Many of you reached out to us via Twitter last night and today regarding a situation a Customer Twittered about that occurred on a Southwest flight. It is not our customary method of Customer Relations to be so public in how we work through these situations, but with so many people involved in the occurrence, you also should be involved in the solution. First and foremost, to Mr. Smith; we would like to echo our Tweets and again offer our heartfelt apologies to you. We are sincerely sorry for your travel experience on Southwest Airlines.
As soon as we saw the first Tweet from Mr. Smith, we contacted him personally to apologize for his experience and to address his concerns on both Twitter and with a personal phone call. Since the situation has received a lot of public attention, we'd like to take the opportunity to address a few of the specifics here as well.
Mr. Smith originally purchased two Southwest seats on a flight from Oakland to Burbank – as he’s been known to do when traveling on Southwest. He decided to change his plans and board an earlier flight to Burbank, which technically means flying standby. As you may know, airlines are not able to clear standby passengers until all Customers are boarded. When the time came to board Mr. Smith, we had only a single seat available for him to occupy. We are responsible for the Safety and comfort of all Customers on the aircraft and therefore, we made a judgment call 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.
You've read about these situations before. Southwest instituted our Customer of Size policy more than 25 years ago. The policy requires passengers that can not fit safely and comfortably in one seat to purchase an additional seat while traveling. This policy is not unique to Southwest Airlines and it is not a revenue generator. Most, if not all, carriers have similar policies, but unique to Southwest is the refunding of the second seat purchased (if the flight does not oversell) which is greater than any revenue made (full policy can be found here). The spirit of this policy is based solely on Customer comfort and Safety. As a Company committed to serving our Customers in Safety and comfort, we feel the definitive boundary between seats is the armrest. If a Customer cannot comfortably lower the armrest and infringes on a portion of another seat, a 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 cramped, restricted seating arrangement.
Comments
Lost another loyal customer.
GO ON A DIET. I don't like it when I have to sit next to a fat person and they are hanging over the seat into my seat. Being fat is not healthy.
I will never fly your airline again, I have met Mr. Smith several times and he is by no means to large to fly. This is a disgusting display of incompetence from all SWA employees involved. You owe Mr.Smith a much better apology, as the one above is simply SWA trying to justify unjust actions.
Southwest: FAIL
Southwest is a joke. If you are going to treat PAYING and LOYAL customers like this at least have the guts to own up to it. Stop shifting blame to other people such as pilots or the person that you have completely embarrassed and probably lost as a customer forever. If I was ever treated like this, a few tweets and blogs about the situation would be the least of Southwest's worries.
No need for a big corporation to apologize to a fat man for booting him off the flight. Nobody wants to set next to a fat person who's blubber flows over into the next seat. With all the disgustingly fat Americans in the world today, I'm surprised the major airlines don't make a "fatty" section with extra wide seats. I guess it wouldn't be very profitable, but it would be a great way to make everyone happy (except maybe the shareholders). LOL
I could not even believe how terribly you treated not only Kevin Smith, but that poor women who had to be apart of the whole debacle.
You are the greyhound of the sky (and that is a compliment for how a SW flight actually goes.) and seem to model your business after an Italian air line, and somehow feel you are justified to demoralize and embarrass any person. You seem to hire your employees that no other airline will hire and yet you feel like dignity is yours to give and take away. I know this incident happened sometime ago, but while planning my recent vacation, a co worker had me listen to the kevin smith podcast before I made my decision.
I really wonder how much money you have all lost based on this incident?
I can guarantee that it is some....
Obviously he knows that he does not fit into one seat, as he purchased two seats: "Mr. Smith originally purchased two Southwest seats on a flight from Oakland to Burbank – as he’s been known to do when traveling on Southwest."
Sorry, but it is annoying as hell to be sitting in an already tight airplane seat, and have some stranger's thigh all pushed up against mine during a flight. Americans are getting fatter and so this is happening more and more, obviously airlines should re-structure their seating arrangement to accommodate all you fatties out there.
Nevertheless, when I pay for an airline seat I don't want to be paying for 1/32nd of another person's ass in my chair. Sorry Kevin, but that's just the way it is. I fly a lot and am so tired of being pushed up against a stranger's body, it's really quite disgusting.
Flying is a privilege and not a basic human right, so get over it and either lose some weight or pay for the amount of space you take up in a seat. I don't want to share mine!
I'm about to go on a flight from San Diego over to Denver and am afraid of this situation... maybe instead of guessing if someone will be too large or not they should have a sample chair folks can sit in to see if they would "overflow", kind of like the sample bins they have to make sure carry on items will fit safely. I get that their rules have been in place for a long time, but the way things get handled are very important, and this was not handled well at all.
This will be the first time I've flown SW in, hmm. About 16 years, I liked it when I was young but we'll see how it goes in a week.
Also, even if someone doesn't really go past their rented space doesn't mean that some jerk won't pitch a fit. I only read about half the comments on the first page here and am amazed at some of the rudeness of comments, whether or not people are just doing it to spark something, people do feel these ways.
Dear Southwest:
Please stop randomly capitalizing things. Nouns that are not proper should not have capital letters-- i.e., "Customers" or "Employees" or "Tweets" -- unless they begin a sentence.
You are not Jane Austen.
If you would like a qualified copywriter/blogger/editor, feel free to contact me. I'm available for freelance work.
Thanks!
Scarlett PencilPoint