Another Too-Fat-To-Fly Controversy Hits Southwest Airlines

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) — Southwest Airlines has apologized to a mother and daughter who said they got rough treatment at the airport.

Kenlie Tiggeman, a 30-year-old political strategist and weight loss blogger in New York City, said it was humiliating, being told she was too fat to fly, reports CBS 2’s John Slattery.

“It was rude. It was in front of lots of people,” said Tiggeman, who’s originally from New Orleans.

Tiggeman said the incident happened in Dallas over Easter. She and her mother were told by a gate agent they each had to purchase two seats.

“And said that we were, in fact, too fat to fly, without an additional ticket,” Tiggeman said.

I do think Southwest goes a little too far sometimes. Since the two of them could have sat together in a 3-seat aisle, they should have just been required to purchase the 3rd seat, not 4 seats.

It is funny how people just assume they should not have to pay for things they need, but that others should give them away for free.

How would you make a slightly wider seat? The entire plane is the same width, and you can’t cut into the too-small aisle. (I’d hate to see her trying to get down the aisle while someone else was coming up).

You could make rows with only two seats each. Actually, they do — isn’t that first class?

I’m flying jetblue, and they had some seats that had more leg room (because you can do that, just take out a row of seats and reconfigure the rest). They charge $60 extra for them, and for $60 I’d stand up for the trip.

Seriously — I can’t imagine paying hundreds of dollars for a better seat on a 4-hour flight. If I was somewhere and they offered me a chair for $50, I’d certainly stand up (I have paid $10 for a chair before for an outdoor concert, but mostly so I’d have something to save my place and hold my stuff when I went to get food).

The one thing I think they SHOULD do is offer “1.5” seat options. They could make them provisional, and you could be bumped if a flight filled up and there were an odd number of “1.5” seats sold. Most even really fat people would fit in 1.5 seats, and they’d be stuck with other fat people.

Although I think I might be tempted, if I was flying with my wife, to pay for a 3rd seat just to be certain to have a row to ourselves — well, probably not, because as I said above, I’m pretty cheap.

>>>How would you make a slightly wider seat? The entire plane is the same width, and you can’t cut into the too-small aisle. (I’d hate to see her trying to get down the aisle while someone else was coming up).

You could make rows with only two seats each. Actually, they do — isn’t that first class?<<<

Yes, they could have a few rows with fewer seats. None of the fancy meals, wine, slippers, etc. of first class, just slightly wider seats at a modest premium.

Your 1.5 seat idea has potential as well. How would the armrests work? Would they simply be lowered on both sides of the middle seat, or would the armrests be redesigned?

At any rate, people who don’t fit into standard seats do not have a “right” to only pay for one, but I also think it makes sense to come of with a win-win solution that benefits overweight flyers, normal sized flyers and the airlines. I’m confident the market will generate such a solution in time.

You’d probably have to design an armrest into the middle of a seat, like they do in the back seat of cars.

You’d also have to come up with an alternative buckle arrangement to make it nice, although you could just have each passenger use the “appropriate” half of the middle buckle, it might be slightly uncomfortable that way, since you’d expect their behinds to be sitting on the seat belt a bit.

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