{"id":321804,"date":"2010-02-15T10:23:06","date_gmt":"2010-02-15T15:23:06","guid":{"rendered":"tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341c630a53ef0120a8a0da17970b"},"modified":"2010-02-15T13:12:34","modified_gmt":"2010-02-15T18:12:34","slug":"southwest-apologizes-after-director-is-kicked-off-flight-for-being-too-heavy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/321804","title":{"rendered":"Southwest apologizes after director is kicked off flight for being too heavy"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"http:\/\/images.chron.com\/blogs\/tmi\/Premiere_Southland_Tales_LA_CACP107.JPG\"<\/img>Director Kevin Smith has sparked a debate about airline policies toward obese passengers after he says he was kicked off a Southwest Airlines flight from Oakland to Burbank this weekend for being too heavy.<\/p>\n

The "Clerks" director sent out a series of Twitter messages <\/a>detailing the events and expressing outrage that he was told by airline employees to leave the plane even though he insisted that he fit in his seat.<\/p>\n

"I know I’m fat, but was [the airline] really justified in throwing me
\noff a flight for which I was already seated?" he wrote. "I broke no
\nregulation, offered no ‘safety risk.’ "<\/p>\n

Smith said the incident took place Saturday and that he was eventually able to make it to L.A. on another Southwest flight.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Southwest is one of many airlines that require overweight customers to purchase two seats if they cannot comfortably fit into one seat. The airline determines this in part based on a passenger’s ability to lower both armrests while sitting on the
\nplane.<\/p>\n

Smith insisted he could lower both armrests.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Southwest issued an apology<\/a> to Smith on its Twitter feed. "We are sincerely sorry for your travel experience on Southwest Airlines," the airline added in a statement.<\/span><\/p>\n

An organization called<\/span> the <\/span>National Assn. to Advance Fat Acceptance has called for a boycott of Southwest.<\/p>\n

But Southwest said the weight policy has been in place for 25 years.<\/p>\n

"The policy requires passengers that cannot fit safely and comfortably in one seat to purchase an additional
\nseat while traveling," the airline said in a statement. "This policy is not unique to Southwest Airlines
\nand it is not a revenue generator. Most, if not all, carriers have
\nsimilar policies, but unique to Southwest is the refunding of the
\nsecond seat purchased [if the flight does not oversell], which is
\ngreater than any revenue made."<\/span><\/p>\n

— Shelby Grad
<\/br><\/span><\/p>\n<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Director Kevin Smith has sparked a debate about airline policies toward obese passengers after he says he was kicked off a Southwest Airlines flight from Oakland to Burbank this weekend for being too heavy. The "Clerks" director sent out a series of Twitter messages detailing the events and expressing outrage that he was told by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4131,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-321804","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321804","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4131"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=321804"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321804\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=321804"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=321804"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=321804"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}