I can tell you EXACTLY what happened. It wasn't that someone didn't like his movies, Kevin was targeted because 1) the employee didn't like his attitude 2) Kevin's weight was a convenient excuse to give Kevin hell for said reason #1.
When it was asked if Kevin was revenue, everything went South from there. Kevin asking him to repeat the question/comment appeared to be taken by the attendant as him being smug - he was in no way smug. The attendant appearing pissed off at the question, responded VERY smugly.
This was the equivalent to two guys locking eyes on the highway and one getting rubbed the wrong way by it. The entire situation began there with that tiny little exchange on the plane before he ever sat down. Period. Kevin's weight was an excuse to screw around with him because the attendant didn't like him.
Convenient Southwest didn't mention that the Captain didn't issue the order to remove them, only that the Captain had told the crew they needed to stay on schedule. Nice play on words there, Southwest.
Southwest's story doesn't add up. Southwest, your employees are people that are afraid they are going to lose their jobs! Of course they are going to LIE to you and tell you what you need and want to hear to avoid any further criticism and time fighting this! What did they say, "We were enforcing our policy.."? No, they weren't enforcing anything. This is a case of an employee taking advantage and exerting too much power that he didn't have in the first place, and manipulation of those around him to effectively humiliate and piss off not just one, but a few million all within a few hours of the incident.
The bottom line is this: You owe Kevin Smith more than apology (and anything you do will probably not satisfy the issue), you owe millions more an apology for those who were personally offended by the incident, and you owe your customers an apology for all the faith you just lost with your airline customers.
The agent at the gate should be terminated from her job for LYING on the captain, and for not being an honest face for the airlines. She, at that moment for Kevin, WAS Southwest, and if what Kevin says is true (I wasn't there at the gate) she deflected just about everything he inquired about. He, as the customer, had a LEGAL right to know what he had done wrong to be removed from that plane. He's a good man for vowing that he would not sue the airlines. More than what I can say for many others in his shoes. Furthermore, the attendant who I KNOW absolutely manipulated the situation (and the gate agent because of his own problem with Kevin) by calling back to the gate resulting in the gate agent boarding and removing Kevin from the plane, should also be terminated. Southwest should tuck tail and re-evaluate their quarterly statements, because that extra $100+ million they gained with us Business Select customers for the past few years, is going out the window REAL soon. Kevin had enough of a fan base, and enough people in general that are just fed up with the airline industry and these smug attendants in general, that hundreds of Southwest customers WILL make the choice as a statement to fly less or not at all with Southwest. I for one travel 6 days out of the week (sometimes twice in the same day), every week, all year long. My employees travel under me. My clients travel under me. My entire account including myself, my employees, and my clientele will being saying au revoir to Southwest.
I'm not fat. I'm just pissed. And Southwest, you've just lost my business.
Factor $60K+/yr out of your revenue for one account alone already, my friends.
(And you may remove this, or moderate this... that's okay. I'll be posting it EVERYWHERE, on EVERY forum, EVERY social networking site.)
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