02-15-2010
11:46 PM
I'm glad a sincere representative from Southwest contacted Mr Smith and apologized. What happened to him was embarassing and unnecessary.
I've flown your airline many times and mostly I've met hardworking people trying their best to make customers as comfortable as it is possible to be while wedged in like cattle headed for a feedlot.
One thing getting lost in the discussion is the economics of seat sizing. So many people are blaming the victim here. Even though almost everyone I know detests flying because it's so degrading and dehumanizing.
According to Southwest's website, their seats are 17".
I just measured one of my dinner plates and it came it at 11 inches across at the widest point. It seems to me that Southwest's policy is basically that anyone who doesn't fit into a seat that's only slightly bigger than a PLATE is a special needs passenger and can be singled out for humiliation by random employees.
What is wrong with this picture?
Exactly what is normal? And when did we as a people agree that what was best for Southwest's bottom line (squeeze as many people as possible into the tin can!) was also good for us as customers?
Airlines make their seats small to fit as many people as possible on their flights to maximize their profit. You cannot simultaneously care about customer comfort and safety while pursuing policies that cram people into tiny spaces they cannot move around in. But companies claim to every day and people don't seem able to grasp that they are being fed a load of crap.
If safety was truly the main issue they would not allow unfit people of all kinds to fly - people who are ill, small kids, the weak and infirm, the mentally deficient, the elderly. But the issue isn't really safety, it's money.
Southwest is not the worst. They just have good prices and they let people pick their own seats so people like them. Basically flying reduces our comfort and dignity to such abysmal levels that the smallest gesture makes people grateful and appreciative.
All airlines sacrifice their customers safety and comfort for profits on a regular basis, and disguise it with claims about "keeping prices low" for their customers. It's kind of shocking to see how well this propaganda works on the average person. They aren't trying to keep prices low. They are trying to maximize profits. Their business model is to reduce service to the lowest level possible without losing you as a customer. They don't care about their employees any more than they care about their customers. They don't issue quarterly customer satisfaction reports. They issue quarterly earning statements.
17 inches is not a lot of space. The average person will fill that very easily. If you are in the middle seat it is even more cramped because of the personal dynamics. It's uncomfortable to sit that close to strangers for long periods. You cannot get up to go to the restroom without an embarrassing butt-in-face situation. I appreciate Southwest's pricing but would gladly pay $50 more for a few more inches of space but I don't have the option.
Southwest is working hard to make you believe that anyone who doesn't fit comfortably into a 17" seat is a fat tub that doesn't deserve to fly. Airlines have reduced customer expectations to such a low level that people seem to have become willing participants in their own discomfort.
Come on folks wise up to the corporate message manipulation that is going on here. You are being trained to think a certain way for their benefit, at your own expense.
When was the last time you enjoyed the flying experience? I flew first class last year and it wasn't horrible. But most of the time it sucks and we all just tolerate it. Seeing people come to the defense of an industry (and a carrier) that treats their customers so shabbily (and has for years!) is sad and wrong.
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