I'm a bigger guy, and fly the same route that Smith apparently flies all of the time. I'm about 260 pounds, and I fit in the airplane seat perfectly fine, in fact, I find the seats more comfortable than most movie theater seats. I have never "infringed" upon another customers seat area, and I have had no complaints from other passengers.
Listening to Smith's podcast, it really makes me reconsider flying with your airline ever again. You seem to have arbitrarily made him unboard your plane, for some mystery reason (probably to siphon more money out of the guy) or because someone along the line did not enjoy their interaction with the man.
Regardless of the reason, you have to realize that bigger people are, well, people too; and right now, we are ALL watching how you react to this incident. So far, the reaction has been horrible. You have released the man's public information, you have posted some ridiculous blog/press release trying to act all cute about the incident; and it simply is embarrassing the man further.
Your customers are watching this interaction, and those beyond the idiot "screw fat people, I hate them" mentality are pissed.
Good job angering your customers during this fragile economic climate; I have never experienced a flight with SouthWest that wasn't at least somewhat screwed up.
Customers, minus one.
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