{"id":327485,"date":"2010-02-16T11:10:34","date_gmt":"2010-02-16T16:10:34","guid":{"rendered":"tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341c630a53ef012877a9565b970c"},"modified":"2010-02-16T11:31:12","modified_gmt":"2010-02-16T16:31:12","slug":"should-obese-passengers-pay-for-two-seats-kevin-smith-drama-sparks-debate-what-do-you-think","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/327485","title":{"rendered":"Should obese passengers pay for two seats? Kevin Smith drama sparks debate. What do you think?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Talk<\/img><\/a><\/p>\n

Director Kevin Smith’s dispute with Southwest Airlines after his removal from a plane over the weekend in Oakland touches on what for years has been a hot-button issue in the airline world: Should obese passengers be required to purchase two seats?<\/p>\n

Southwest is one of numerous airlines that requires passengers who can’t fit comfortably into a single seat to purchase a second seat. Some passengers have hailed this policy, saying it’s unfair to them to sit next to someone who takes up part of their seat.<\/p>\n

\"Kevin<\/img><\/a>But there have been legal challenges and protests over such policies. Last month, Air France came under <\/a>criticism for asking obese passengers to pay 75% of the costs of a second seat, forcing the airline to clarify its policy. Critics argued the plan discriminated against people because of their weight.<\/p>\n

United Airlines started charging<\/a> obese passengers for a second seat last year. According to airline officials, United has received more than 700 complaints f<\/a>rom passengers saying obese passengers\u00a0 encroached on their seats.<\/p>\n

In Canada, the government and courts have ruled that <\/a>airlines must provide "clinically obese" passengers with an extra seat for no charge. Supporters of the policy said it will allow more disabled people to travel.<\/p>\n

In the case of Smith, the director was outraged that he was told by airline employees to leave the
\nplane even though he insisted that he fit in his seat.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

"I know I’m fat, but was [the airline] really justified in throwing
\nme off 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

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

What do you think? Should obese passengers pay for two seats? Or is that discrimination? Share your view.<\/p>\n

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

Director Kevin Smith’s dispute with Southwest Airlines after his removal from a plane over the weekend in Oakland touches on what for years has been a hot-button issue in the airline world: Should obese passengers be required to purchase two seats? Southwest is one of numerous airlines that requires passengers who can’t fit comfortably into […]<\/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-327485","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327485","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=327485"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327485\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=327485"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=327485"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=327485"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}