this weekend actor/director kevin smith's flight from oakland to burbank hit turbulence. while booked on a late flight, smith wanted to see if he could get on an earlier one as a stand-by. sure enough a seat opened and he boarded and sat in his newly assigned seat, buckled up (without an extender) and was ready for his flight when according to smith: "a southwest attendant named suzanne told me captain leysath deemed me a 'safety risk." he was then escorted off. when he got off the plane he got right on twitter. (http://twitter.com/thatkevinsmith)
southwest airlines was inundated with people commenting on the situation prompting southwest to responded with the following blog (http://www.blogsouthwest.com/not-so-silent-bob.html?q=blog/not-so-silent-bob) where they stated: "our pilots are responsible for the safety and comfort of all customers on the aircraft and therefore, made the determination that mr. smith needed more than one seat to complete his flight. our employees explained why the decision was made, accommodated mr. smith on a later flight, and issued him a $100 southwest travel voucher for his inconvenience." southwest policy requires passengers whose girth makes them unable to fit into a seat with the armrests down, or whose bodies spill over into adjacent seats, to buy a second ticket. (for the record, smith said both the arm rests went down and the women on either side of him had no problem with him spilling over. additionally he said that he sat in just one seat, with no personal or airline problems on the flight he eventually flew back on).
today, smith threw down a challenge to southwest: “you bring that same row of seats to the daily show, and i’ll sit in ‘em for all to see on tv.” he said if he doesn’t fit, he’ll donate $10,000 to charity, but if he is able to get into the seats, he wants southwest to at “least re-train your staff to be a lot more human & a lot less corporate when they pull a poor girl off the plane & shame her.” southwest has rejected the challenge saying: “we most likely will be declining that request...obviously, whether or not he can fit into the seats is a matter of interpretation.”
my point, and i do have one...is that this has become a pr nightmare for southwest. they clearly didn't handle a situation with a high profile/social media savvy return customer well, and whether they are right or wrong, they the ones in the "thick" of it now. what is your point?
