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Too Fat? Southwest Airlines Forces Hefty Frequent Flier to Buy Two Seats
Breitbart.tv ^ | 09/16/07

Posted on 09/16/2007 6:11:32 PM PDT by MotleyGirl70

“And the lady stops and says, ‘Sir, you need to have another ticket.’ And I said what for and she said, ‘because of your size.' I hate to admit it but I was in tears.”

VIDEO


TOPICS: Culture/Society
KEYWORDS: airlines; fat; obese; obesity; southwestairlines; swa
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To: mysterio
$115 a month is a small price to pay for not dying drowning in my own mucous.

Sorry for asking but what does that mean ? (the drowning part )

221 posted on 09/17/2007 9:17:08 AM PDT by Irish Eyes
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To: Sonny M
....standby's would have already been on.

Standbys board last.

222 posted on 09/17/2007 9:24:18 AM PDT by Irish Eyes
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To: Irish Eyes

When you have lung cancer or late stage emphasema they have to stick a tube down your lungs to suck out the excess mucous so you don’t suffocate. It’s not pretty.


223 posted on 09/17/2007 9:29:43 AM PDT by mysterio
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To: mysterio

Thanks, did not know that.


224 posted on 09/17/2007 9:32:33 AM PDT by Irish Eyes
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To: Sonny M

“Using that logic, the could force every single passenger regardless of size to purchase the unused seats on the plane, not to recently,”

Uh ... the vacent seats and the vacent baggage room IS already paid for by the customers they have - it’s built into the pricing.

Which is why they just don’t give it away to someone who wants more then their paid for share.


225 posted on 09/17/2007 9:36:01 AM PDT by RS ("I took the drugs because I liked them and I found excuses to take them, so I'm not weaseling.")
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To: HIDEK6
You assume that the fat guy has a right to the extra seat. You also assume that the airline has a duty to give the fat guy the extra seat.

I maintain that a tired skinny guy who wants to stretch out and sleep has just as much right to the extra seat.

I am not so much as assuming that the fat guy has the right to the extra seat as much as the skinny guy.

If thats the case, whats to stop the airline from looking at the thin skinny guy, saying there is an extra seat, and you have to pay for it, because we didn't sell it.

If you bought a ticket, and had the good luck of having extra empty seats next to you, does the airline have the right, to either charge you more (so you can stretch out) or make you change seats because they feel you are getting more value then you paid for.

I think they just saw a fat guy, and some unsold tickets, and took it as an oppurtunity to force someone to pay extra.

226 posted on 09/17/2007 9:38:13 AM PDT by Sonny M ("oderint dum metuant")
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To: RS
Uh ... the vacent seats and the vacent baggage room IS already paid for by the customers they have - it’s built into the pricing.

If that was the case, then they assumed that had unsold tickets, and had already passed that cost on.

Which is why they just don’t give it away to someone who wants more then their paid for share.

So, as a skinny guy, if I happen to have an empty seat next to me, I should be forced to pay extra? The airline could argue that I am getting more then my "fair share", by having empty seats next to me, they could use that argue, logically, that I should change seats so as not to have empty seats next to me.

I could not care less about this fat guy, its the way they did it, and the motive and the logical next steps that bother me.

Everyone is looking at this as a fat guy taking up 2 seats, I look at this as an airline forcing a passenger to buy another ticket, when it wasn't necessary, on a reason that does not apply to this case, and seeing future oppurtunities to do this other people (who are not fat or whatever).

227 posted on 09/17/2007 9:44:35 AM PDT by Sonny M ("oderint dum metuant")
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To: trisham
I confess I am inclined to be clautrophobic

I definitely feel claustrophobic when I don't have enough personal space. So, to have some large person flowing into my space for hours would make me very irritated.

228 posted on 09/17/2007 9:54:57 AM PDT by MotleyGirl70 (Go Packers!)
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To: cmsgop
BTW, I love John Candy and Trains, Planes and Automobiles is one of my favorite comedies.

I posted the picture because of how annoying his character, Del Griffin, was especially and he took of his socks and says, "My dogs are barking tonight."

229 posted on 09/17/2007 10:02:49 AM PDT by MotleyGirl70 (Go Packers!)
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To: Sonny M

By your logic if my son wants to fly with me and I need two seats and the airline has an extra seat left they should have to give it to me? This guy was too big for one seat, he needed two. Why should he not have to pay for them?


230 posted on 09/17/2007 10:08:24 AM PDT by John D
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To: MotleyGirl70
This is exactly what they should do. If the airline can't sell the seat(s) next to a passenger because they're too large, then that passenger should pay for the unusable seat(s) as well.

Choices have consequences.

231 posted on 09/17/2007 10:12:25 AM PDT by TChris (Has anyone under Mitt Romney's leadership ever been worse off because he is Mormon?)
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To: Grizzled Bear
And everytime I fly I sit between him and his twin brother!

These guys?


232 posted on 09/17/2007 10:14:01 AM PDT by COBOL2Java (The Democrat Party: radical Islam's last hope)
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To: Sonny M

“If that was the case, then they assumed that had unsold tickets, and had already passed that cost on.”

Southwest’s rules are that if you can’t lower the armrests you need to buy an extra ticket -

“Customers who are unable to lower the armrests (the definitive boundary between seats) and/or who compromise any portion of adjacent seating should proactively book the number of seats needed during initial reservations.”

From his statement, it appears that this guy may have gotten away with it many times before, passing on his fair share of the costs to the other paying passengers.


233 posted on 09/17/2007 10:19:28 AM PDT by RS ("I took the drugs because I liked them and I found excuses to take them, so I'm not weaseling.")
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To: Sonny M

It appears that Southwest is more generous then I would be -

http://www.southwest.com/travel_center/cos_qa.html

IF they have not filled the flight, AND you have purchased the extra ticket beforehand, they will refund the extra ticket.


234 posted on 09/17/2007 10:27:46 AM PDT by RS ("I took the drugs because I liked them and I found excuses to take them, so I'm not weaseling.")
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To: John D
By your logic if my son wants to fly with me and I need two seats and the airline has an extra seat left they should have to give it to me? This guy was too big for one seat, he needed two. Why should he not have to pay for them?

By their logic, if you and your son purchase 2 seats, and their is a 3rd seat in your row, and its vacant, they could charge you more, since your getting 3 seats, and paid for 2.

I could care less about this fat guy, its the idea of the airline forcing him to buy an extra ticket, because I believe, they wanted to force a sell, if there is (wasn't going to be) anyone next to him, why force him to buy the ticket?

And what is to prevent them, from doing this to anyone who happens to have a empty seat next to them?

235 posted on 09/17/2007 10:32:21 AM PDT by Sonny M ("oderint dum metuant")
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To: RS
“Customers who are unable to lower the armrests (the definitive boundary between seats) and/or who compromise any portion of adjacent seating should proactively book the number of seats needed during initial reservations.”

Good policy, and the reason is so this fatty does not inconvence other passengers, but in this case, he was not going to. They simply did it for the oppurtunity.

From his statement, it appears that this guy may have gotten away with it many times before, passing on his fair share of the costs to the other paying passengers.

Or they had never price gouged him before, thus making him pay more then his fair share, I'm looking at this as them using this as an oppurtunity to gouge nonfat folks.

236 posted on 09/17/2007 10:37:56 AM PDT by Sonny M ("oderint dum metuant")
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To: RS
IF they have not filled the flight, AND you have purchased the extra ticket beforehand, they will refund the extra ticket.

In that case, since he bought the ticket (at the gate no less) that would have gone unsold, he should just ask for a refund.

Though I have a feeling, he is going to milk this for publicity.

My concern has nothing to do with him and his fatty ways, but on an airline, that might argue you are getting extra value from their unbought tickets (i.e. having empty seats next to you) and thus asking (forcing) you to either buy the empty seat, or switch seats.

237 posted on 09/17/2007 10:40:56 AM PDT by Sonny M ("oderint dum metuant")
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To: wrench

What’s “egressing”?

Is it like entering or exiting?


238 posted on 09/17/2007 11:24:49 AM PDT by Xenalyte (Can you count, suckas? I say the future is ours . . . if you can count.)
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To: Perdogg

I no longer sit next to my husband on a plane, if sitting next to him means occupying a middle seat. My husband is not over weight, but he is 6’6”, and has very wide shoulders. After being wedged between two big men in an exit row, and having to put my seat back far enough to allow me to sit back, I gave up and sit by myself.

One time this summer, my husband asked for an exit row and was seated in a middle seat, next to a big man with Tourette’s syndrome.


239 posted on 09/17/2007 11:53:13 AM PDT by Eva
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To: HungarianGypsy
In before the “I exercise at the gym four hours a day and have a perfect body” types show up.

No danger of that here...
When I travel on any airline, I pay for an entire seat, and expect full use of it.

Please limit your argument against that, and tell me what is unreasonable about it.

240 posted on 09/17/2007 11:59:01 AM PDT by Publius6961 (MSM: Israelis are killed by rockets; Lebanese are killed by Israelis.)
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