Kevin Smith bumped from Southwest Airlines flight
Published: February 18, 2010
Updated: February 18, 2010
"Look how fat I am on your plane! Quick! Throw me off!" Mobile upload courtesy of Twitter/@thatkevinsmith
Director and actor Kevin Smith (Clerks, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back) was asked by a Southwest Airlines employee to exit the plane he was already seated in due to “safety reasons” earlier this week.
Smith had purchased two seats for himself to fly from Oakland, CA to Burbank, CA. However, when the director arrived at the airport several hours early, he decided to bump up his flight. Due to the high number of people on his new flight, Smith was asked to standby. While waiting, an employee explained to Smith that there wouldn’t be enough seats to accommodate him with the two that he paid for. This is when Smith explained that he purchased the two seats merely for his own comfort reasons, so one seat would be perfectly acceptable.
Seeming to understand, the flight attendant boarded Smith. He stowed his carry-ons away, seated himself between two women and buckled himself in.
This is when the same flight attendant who boarded Smith approached him again. Publicly, she told Smith that the Captain asked that he be removed because he was a safety risk. Even though both women Smith sat next to insisted he wasn’t a problem, the employee told Smith that if he could fit both arm rests down, he could fly according to company policy. Smith lowered both arm rests without a problem, and was still escorted off the flight by the flight attendant.
Smith lashed back at Southwest Airlines via Twitter all throughout the week, explaining to fans the ethical issues behind determining who is a “safety risk” and who isn’t.
Immediately after hearing of Smith’s public complaints to 1, 669, 121 followers on Twitter, Southwest Airlines attempted to blog an apology. Unfortunately, the blog-apology was terribly executed. Foolishly titled “Not So Silent Bob,” the blog claims that the company contacted Smith multiple times immediately after the incident. The blog also claims that Smith routinely purchases two tickets for himself (isn’t that confidential?) and that in attempting to sit in a single seat this one time, his own choice to bump up a flight was the source of the mistake. The ‘apology’ then wraps-up with a ‘why our decision is ethical’ conclusion, explaining that their Customer of Size policy has been in effect for 25 years.
Smith rebutted this in his own blog. Smith explains that no contact was made to him from any employees and that he does not in fact routinely purchase two tickets when flying. He also explains (yet again) that his reasoning for purchasing two seats was not his weight, although he consistently labels himself as a “Fatty,” but because he’s “anti-social and [doesn't like] having to sit next to someone and possibly have to make a conversation.” He continues on to say that he has no interest in suing Southwest Airlines for his public humiliation and what he calls the “strip of dignity,” he only wants them to admit their error and admit that they are releasing false information.
“I know I’m fat. The point of all this? I’m not too fat for Southwest Air, yet someone deemed me so,” Smith says in his blog.
In a later update, an employee of Southwest Airlines contacts Smith to apologize and offer to correct the airline’s first blog. Unfortunately, this employee still doesn’t correct the false information distributed to several media sources and still doesn’t address the fact that Smith was not “too fat to fly.”
Smith has challenged the company to bring one of their seats to the set of the Daily Show for him to sit in before viewers everywhere to further prove his argument.
I applaud that Kevin does not intend to sue Southwest Airlines although their behavior has been absolutely horrible. I can say to the airlines comment about their policy being in place for 25 years – that may be so but it certainly has not been enforced for 25 years because I am fat, infact sooo fat that I can’t comfortably lower both arms and need an extension to buckly my seat belt and I have flown on Southwest Airlines many times because my sister lives in Northern California and my mother used to live in So California. Southwest needs to do the right thing – they need to apologize – a simple we are very sorry for humiliating you publicly Mr. Smith and will strive to provide better and more thoughtful customer service to everyone going forward – and the employee who actually caused this ruckus needs to do the same. Compassion, thoughtfulness and decorem people – do unto others – if you need to say something that might hurt or embarrass another human being and yes we fat people do have feelings and we are human – then do so in private. No wonder Mr. Smith does not like to talk to most people – seriously folks try a little human kindness -
I think this whole thing has been blown way out of proportion. I love Kevin Smith’s movies – they are a stupid funny with some shock value in them. I believe that what Kevin did on his Twitter feed was adding some shock value and stirring things up a bit. He has already backed off and doesn’t want to pursue this any further. If I were as “upset” as he seemed to be, I would still be fighting Southwest and trying to reverse the policy.
I also believe that people need to understand Southwest as a company. Southwest has always been open about the fact that they do not believe that the customer is always right. In fact, in the book “Nuts!” by Kevin and Jackie Frieberg (two long-time consultants at Southwest), their policy is that employees come first. I have flown Southwest for years and they have the best customer service out of any other airline I have flown. I believe this is because of the fact that the company has their back in making the right choice regarding difficult decisions, especially like the one regarding Kevin Smith. Have you ever seen the show Airline which features SWA? They often have had to pull people off of airplanes or ask customers to purchase an extra ticket for the comfort and safety of others. While this is uncomfortable for both parties, I am sure employees only make decisions to confront if it is absolutely necessary. Who wants to be in an uncomfortable situation?
I will not stop flying Southwest just because of this. I’m tall and skinny and still have trouble cramming onto Boeing 737’s (what SWA flies). This will all be forgotten as people make their airline arrangements for spring break and realize what low fares Southwest has.
As far as I can tell, Kevin Smith was offended at being offered a seat on the plane that complied with company policy and was still removed. Understanding Southwest as a company would mean that since Kevin Smith is not fat enough to legally need to buy two seats, he should be allowed his standby seat on the earlier flight. I’m sure if the airline told him he needed to wait for his booked flight because of the two seats he booked, none of this would have happened. I personally fly Southwest often as well because of the low fares, and have been seated next to people spilling over into my seat and as far as I can tell, the plane has flown fine, and I have only been mildly irritated, and Kevin Smith isn’t even that fat.
No one is making a public outcry to stop flying Southwest. I for sure will not, given they are usually the cheapest for where I want to go. Also being tall and skinny, I am uncomfortable on every airline, so there’s no discrimination there.
When asking for an apology for his rude treatment, Southwest need only apologize, he didn’t even ask to be reimbursed for anything and will not sue the company. Instead they responded by defending their policy, which as I have stated above, must have been broken when there are people who cannot comfortably put the armrests down on both sides and fly anyway. The kicker was adamantly REFUSING an apology to Mr. Smith when it would have been courteous. I’m sure Kevin Smith didn’t expect the apology to be Southwest groveling at his feet, but all they had to do was explain their policy and apologize for the behavior of the airline crew and how it affected him.
On a side note, I just recently stayed in a Hilton hotel for free when I was stuck in Chicago due to my flight coming in too late to catch my connection, and there is a copy of a book, written by Conrad Hilton explaining his customer service policy and how he was able to start one of the nation’s largest hotel chains. This didn’t keep the staff at the hotel from treating me like crap. Unfortunately, I cannot ask for a public apology because I don’t have over a million followers on Twitter, but in both cases the companies acted immorally and should apologize. I fail to see why Southwest should be defended here.