Southwest Is Being Celebrated For Their "Customers Of Size" Policy That Gives An Extra Complimentary Seat For Customers Who Are Hefty
SOURCE: Plus-size TikTokkers are praising Southwest Airlines for its “customer of size” policy, which allows overweight passengers to request a complimentary seat and forces the flight staff to accommodate larger flyers — even if that means kicking others with tickets off of the flight.
“If you’re fat, you know the anxiety of flying and this alleviates it a lot,” Caroline, a travel influencer who said she is a size 20, told her nearly 200,000 followers in a video posted at the end of October.
“I had a very comfortable flight just feeling like I was allowed to take up the space I needed.”
Under the Texas-based airline’s policy, customers whose bodies “encroach” past the armrest are entitled to an extra seat at no additional cost.
It says that passengers “have the option of purchasing just one seat and then discussing your seating needs with the Customer Service Agent at the departure gate.
“If it’s determined that a second (or third) seat is needed you’ll be accommodated with a complimentary additional seat,” the policy states.
The flight team will then look at the seating arrangements — which are not predetermined on Southwest flights — and would potentially move other passengers around for the “unplanned accommodation.”
Southwest, though, suggests customers purchase the extra seats in advance and then contact the airline “for a refund of the cost of additional seating after travel.
“Customers who encroach upon any part of the neighboring seat(s) may proactively purchase the needed number of seats prior to travel to ensure the additional seat(s) is available,” the policy says.
“The purchase of additional seats serves as a notification of a special seating need and allows us to adequately plan for the number of occupied seats on board. It also helps us ensure we can accommodate all customers on the flight for which they purchased a ticket and avoid asking customers to relinquish their seats for unplanned accommodation.
Let me start off by immediately saying I think I'm team Southwest on this one? There is absolutely nothing worse than airline travel in the US. Whether it's some wacko woman yelling about alien people in the back of the plane or a delay for only God knows what reason, it's a coin flip to whether or not your flight will be even remotely tolerable. Amongst all of that, there's a chance you get on a flight and have to sit next to a crying baby, a snorer, or try to cram into an already-miniscule aisle of seats. There's a billion things that can go wrong, and most of them are eventually fixed, except an uncomfortable seating arraignment that you're forced to endure for hours.
Hat tip to Grier who is standing up for the hefties and is the only reason I saw this topic and ran to my AI blogging server:
Now let's hear from Old Row Swig who may be the most shadowbanned human on Earth on every platform that isn't Tr*th S*cial:
Hear me out. I don't care if Southwest wants to take a loss on offering a complimentary seat to customers of size. And it's important to note that Southwest lets you sit next to whoever you want to sit next to. I think it's probably arguable that this benefits the one person who sits next to them and gets the 1 and a half seat and everyone else is completely irrelevant to the situation. And the airline takes an already low budget cost of their tickets and eats it (no pun intended) for the sanity of everyone on board? Sounds like a no brainer to me.
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The one instance I can see this being slightly problematic is if you were to get bumped from the flight because they had to use an extra ticket. I say leave it up to the passenger. You're the last to board? You're either bumped or you get all cozy with Frank The Tank. Jenks does that everyday in the NYC office and hasn't complained once. Your choice.
I did chuckle a little at the woman who demanded the FAA accommodate the "super fats" like they're the Avengers though:
Plus-sized travel expert Jae’lynn Chaney — who once demanded the Federal Aviation Administration better accommodate larger passengers — also said it was an important move to include people in the “super fat” category.
“Super fat is how we identify,” she told Fox Business, explaining: “There’s a spectrum of fatness. And as a ‘super fat’ individual you start needing different accommodations.
I might start using that one. The bottom line is that you're either team Grier or team Swig here. I'll leave it up to you to decide. Or we forget all of this and give men what they've been asking for what seems like centuries now:
One can dream.