Southwest Declares Kevin Smith Too Fat To Fly

theodp writes "Kevin Smith is not a happy Southwest customer. The director was thrown off a flight from Oakland to Burbank, after being deemed too fat to fly. He later wound up on another Southwest flight, but has declared It's On and taken his rants to Twitter. 'Dear @SouthwestAir — I know I'm fat, but was Captain Leysath really justified in throwing me off a flight for which I was already seated?' he began. He also let the airline know he'd made it to his destination. 'Hey @SouthwestAir! I've landed in Burbank. Don't worry: wall of the plane was opened & I was airlifted out while Richard Simmons supervised.'"

Comments

Re:Welp, that's it

[Hatta]

If he was really too fat to fly they never should have sold him a ticket.

I understand the sentiment, but how would you implement that? Are you going to make people weigh in before they can buy a ticket? Going to rely on self reporting?

Re:I have sat next to these guys.

[Idiomatick]

Kevin smith is fat but he's not one of those huge guys... He looks to be around 235lbs. That is no where near some of the people that have gotten on the plane I'm sure.

Average weight is over 190 lbs (http://usgovinfo.about.com/od/healthcare/a/tallbutfat.htm). In places like Mississippi (1/3rd of the population is obese) it is likely near 220.

So throwing him off the plane seems pointed for whatever reason. Were he 350 or 400 then I'd get it.

Yuh Huh

[Greyfox]

As someone who's flown several times with some fat fuck overlapping into the seat I paid for, I really wish they'd do that more often.

If you take up two seats, pay for two seats. And not one here and one 4 aisles back.

have you seen him lately?

[YesIAmAScript]

That pic is from 2007.

Have you seen him lately?

http://cache-03.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/1/2008/11/Rogen_Kevin_Fat_Guys.flv.jpg

Re:I have sat next to these guys.

[Cederic]

but every once in a while I get some asshole who not only reclines it, but slams it back, right on my knees.

I find pushing it back upright, perhaps with the occasional irritated punch, always works.

Maybe it's the look on my face whenever anybody actually turns around to complain..

Re:Welp, that's it

[SerpentMage]

I was flying from Newark to SanFran. And I was in the last row. Ahead of me were three ladies, and these ladies were HUGE! The interesting part was that these three ladies all had to sit in the same row. They complained and said that they would like new seats. The stewardesses in their nicest voice said, "sorry but this flight is full and you will have to sit in your assigned seats."

When the ladies had to sit they moved up all of the armrests and honest to goodness their butts and bodies melted into one another! Needless to say most people around those ladies were relieved that they did not have to endure one those ladies sitting beside them.

I thought it was pretty efficient for Delta to say, "hey you want to be fat, go for it, its a free country. But while we are at it we are going to put you beside each other..."

Re:Slashdotted - here's the text

[Zemran]

Boycott? I am more likely to fly with them now I realise that I am less likely to have someone like him squeezed into the seat next to me.

Re:Welp, that's it

[kklein]

Numerous airplanes (except the small ones) have varying sized seats (even in coach) - just like many movie theaters.

Huh? What plane and what theater? I've never seen either!

I spent a nice 11 hour flight across the Pacific with a morbidly obese Singaporean guy going home after a comic con (he owned a comic book store). His arm was all the way into the middle of my chest, and his upper fat roll engulfed the arm rest. I couldn't believe that he was allowed on with one seat. I asked a sky waitress if there was anything we could do, but the plane was full and said I'd have to take another flight if I didn't like my seat.

I would have to take another flight because the fatass next to me was taking up half of my seat!

I just pounded Chivas Regal throughout the trip so I wouldn't care so much.

As I did, I started chatting with him. He was a really nice guy, although way too otaku for my tastes. It made it harder for me to wish death upon him, so I've decided to instead wish death upon United Airlines.

This is a serious problem and needs to be addressed as a matter of course. I payed full price for half a seat!

Re:Welp, that's it

[michael_cain]

Sorry people of carriage, but if your caboose cannot fit into the seat to the point where you need to lift your armrest, you simply need to buy another god damned seat.

Yep. I've been known to demand that the person next to me leave the armrest down, and called the flight attendant to enforce it. There is no requirement that passengers be allowed to put armrests up during a flight if the adjacent passenger does not wish to. I find that mentioning "inappropriate physical contact" with a hint of sexual harassment gets the airline's staff's attention.

Re:Slashdotted - here's the text

[Jahf]

I've seen this policy applied before by Continental. A kid of about 17 years old was forced to buy a 2nd ticket. Or rather was forced to call the mother of his friend who had purchased his tickets for him to make her buy another ticket. He told me this as the 2 of us were sitting in the 3-seat row of the plane as his way of letting me know I wouldn't have to worry about someone taking the middle seat because he paid for it. He was quite embarrassed.

I personally am a bigger dude, but not that big, so I was relieved we were going to have some extra space.

Then Continental seated a deadheading pilot from another airline in that empty seat. For free. And the kid next to him was able, barely, to lower the arm rest.

The kid was too embarrassed to speak up for himself. So I mentioned it to both the pilot as well as the Continental flight attendant for our section. The pilot's reaction? "I dunno, not my call". The stewardess? Pretty much no response at all.

I've seen a similar case as well where the person bought 2 seats and someone on standby was given their seat. In that case the airline refunded their money and let the person on standby take the seat. Which means the airline wasn't caring at all about the safety of anyone, they just wanted their cash.

The airline policies are invoked willy-nilly at THEIR convenience without a care for the injury caused. The policies would be understandable if they were enforced justly and equally, but they do not. If you buy 2 seats then the flight attendants should not be able to reassign you. I could name plenty of other policies that get applied unfairly too, like luggage sizes, after 13 years of business travel ... but they would get so mind-numbing that it's just not worth it.