Southwest Airlines Community

My friend endured a similar experience on a trip she made regularly without problem. After people were seated, she was confronted by the SW Crew telling her she needed to purchase a second seat because she was fat. When she replied out of shock and embarrassment that she could not (she didn't have the money), they escorted her off the plane. I can't imagine what it must have felt like for her to be singled out in front of hundreds of staring strangers. The contempt most people have for fat people is obvious here and perhaps knowing that a fat person was "called out" was possibly even gratifying for many of the posters. This incident gave people permission to say awful things about other human beings. Instead of calling out cruel things out the window of a car to a fat person on the road, instead of giggling with another person about another person's awkwardness of size, people feel justified in openly expressing their loathe & hate. Your actions and response indicate it's OKAY to treat fat people poorly. It's puzzling to me that these people could hold so much negative emotion for another person (a stranger, no less) based simply on size. Southwest, your policy aside, you have done greater harm to respond with an insincere apology than to speak frankly and honestly about your indecent treatment of a customer. If we can't hold you to the standard of basic human decency, at least consider the impact this has on your company's image as well as profits. Yes, you are getting many positive responses, and I half rejoice that you're getting the customers you deserve (ha! enjoy your flight) but you have failed to give assurance to many others that they can expect and receive decent treatment. The reality is that Americans are averaging larger sizes. While I can't change individual minds about contempt for fat people, it is very shortsighted of SW Airlines to ignore the fact a good percentage of customers are large. A meaningful policy, better training with emphasis on respect and good customer service are necessary. You guys have a lot of making up to the image you advertise! As this blog post seems largely unconcerned about the actual issue, here's a suggestion to avoid this in the future. You might consider an internal memo to your employees to the effect that the next fat customer they choose to arbitrarily impose their policy should receive such a shameful and horrifying treatment that they won't go and post about it on the internet. Emphasize, you are fat, thus hateful and nobody will care about how you are treated. Then none of this would have to be discussed. ... View more