02-17-2010
04:54 PM
1 Love
Okay, let's take it from someone else's point of view: a skinny guy. There's nothing worse than being jammed in a seat next to someone who's so overweight that they spill into your seat, and wind up pressing you against the far side. Even when the arm rest is down, thigh, stomach, and shoulder spills over into my seat. No, I don't want to touch you, I don't want to be constantly rubbing against you, I don't want to be crammed against you for the entire flight. Yes, you have your rights. You have the right to be treated respectfully, if you treat others with the same respect, exactly the same as I do. But you don't have the right to infringe on MY personal space, for which I paid the same amount to you. Let's try a revolutionary thought experiment: putting ourselves in someone else's shoes. I paid for my ticket the same as you, why should my flying experience be uncomfortable because you choose to be "larger" than the average person, but you don't choose to buy 2 tickets? I'm certain you would be upset if I dug out my laptop and had it shoved halfway across your seat, taking up your personal space! Or even just stretched out , took up the entire armrest, and pushed you over to the opposite side!
Take it from me, it's miserable being crammed into half a seat. That's absolutely unfair to me. If you can't afford a second seat, then you need to realize that, in order to avoid infringing on my rights, the airline is going to have to reseat you, and if it's a full flight, bump you to another, less full flight. That's the most fair outcome of the situation. You might say that they should bump me, however, I'm not the one who a.) requires two seats, and b.) doesn't wish to or is unable to pay for two seats. I have done nothing wrong, nor have I made any selfish decisions; you have, in not wishing to pay for 2 seats, therefore you are the party who is more "wrong" in the situation, and therefore should be the party who is given the less optimal resolution--i.e, bumped to another flight.
Southwest is totally correct in their decision to bump Mr. Smith, it's actually refreshing to see that they treat every customer equally, instead of kowtowing to celebrity or wealth. (I am a fan of his work, he always seemed very down-to-earth). That said, the situation needs to be handled with as much dignity as possible, but since I wasn't there, and we haven't heard from a third party with presumably no vested interest in either side, I'm not going to pass judgment on how the situation was handled. There will always be people who take any level of unfair treatment with a smile and blow it off, and there will always be people who erupt in self-righteous fury and accusations of unfair treatment whenever they don't get exactly what they want, despite how the other party is acting (anyone who's ever worked retail or customer service, you know this). Unfortunately, the latter seems to be more prevalent than the former.
I'm going to go with SW handled the situation in appropriately until a third party weighs in with eyewitness information to the contrary.
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