15
Feb
2010
Posted by: Mark Ashley
Southwest Airlines has come under fire for kicking portly director Kevin Smith off a flight to Burbank, claiming he violated their “Customers of Size” policy. His Twitter rants against the airline are viscious, foul-mouthed, and admittedly, rather entertaining. (His 90-minute podcast, in which he tells the airline to go f*$& itself could frankly use an editor…)
I’m not sure there’s much value in taking outright sides in this battle, I’ll offer unsolicited suggestions for Southwest and other airlines.
- Make your policy clearer.
Southwest needs to make clear — early on — who is too large for one seat and who isn’t. Smith has argued that he’s not “too fat to fly,” despite being a large man, and that he bought the extra seat in the first place in order to secure a privacy-zone of sorts. So he’s shy. Fine. But he’s also not exactly a small guy, and arguably at the border of the two-seat rule. (See recent video of him in action.) I’m not making a call that he is or isn’t too large for those seats — the airline should, and the customer needs proof. Southwest — or any airline with a passenger-of-size policy like theirs — needs to be able to make that call before the passenger gets near the gate. I could swear I saw a row of airline seats behind the Southwest check-in areas at Midway years ago. That sort of “test drive” space should be standard — and more discretely hidden out of public view than my memory serves. - Clarify your standby/rebooking policy for passengers who booked multiple seats.
Smith had booked two seats but stood by for an earlier flight. If the passenger booked two seats, make sure both of those seats stand by for the next flight. If both don’t clear, the passenger shouldn’t clear. Jerking someone around by clearing them and revoking their boarding pass(es) at the last minute is unprofessional. - Don’t publicly shame people for their size
Perhaps the most disturbing tale from Smith’s rants is the anecdote of the treatment of another passenger of size on a subsequent flight: She had an empty seat next to her, but was apparently berated publicly for not having purchased a second seat. Having a “passengers of size” policy is fine. But it’s not necessary to shame someone. - Don’t mock a complainer
Southwest’s public reply to Smith was entitled “Not So Silent Bob,” a reference to his character “Silent Bob” in the film Clerks. But that plays a little too cute. When you’re being savaged in social media, I think a more serious — and sincere — tone is warranted. For an airline that “gets” social media as well as Southwest does, this has been an uncharacteristically ham-fisted handling of a high profile challenge.
Whether or not Smith needed a seatbelt extender or fit between the armrests is no longer relevant. What matters now is how the airline treats its customers, going forward.
Categorized in: Southwest Airlines
RSS (FeedBurner)
Read with Amazon Kindle
Subscribe by E-mail
Follow on Twitter
February 16th, 2010 at 8:50 am
Twitter Comment
@upgradetravel Great article, well said.
February 16th, 2010 at 12:46 pm
Mr. Smith had originally booked two seats – then stood by for an earlier flight for which only one seat was available.
While he may have been able to squeeze himself into a single seat and fasten the seat belt, but the article does not address whether he encroache into the seat space of the seats on either side of him. Seems to me that Southwest is being proactive to make its all-coach flights as comfortable as possible for all their customers.
It seems that Southwest may have handled the public relations aspect of this incident. The positive spin would be that they are looking out for the well-being of all their customers with a policy that is arguably laudable.
February 16th, 2010 at 4:47 pm
Southwest’s policy is better than United’s, which encourages preemptive booking of an extra seat but doesn’t offer a refund if the flight isn’t oversold. With United, you either save the money (by not buying the extra seat) and then potentially suffer embarrassment if the flight is full – or spend the money, and risk that it might not be.
Southwest’s policy covers both bases for the customer. Additionally, if Smith bought the seat for additional comfort and privacy but not because he is a “customer of size,” he was likely violating Southwest’s contract of carriage. Their policy prohibits the purchase of extra seats, except for customers of size and for items such as musical instruments. That’s to say, even though he may not have meant to, Southwest’s probably assumed he was using the customer of size policy, because – well, he is a big guy.
If his habit is to buy two seats, he should continue to do so. Southwest has a generous customer of size policy and a business model built on low fares in a single size seat. I doubt Southwest will change their policy or widen their seats, but Smith can always fly another carrier with the option of first or business class seating, their own customer of size policies, and assortments of RJs operating on formerly mainline routes.
February 16th, 2010 at 8:30 pm
I don’t quite understand your last point, Mark. I have no desire to listen to 90 minutes of Mr. Smith ranting, so I maybe get a one-sided story here, but I thought Southwest’s blog post was reasonable, sincere, and polite.
Maybe Mr. Smith would like to fly another airline between Burbank and Oakland next time… oh wait, are there any?
February 18th, 2010 at 9:20 am
[...] also read about this, after her email, on the Upgrade blog, which mentioned Southwest’s own blog response. My reaction at first blush is similar [...]
February 18th, 2010 at 10:21 am
Oliver, I’m not sure I get what you’re referring to, either. My “last point” was that Southwest’s implementation of its policies going forward is what matters to me at this point. I couldn’t care less about any further back and forth between Smith and the airline.