, and no one has a right to cheap air travel. It really sucks for those affected by the policy, but I can’t see a good solution here.
As for Southwest, they have made the fatal mistake of pissing off a man with a massive audience. I wish them and the hapless flight attendant, who regardless of her rightness or wrongness was simply doing her job, luck.
February 17th, 2010 at 3:12 pm
As someone who is 6’5″ and 265# before I put on anything but my boxers, damn if I wish airlines weren’t different.
I wish they actually sold airline space by the square inch, though. First class is great, but while the ticket costs 10x as much, you don’t get (and I don’t need) 10x as much area. Maybe as much as 4x, but not 10.
On the gripping hand, I just did a bunch of flying on SWA, and even with my 26 inch span deltoid to deltoid, by strategically lucking into the first row on every flight and sitting on the aisle and mostly leaning that direction for the duration of my flights, I was able to not impinge upon my near seatmate.
I (and the dude next to me) was pretty bloody miserable when I didn’t get that seat for one of my flight legs, though.
February 17th, 2010 at 3:49 pm
It seems the biggest issue is that the policy is applied inconsistently. I doubt this is the first time Kevin Smith has flown Southwest, but this was the first time his size has been an issue. Rules that feel arbitrary understandably piss people off.
With all the issues with larger passengers, I wonder if it would be worth it to create an “expanded-room coach” section. Increase the cost by 50%, and increase the seat size by 50%. That would probably be sufficient to accommodate all but the morbidly obese without the extremely high cost of first class.
February 17th, 2010 at 5:00 pm
Andrew, from what I understand he usually does buy two seat but because of all the global warming we’ve been having lately, he was on stand-by and only a single seat was available. They shouldn’t have seated him that way to begin with.
February 17th, 2010 at 7:32 pm
I’ve been on far too many flights where the person (or worse yet, both persons) next to me raised an armrest I’d already protectively lowered so they could ooze into my seat.
Since I spend my days working with animals - sometimes aggressive ones - and consciously use it a lot, I’m hypersensitive to space.
I think I’d rather be waterboarded than forced to spend hours in constant intimate contact with a pair of strangers who are twice my size. [shudders]
The airlines really need to come up with a seating scheme that doesn’t involve humiliation or torture.
February 17th, 2010 at 7:40 pm
“No ticket!”
Kevin Smith makes me laugh. I like his movies. But I don’t sympathize. Everyone has known about this policy for years. Grow up and deal with it, OR fly on an airline that can accommodate your size.
February 17th, 2010 at 10:02 pm
“Grow up”
no, it would be more helpful to grow down…
February 17th, 2010 at 11:13 pm
The standards for seainfg are based on1940s statistics, and are recognized as bullshit, Link (http://www.ergoweb.com/news/detail.cfm?id=432)
I’m 6’1″. 204
February 17th, 2010 at 11:19 pm
Sell a given volume, weight to the passenger, and to his luggage, based on ticket price.
Need more? Get an appropriate ticket, or buy a second.
I pay extra to sit next to the emergency doors, because I am big, and don’t tolerate leg cramping due to diabetes issues. If I can’t get that, I’ll just have to fork over for business class or buy two seats.
February 18th, 2010 at 2:26 am
This is why LabRat is so cool: She came up with a thoughtful post and all I had were wiseass remarks about “widebody jets”.
February 18th, 2010 at 6:46 am
And yet, reclining your seat is generally considered perfectly kosher, even though it’s as much a theft of personal space.
Whenever the person in front reclines, my legs are squeezed for the whole flight, I can’t use a laptop anymore, often can’t eat without spilling - even have trouble reading a book.
What’s the difference? That I won’t be touching the person in front (unless I give into my strangling urge)? That I can in turn take space from the next person - although the back of the plane is screwed?
Of course, all this will become worse once the TSA requires passengers to travel nude.
February 18th, 2010 at 7:45 am
And, of course, the biggest hurdle is the TSA. I’d fly a lot more if I could get a seat that was bigger, and allowed me to carry instead of going through all that TSA bullshit. That’d be worth, oh, I dunno, another 50% - 100% in the ticket price?
February 18th, 2010 at 9:50 am
It could have been worse:
They could have broken his guitar.
Anyway, re flying with oversize people, I can’t stand it. I don’t mind that some people are broad across the shoulders, that can’t be helped, but rolls of obesity rolling onto my lap like sweaty gross waves on the shore? AUGH!
Jim
February 18th, 2010 at 11:44 am
Actually, he did buy two tickets and the flight attendant who kicked him out left another man on the flight who was larger than Mr. Smith.
The fact is that my wife, who is tiny, is one of the only people I know who actually fits into those damn airline seats. They have been made especially small so that the airlines can pack as many people as possible in. If they would put seat in that were actually normal human size the problem wouldn’t exist.
February 18th, 2010 at 2:11 pm
And then there are those of us who are, mmmm, vertically challenged whose feet don’t touch the ground if we sit back in the seat. That gets old almost as quickly as neighbor-overflow does.
As one who has battled weight problems for years, I’d be concerned about emergency situations. That’s a darn narrow center aisle and over-wing exit to be negotiating if the main cabin doors are compromised.
February 19th, 2010 at 1:53 am
I know before the introduction of policies like this, I was sometimes forced to share up to a third of my seat with someone else because they were too physically large for their own.
And after the introduction of the policies, I’m usually still forced to give up my personal bubble to someone who’s quite average weight but thinks that His Royal Majesty’s elbows and knees are entitled to generous sprawling room. I’ve spent entire flights in physical pain from tucking my very broad shoulders into a cramped little ball because the armrests on both sides of me were Royal Dominion.
Never mind seat width, I just wish the airlines would put two armrests in for each person. Tiny shared armrests don’t work even with polite seatmates, and spending 8 hours with my elbows on my belly is a goddamn stress position.
February 19th, 2010 at 4:46 pm
Instinct is correct- Smith DID buy two seats, but there was only one available on the acft he tried to standby on… There is no confirmation the FA did leave anyone larger than Smith on the airplane.
I don’t blame the FA for bumping him… I have been forced to spend more than one flight scrunched up against the window or standing up because the seat mate was above average in size. Frankly, my respect for Smith has gone down significantly since he is NOT telling the whole story and bitching and moaning at something HE CAUSED because he didn’t want to wait for the flight he booked… Friggin prima donnas…
February 20th, 2010 at 7:17 am
When I heard of this, my first- and still primary thought- is that
“Kevin Smith is so fookin’ cheap he flies Southwest?”
Don’t get me wrong- I like Southwest, I have friends who work for Southwest, and have had a long working relationship with the industry.
But geez, he shouldn’t expect Admiralty Class when flying on a carrier known as The Cattlecar in the Sky that freely advertises $39. fares everywhere and whose marketig strategy for years involved peanuts and hotpants.
TANSTAAFL.
Regards,
Rabbit.