02-16-2010
12:05 AM
1 Love
I've Flown While Fat before and even though the armrest did come down, I felt bad for the person next to me because I know he had to sacrifice some comfort. I had fit fine on the departure flight, so I wasn't expecting the seat to be a different size on my return flight. Lucky for me, the person next to me and the flight attendants had hearts and didn't decide that an hour of uninterrupted comfort was worth more than my dignity. Delta did a great job in training their employees to have empathy and show good customer service. I can understand the necessity of the policy, but I would have been totally humiliated if someone had pointed out how fat I was after I was already seated in front of a bunch of other passengers the way SW did to that girl that was on Kevin Smith's return flight. All I can say is thank God I wasn't flying Southwest because if it was me, it would probably still bother me today.
It's time that Southwest realizes that public transportation, no matter what the cost, is never going to be flawlessly comfortable. They need to have a size/weight chart that is easy to look up on their website, and if you're over the weight for your height, you know you have to buy two seats or risk the humiliation. If you're not over it, the pilot and flight attendants do not get to decide that you're a safety risk. People should not find out they're too fat to fly after they've already taken a taxi to the airport, gone through security, checked their bags, boarded the flight and are in front of an audience. That shows poor people skills and poor business skills on the company's part.
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