“Customer of Size Policy” at Southwest Airlines Bumps Film Director Kevin Smith Off the Flight

What can being over weight cost you?  In this case it was a seat on Southwest Airlines.  The entire issue started when Mr. Smith was allowed to take an earlier flightas on his scheduled flight he had booked 2 seats and thus I am guessing he may have done that in good faith due to his weight.  When he moved up to the earlier flightwell there was only one seatso some BMI and weight issues entered here with someone enforcing the company policy.  Southwest since this time has apologized twice.

Mr. Smith took right to Twitter to announce what had happened to him.  He also indicates that he could buckle the seatbelt and that the arm rests could come down and that his body was not in the wayas the policy dictates. "DudeI know I'm fat," Smith said.

He continues to contest and brings to the light the fact that their policy was not violated and that he felt an employee who perhaps doesn’t care for him decided to take some initiative to enforce policy so I guess in this case fat did not fly.  Obviously the loss of a few pounds can help to avoid future occurrencesbut maybe that’s something he might want to figure out on his own.  BD

Los AngelesCalifornia (CNN) -- Southwest Airlines apologized a second time Monday to film director Kevin Smith for pulling him off a Saturday flight because of his size.

"We're very sorry for how his night unfortunately played out," Southwest said in a written statement.

The airline said it "could have potentially handled our communication better," but defended "the determination that Mr. Smith needed more than one seat to complete his flight comfortably."

The "customer of size policy" implemented 25 years ago requires "passengers that cannot fit safely and comfortably in one seat to purchase an additional seat while traveling," it said.

"If a customer cannot comfortably lower the armrest and infringes on a portion of another seata customer seated adjacent would be very uncomfortable and a timely exit from the aircraft in the event of an emergency might be compromised if we allow a crampedrestricted seating arrangement," the airline said.

"I'm flying on the welfare airlinefood-stamp airline," he said. "So I think I can indulge myself with two seatsand I can afford to do it."