"At that time, our Employees made the decision to remove Kevin after a quick judgment call that he might have needed more than one seat for his comfort and those seated next to him.'
So, the passengers on each side of him, who both stated that he WAS NOT infringing on their space, coupled with Mr. Smith's lowering of the armrest, was not enough for your Employees to make the obvious judgement? Invoking a 25-year policy is one thing but Mr Smith PASSES both criteria (armrest and seatbelt) and did not REQUIRE an extra seat. The policy then has no bearing on this case.
Reading between the lines, it appears that the airline belatedly noticed that Mr. Smith had booked 2 seats on his original flight, and mistakenly assumed that he was required to do so because of his size. SouthWest Airlines then epically failed to communicate with their passenger, and brought on themselves a completely deserved storm of criticism.
This apology, like everything else I have read from SouthWest on this incident, sounds hollow and does not come to terms with the essential customer service issue. Our family will NOT support a company unwilling to admit to and rectify its blunders.
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