http://www.tmz.com/2010/02/14/kevin-smith-southwest-airlines-twitter-safety-risk-fat/

Talk about bad press. He's got well over 1.5 million followers on his twitter.

I guess when you're going to harass someone best figure out who you're dealing with.

Very interesting times we live in. It's not just big brother with the web.. but twitter levels the playing field.

I bet the money they lose over this is mind-boggling. If you weigh anything near what he does, you are not going to book a flight on Southwest and risk this happening to you.

  That means whoever you are traveling with is also not going to book and people who are skinny and read this and don't like it... well they are also going to opt for another airline on Expedia...

 Hey day for the competition, that's for sure.

JERKS. Seriously! I am someone who absolutely DOES NOT fly with "bad airlines"--I'd pay 100s of dollars more to avoid this. 

These companies don't seem to realize that not everyone wants to be treated like a piece of shit while handing over your money, all to save what--$80. Seriously, go EFF yourself 

American Airlines said they are going to begin to charge $8 for a pillow & blanket if they have them.

Yeah but, did you ever sit on an airplane next to someone really fat? I did once, it was the worst flight ever (and I've been on some really bad flights, like on a cargo plane full of goats). I was so smashed into my aisle seat it was painful. There were no empty seats, so I asked the stewardess if maybe I could sit in one of the jumpseats they use, at least until landing. She took a look at the corpulent beast I was sitting next to and sympathized, but said she couldn't let me sit in a jumpseat. But she did help (in a fashion). She came back with a special wrench and took off the armrest on the aisle. So I sat on half the seat, with one butt cheek hanging out into the aisle, for a 3 hour flight.

I have no sympathy for Mister Smith. He can afford two tickets for his enormous butt. 

He really doesn't look big enough for all this hoopla. How much does he weigh???

Kevin Smith isn't fat as in obese. He's just not skinny. When did skinny become the norm?

I have no clue how much he weighs, but I'll guess he's about 300-350 pounds?

Oh wait.. he's fatter than I last saw him.. hmm;

oh wow he is big, but ya know  they messed with the wrong fat guy,lol.

whether or not one agrees with the policy, the issue for me is the fact that they sold him the single ticket, let him board, THEN humiliated him.

I'm with Satori on this one.  I don't like the policy, but I understand it.  (And for those who don't know this, I am not a small woman.)  But if he's got two seats, and you don't have two seats available on the standby, then you don't have room for him.  Don't let someone get on the plane and then humiliate and embarrass him by making him get back off the plane. 

I actually quit flying SouthWest for a while after they started getting really vocal about this policy.  But all in all I've had the best experience with them for the flights that I take (between LAX and SFO mostly) and I don't have to pay for my bags, which is becoming a rarity.

Oh I agree!! I was talking to my guy about the fact that the gal at the counter knew his size ya know, if it was an issue maybe then would be the time to address it.

I'm listening to his podcast talking about it - and yeah, it was BS pulling him off the plane and then they handled it very poorly.

I have bought two seats to avoid this kind of public humiliation. I am just big enough to be paralyzed with fear at this kind of shaming. I want no part of it. I live with negotiating my space every day, mentally apologizing for simply walking down the damn sidewalk maybe a little too slowly for you, sorry for existing outside the norm... I'll be damned if I go though that in a sealed tube in the air.

I understand the frustration expressed by some on this thread, but I condemn anyone who refers to another human being as a corpulent beast, comparable to traveling with barnyard animals. Anger is one thing, dehumanizing is quite another.

And if that's PC, so be it. Kiss my PC grits.

The airline says that if you are too fat to fully put down the armrest, you have to buy two tickets. And of course people lie and say they can do it, and then they get on the plane and they can't and the people sitting next to them suffer. 

In the case of the horror flight I described, the guy next to me must have weighed 350 pounds, he got down the armrest, but his enormous rolls of flab flowed right over and under it, occupying about 1/3 of my seat. They ought to amend the rule so you have to put down the armrest and stay on your side of it.

After looking at the pics Liz posted of Mister Smith, my opinion is, if you are so grossly obese that they don't make jeans in your size and you have to wear a dress-like denim muumuu, you need to buy two tickets for two seats. Or maybe a half-ton cargo container to ride in.  

And neva, be accurate. I did not compare sitting next to an obese person to riding with animals. I said it was worse than riding in a cargo plane with animals. 

Okay, that is it. I have had enough of Charles so if anyone want to read his comments you will have to go elsewhere to do so. I gave the son of a bitch 3 warnings

Oh.. that is this comment above where it says "Anonymous"  I have deleted him as a user and did not realize it would have that effect.

Shows you how often I have to do this. Try, never because most people know how to act.

Hooray. No self-righteous dumbasses here please.

Thank you Elsa.  I really appreciate the fact that you enforce your boundaries around here. 

Oh thank GOD. ByeBye Charles. Don't let the door knock your ass over on the way out. 

I love Southwest, but they do model their seats to fit a fifteen-year old boy, or rather my brother who weighed 110 pounds at the age of fifteen. 

I'm 5'9", too, and my knees almost touch the seat in front -- forget about it if the person in front leans back.

How about if they only allow their version of the perfect-sized person to fly?   The friendly skies indeed.  How humiliating.

If someone told me I posed a safety threat on a plane due to my size, I'd go home and seriously put a plan together for weight loss and better health. 

I think Twittering in such a manner is for crybaby bitches who refuse to take responsibility for themselves.

I'm 5'8" and size fourteen, which whether it is deemed overweight or not is tall but average weight.  I am embarrassed when fitting into an airline seat.  it's tight.

when they make the seats large enough to fit more than 50% of americans (I think 80% would be reasonable) I'll agree with their size policy.

I dislike flying precisely for this reason. 

~~~sigh of relief~~~  Thanks Elsa, for booting that obnoxious lout!  (And REALLY??  He didn't think that peeping tom eyeball didn't bother anyone???)

 As for the topic at hand.... SW is going to have to do serious damage control.  Too bad-- it's otherwise a good airline for those of us here on the left coast.

I have to fly this summer and, aside from the TSA that makes me seethe, I also dread fitting my VLA* into an airplane seat.

If I had bad customer service and over a million twitter followers I would for sure be twittering of my experience. 

very large ass - size 18

Thanks for policing the forum, Elsa. I think Charles is either autistic or brain-damaged; it's hard to believe someone could have such a small level of self-awareness\self-editing. Or maybe he's just a troll.

Bananas, I agree that the twittering was a bit childish.  I listened to the whole podcast because I wanted to hear his side of the story, and it's tough to do in 140-character increments!  Certainly I think he could have handled the initial reaction a lot better, but I wasn't there.  I do think he did the right thing by getting word to his audience, though!  If we all keep lying down like cattle, the government and large corporations and everyone else will continue to treat us like said cattle.

I don't agree, though, that I'd go home and start an exercise plan.  (As it happens, I DO exercise, regularly, and quite actively, and I'm still fat ... but that's not my point at all.) There is no agency, no company, no government entity who has the RIGHT to tell me what size is appropriate for MY body.  Hell, even my doctor doesn't have the final say on that one, though I do take his advice with exceptional consideration.  After all, I solicit it.  

The airline certainly has the right and responsibility to be vigilant about safety issues.  But singling out someone after he is on a plane, embarrassing him in front of the entire plane of people, and leaving someone else the same size on the plane afterward?  If it was truly a safety concern, then it should have been handled better.  Let me see

1 - at the gate where he was trying to get on the standby flight with his two seats (which he had already purchased for whatever reasons he purchased them)

2 - at the jetway before he got on the plane 

3 - if you must address it on the plane, then try to do so quietly and with some decorum

That's all I'm saying.  Southwest can decide I am too fat to fly in one seat ... and I can decide to take my flights on another airline because I do, in fact, fit in the seats just fine. 

If someone told me I posed a safety threat on a plane due to my size, after they had taken my cash money, gone through ticketing, security and boarding, and then took them seriously, I'd be questioning the depth of my gullibility.

Nice try. Thanks for playing.

I don't want to be combative on a board that I respect and like to frequent, but good god.

I'm with you Neva.

Bananas that seems remarkably judgmental.  

I don't care if you're judging that I'm judging.

I'm a size 10 and stand at a feeble 5'1". That's too fat, in my estimation. My ass is getting to be a bit of a wide load.

Like I already said before: if someone said that to me, I'd take a look at myself instead of pointing fingers and crying that the seat should be bigger. Kevin Smith is probably just doing it for attention and money. 

If you wouldn't do what I would do, that's your prerogative and don't call me judgemental, I'm no more or less judgemental than anyone else here.

America has an obesity problem, Kevin Smith is a whiner.

Dang i just wish women wouldn't think they are fat. I know it's not the women's fault but the messed up culture

neva i saw your picture once on here on some thread and you are beautiful.

Hope i haven't said too much

Thanks for booting Charles! I found myself on the fence with this once finding out just how large he is. I agree that the lack of etiquette was the main problem. I think most people who weigh 300 pounds understand that their weight is.. er.. weight.. so although inconvenient to not fly, understandable if rejected early on .. before plans are underway and already buckled in and ready to go.. rejection then is just plain rude and humiliating.

And although I think there is toughening needed to help some people become healthier.. I think people who are fat shouldn't be the butt of jokes anymore. It's seriously insensative and truly a low measurement on someone's ability to actually relate to other people.

http://silentbobspeaks.com/?p=393

@Liz and others--please indulge some devil's advocacy on my behalf .  Long story short, it seems like a lot of the outrage is an example of 3 + 4 = 9, as Elsa often puts it.

"understandable if rejected early on .. before plans are underway and already buckled in and ready to go"

First:  if I understand correctly, Kevin Smith/aka Silent Bob was only let on the plane after getting standby tickets.  And if I understand correctly, standby = you'll get on the plane if you're lucky, and enough people don't show up.  So any plans that got snarled by the airline must have been contingent to begin with.  That's my first thought.

Second, if he normally buys two tickets, he can't have been surprised that one seat didn't work out for him.  So I'm wondering what he expected...

Lastly, it looks like he's taking issue with the airline for a generic blurb about the 2-seat policy; Kevin thinks that by including it, they're mis-characterizing the issue.  Personally, it seems that Kevin's reaching for things to be mad about.

Overall, I'm also left with the impression that Silent Bob fans are mad, not because an evil corporation was wrong, but because their celebrity idol is himself mad.  Like a perpetual emotion machine.

(p.s.--I don't mean to single Liz out, I cherry-picked this quote because it seems to represent Silent Bob's point of view most saliently.  So anyone is free to respond, this isn't just to Liz.)

"Kevin Smith is probably just doing it for attention and money."

You should read his blog/twitter Scorp because what you've written is not what he said occurred.

I read his blog.  It looks like he himself said he was on standby, and it looks like he said he didn't like the airline talking about the 2-seat policy because (in his opinion) it mis-characterizes the issue.

So, I don't know what you mean.  What else have I written that is not what he said occurred?