02-16-2010
08:28 PM
1 Love
I've just come from Kevin Smith's podcast, and this release fails to address the incident.
For those who are not familiar with his side of the story, I'll put a few points on display.
1. The attendant who delivered the order to remove him from the flight said that it came from the captain, but Kevin claims that it there was no line of sight between him and the cockpit. The judgment of whether or not he encroached on his neighbors did not actually come from the pilot or was determined before he was seated.
After he was ejected, the attendant who conveyed this message initially refused provide the name of the captain. She also would not repeat where it came from when pressed on the issue. He believes he was lied to about the process that led to his removal.
2. Kevin claims that he could have demonstrably buckled up if asked, and that he did in fact lower the arm rests. Then he asked his two female neighbors of they were alright with the arrangement. One woman said that it was only a one hour flight. The other said she was fine.
According to Kevin, none of this was even briefly considered.
3. The $100 offer was not made as a compensation for his time and inconvenience, but rather as a peace offering. He was picked out of a crowd full of people and made a spectacle. He even said that if he weren't so comfortable with being fat it would have been not only embarrassing but actually painful.
Making a low ball offer for someone's dignity could be considered offensive. It's not about money. You can make it about money, and they say that everyone has a price, but it's probably classier to treat people as if they are unique. This letter boasts the voucher as an appropriate gesture of customer care, when it actually became another, albeit minor, grievance.
4. Most importantly, and this is what set him off more than anything, is that once he got situated on a later flight -- with his extra ticket -- there was a large girl who sat on the end of the aisle, with the extra seat between them.
Before takeoff, this girl was briefly escorted to the front and encouraged to buy an extra ticket in the future. But she was permitted to fly this time, so long as she asked Kevin Smith to use part of his unoccupied seat.
I mean, Jesus. Is that kind of humiliation really necessary?
That is what made him really lose his temper, and this bureaucratic morsel of an apology makes no mention of it.
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