I've waited for all the hub-bub to be over and reviewed this with no emotion, because I'm a big fan of both Southwest and Kevin Smith.
There's no doubt Kevin is a big guy. I saw him the same day this happened--was less than three feet from him for more than a few minutes.
That being said, I've flown Southwest many times sitting next to people as large or larger than Kevin Smith. Linda's post here is as wrong as the situation. The part that makes the least sense is that if the pilot called for expedience, why did they spend time pulling Kevin OFF the plane? He was already in his seat? Doesn't this take longer than just shutting the door and flying off?
I think whoever made the decision to eject Mr. Smith should be removed from dealing with customers at all. Certainly, they should not be in a position to make decisions concerning customer service issues. If this happened to me, I would absolutely have handled it the same way Kevin did. The difference being his platform is much wider than mine or anyone else who's been victimized by a big corporation with little people working there making bad decisions.
Southwest's employees handled this wrong. They shouldn't have issued this statement, because it's not correct. They shouldn't have ejected him to make room for other passengers, which is what it appears. Will I fly Southwest again? Probably. But, I'll be a lot more sensitive to customer care and speaking up if I don't get it.
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