A quick note before we get into this – I’m a big man myself, I’m 6’1 and a man of some size… always have been, probably always will be. Like many big fellas out there, I often loathe the idea of flying, as a direct result of the insultingly narrow seats with little to no leg room. The only thing worse than seats on an airplane is the ridiculous excuses they have for bathrooms. That said, I fly a lot, either to conventions or film festivals, or just to visit friends. Taking a flight these days isn’t cheap either. I can’t tell you the last time I got a “bargain” ticket. I have stopped checking bags if I can avoid it, not just because of the additional charges most airlines zap you with, but because it just makes the whole process longer and more painful. I don’t want to wait for my bags to come out, and I don’t want to run the risk of the airline conveniently losing them, which seems to happen fairly often. In the past few years I’ve flown Southwest Airlines a lot. Why you ask? Being in Dallas, and Southwest being a Dallas-based entity, they also hold the honor of being one of the few airlines to fly in and out of Love Field Airport, which is infinitely better to use than the large and crowded DFW Airport. But Southwest has their share of problems. First off, because of the stupid, stupid, stupid Wright Amendment, you can’t fly over two states away without stopping somewhere, and often times changing planes. PAIN IN THE ASS. Southwest boasts the fact that there are no reserved seats, so you can sit wherever you want… but that doesn’t always work to your advantage. I’ve ended up next to my share of crying babies and freaks, which granted could have also happened in a reserve seating situation. The past several Southwest flights I took, I began to notice something. It seems their flights are ALWAYS full these days, meaning there’s never the chance of extra seats being available… and as a big fella, I hope for the days when I can find a flight with an extra seat next to me, so I can stretch out, and at least give myself the illusion of comfort. Yet it seems that never happens anymore. I’ve also noticed a lot of other issues with Southwest, such as significant delays and at times flight cancellations for reasons that seem… well… weak. But the worst part is the lack of sympathy or professionalism from the airline. I spent many of my early working years in customer service, and good customer service is something I think is lacking more and more these days. Southwest used to be really good with it, but lately their customer service is just sad. I’ve had multiple occasions just in the past year where I was forced to wait until another flight because they oversold the one I was on, or I was forced to check my bags because their overhead filled up (probably because others brought on too much stuff), or I would encounter a series of delays while spending the entire day on planes because of them having to make multiple stops… and EVERY time there seemed to be ZERO sympathy or concern over my plight. Nope, they just didn’t care. So when I read Kevin Smith’s Twitter account last night, in which he mentioned them booting him off a plane AFTER he was already seated with seatbelt on and baggage overhead, this after him trying to take an earlier plane from his original flight on which he had purchased two seats, I was certainly sympathetic. And before people start asking why someone like Kevin was taking a coach seat on a cheaper airline instead of flying first class, he noted that he was only going from Burbank to Oakland, and despite being a successful director Kevin respects the almighty dollar, and knows that taking an inexpensive flight every now and then may be the smarter thing to do in the grand scheme of life. I respect him for that. Being in the convention business, you see a lot of egos, and often times those egos get accustomed to overspending, never once considering the true value of money. Kevin did nothing wrong here, he purchased two seats for a different flight, tried to take this one instead, and got insulted and humiliated for it. That my friends is just plain wrong. Devin Pike wrote the following report on this, which sums up everything that’s taken place, and I’ve added some links at the bottom to local Dallas news covering the ordeal. Let us hear your thoughts in the comments at the bottom of the page.
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Here’s some items that aren’t news:
Director Kevin Smith is, by his own admission, not svelte. There are a ton of ways to describe his weight, most of them fairly derogatory. In an interview with Britain’s The Guardian Smith said about his weight, “I’ll talk about being fat, but that number, you don’t need it.”
Airline seats are built for people who have less than a 39-inch waist. Any more than that, then you have issues: you run the risk of spilling over into the seat and personal space of the person sitting next to you, your seat belt might not fit, ad nauseum.
These two items collided on Saturday night, when Smith was trying to get from Oakland to Burbank on Southwest Airlines. After he was bumped from his ticketed flight, where he had bought two seats, he got a single seat on another flight via standby ticket. After boarding, getting his luggage stowed, and seat belt fastened, a flight attendant told Smith that the plane’s captain had deemed him “a safety risk.” He was told to get off the plane, and not in a Harrison Ford-as-President fashion.
It’s a policy that Southwest, like all major airlines, has had in place for over 25 years: if you’re deemed too large, the flight crew has the ability to toss you onto the tarmac at their discretion. The enforcement is absolutely arbitrary, as many people who fly can attest to with tales of their row-mates crowding into their airspace.
That said, Southwest may not have realized who they tossed off their plane when it happened, but thanks to Twitter, Kevin Smith made damned sure the world knew about it, in some play-by-play posts by the social media juggernaut:
Dear @SouthwestAir, I flew out in one seat, but right after issuing me a standby ticket, Oakland Southwest attendant Suzanne (wouldn’t give..last name) told me Captain Leysath deemed me a “safety risk”. Again: I’m way fat… But I’m not THERE just yet. But if I am, why wait til my..bag is up, and I’m seated WITH ARM RESTS DOWN. In front of a packed plane with a bunch of folks who’d already I.d.ed me as “Silent Bob.”
Wanna tell me I’m too wide for the sky? Totally cool. But fair warning, folks: IF YOU LOOK LIKE ME, YOU MAY BE EJECTED FROM @SOUTHWESTAIR.
I saw someone bigger than me on THAT flight! But I wasn’t about to throw a fellow Fatty under the plane as I’m being profiled. But he & I made eye contact, & he was like “Please don’t tell…”
Southwest’s social media liaison got several hundred eyesful of Tweets in response to the ejection, with a massive outpouring of support for the filmmaker’s plight. The resulting flurry of activity flooded Southwest’s customer service inbox, and a response was swiftly posted on the company’s official blog. The traffic brought the site to a swift halt, but we’ve got their response:
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. 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.
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.
Smith has said he’s not at all interested in suing, or seeking any damages from Southwest. He was issued a single standby ticket, which he used that evening with no incident:
Hey @SouthwestAir! I’ve landed in Burbank. Don’t worry: wall of the plane was opened & I was airlifted out while Richard Simmons supervised.
Smith has, however, said that he wants to make sure that other overweight folks know that Southwest will toss you off their flights if they think you’ll be too legit to quit. He certainly won’t fly the Dallas-based carrier anymore:
Won’t fly ’em again even if they were last flight away from 2012 wave.
All Kevin Smith quotes were from his public Twitter feed, @thatkevinsmith. Article by Devin Pike.
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Some local DFW news reports that cover Southwest’s blunder with Kev:
Born and raised in Dallas, Mark has been a movie critic since 1994, with reviews featured in print, radio and National TV. In 2001 he started the Entertainment section of the Herorealm website, where he contributed film reviews and celebrity interviews until 2004. After three years of service there, he started Bigfanboy.com, which has become one of the Dallas film community's leading information websites. Bigfanboy hosts several movie screenings in the Texas area, and works closely with film and TV studios and promotional partners to host exciting events and contests. The site also features a variety of rare celebrity and filmmaker interviews, and Bigfanboy.com regularly covers the film festival circuit as well. In addition to Hollywood reporting, Mark has worked for many years as an advertising and sci-fi/comic book artist. Clients have included Lucasfilm Ltd., Topps Trading Cards, The Dallas Mavericks and The Dallas Stars. From 2002 until 2015 he managed the Dallas Comic Con, Sci-Fi Expo and Fan Days events in the DFW area. He currently catalogs rare comic books and movie memorabilia for Heritage Auctions, and runs the Dallas Comic Show conventions, but remains an avid moviegoer and cinema buff. 
When I heard the story. I was completely outraged. And that hasn’t really changed that much. Being a big man myself. I have learned that there is a deep prejudice against fat people, which blows my mind because we all know somebody who is overweight most of America is overweight and in this day and age when we are taught that tolerates is the most important aspect of our lives where it doesn’t matter rather you’re white, black, gay, Muslim, or any other type of religion for that matter. that it’s still okay to pick on somebody if there were overweight, mentally handicapped, or physically handicapped. It’s sad to see anyone get treated in this manner. There is no cause for you to judge somebody based solely on appearance. We as a country are better than this… now it’s time to prove we are above prejudice. I believe we can do this. Just accept people for what they are and who they are. Just because you see a black man doesn’t mean he’s going to rob you. Just because you see a fat man doesn’t mean he’s going to eat everything in sight. We’re better than this. Have never been more disappointed in the human rights than I am right now.