A petite Sacramento woman was bumped from a Southwest Airlines flight to make room for an extra-large 14-year-old child who required two seats.
The 5-foot-4, 110-pound woman, who was flying standby from Las Vegas to Sacramento, was buckled up and ready to go when the teen arrived late to the gate, reported the Sacramento Bee.[...]
Southwest generally requires large passengers to buy two tickets. But in this case, the child's parents had purchased only one.
Link via Say Uncle | Photo by Flickr user Cordey used under Creative Commons license
But even if that weren't the case, the airline would take care of the kid and put him on the next flight.
I've been a UM since before I could read, my best friend is a pilot's daughter, I know the standby rules. If the standby passenger had a seat number, and the luggage on board (if any), the passenger is no longer a standby.
What's more, the lady wasn't in the kid's seat, she was in another seat.
Note, the it's not that she was sitting next to him, and he needed her space (at least, I don't recall reading that anywhere). They just needed to remove one person to allow him to stay on board, and they probably figured that the best option was to boot the ex-standby. It has nothing to do with her weight or where she was sitting.
Someone pointed out that saying one's weight won't really help, I agree, but then have a statement that says "I can fit into a single seat" which needs to be checked when buying the ticket, otherwise the person will be charged extra, etc.