Southwest Airlines Kicks Skinny Woman off Plane to Make Room for Larger Passenger

A woman flying on standby on a Southwest Airlines flight was removed from the plane because one passenger needed two seats:

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

Normally I would be very enraged about this, but as the woman was flying on standby, it's true that she was never guaranteed a seat in the first place.

However, in the future, perhaps airlines should require passengers to divulge their weight before buying a ticket. An invasion of privacy, yes, but sadly necessary in today's society. What would the airline have done if the plane had been full of non-standby passengers already?
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Yeah, she was on standby, but she paid for a seat. If fatty can't fit in one seat, he should be forced to get off the plane and buy two tickets for a different flight, as he should have done in the first place. He wants special treatment for being fat; she just wants what she paid for.
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That fat lil shit should have been left behind, yeah I understand it was stand by, but when you are already in the seat with a paid for ticket versus a pudgy little gremlin that couldn't put down the fork, there something wrong with this picture. Does that fat fuck get two meals too, I mean since he has two seats? Also are you sure that there wasn't a dog crate to stick him in? Obesity is not an illness, people who pamper these people are the real sickness.
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jtmcbath, there ARE real disorders that can cause obesity. I'm not saying this kid has one and that he isn't just a lazy fast food lover, but if he's that large it sounds like there's some kind of issue. Just something to think about before you go running your mouth off.
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"...when the teen arrived late to the gate"
If the other passengers were onboard and buckled, then why was the outsize passenger given such treatment? Surely they should have said "Okay, there's your seat, BUT you can't fit in it and you failed to tell us that you were wider than an airline seat, so you'll have to wait for another flight with enough spare seats".
The passenger who was bumped may indeed have been on standby, but having been told to board, she should not have then lost her seat to someone who actually bought a ticket AFTER she was buckled in and ready to fly.
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Flying stand-by sucks. This sucked even more for her.

"However, in the future, perhaps airlines should require passengers to divulge their weight before buying a ticket."
Not sure what that would do. I fly time to time with a coworker that weighs 10 lbs less (only 1" shorter) then I do but has a 5" larger waist (36 v 41).
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I can't imagine it is very difficult to make a cure for obesity: a once a day pill or once a month injection that makes people become violently ill if they ever eat very much food. Too bad the disgusting fat pigs will not accept personal responsibility for their choices and the massive food/dieting industry is devoted to brainwashing them that it is not their fault. The sad thing is that you cannot expect a child to know better, even a 14 year old has really not grown up enough to be responsible for their own food behavior, in these cases the obesity is an incidence of child abuse plain and simple. It makes me sick to walk through places like Walmart and see these poor kids whose parents have indoctrinated them into such horrible and incredibly self-destructive behavior from the earliest age.
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I am of the belief that given that the woman had paid for and was seated in her seat, standby or not, it was HER seat by the time the LATE adolescent arrived. His late arrival says to me that he'd forfeited his seat by that time. Furthermore, if the airline policy is that an overweight passenger must purchase two seats then this adolescent with only one ticket, had no right to take the purchased seat from this woman.

I would say it's obviously an issue that merits some examination by the airline, but ultimately should end in giving the woman some free tickets or such as compensation. The news is simply trying to sensationalize it by juxtaposing the size of the woman and the adolescent. The woman's small size is simply a coincidence and therefore completely irrelevant in this issue.
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Her flying standby makes this a non issue and sensational reporting. It DOES matter that she was booked standby. It doesn't matter that she was buckled in. The ticketed passenger came, that means the standby passenger has to give up the seat. Sucks, but thems the breaks.
I like the term someone used "nontroversy"...pretty much! Slow day in the news room I guess. Glad to hear that the oil spill is all cleaned up.
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@Craig, jtmcbath and kh70633

Don't just assume that she had paid for her ticket. My mother works for Southwest. Employees and their spouses/parents/dependent children can fly free (read: standby) as long as there is room on the plane. My mom has been asked to leave the plane several times after being in her seat ready to go because someone showed up late.

The kid's parents should have purchased two tickets, but they didn't. Too bad for the lady that got bumped. When you fly standby, you should always be prepared to get bumped.
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Most everyone is missing the point. She paid for one seat, the teen paid for one seat. The teen did NOT pay for two seats. Therefore, he was entitled to his ONE seat and the woman, regardless of being standby or not, was entitled to the other seat. Just because he took up enough space for two seats, does not entitle him to take hers....which technically, was an "empty" seat, until she paid for it.
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Even though the woman was on standby (and I agree that if you are on standby you should be prepared to be bumped), the kid's parents should have bought 2 seats for him.

It's not fair that someone who only paid for one seat should get two. If there was no other passenger there, by coincidence, next to him, it's okay. But someone was already there, so it's unfair that she gets kicked out because someone wants 2 seats.

I remember when I was flying to Vietnam earlier this summer this woman next to me kept harassing the flight attendants that she wanted a COMPLETELY EMPTY ROW so that she can sleep, and it was a pretty full flight. Why don't just book 3 seats, or a business class seat? And she kept getting angry at the flight attendants, which pissed me off big time...
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This is an issue (although passenger being fat has nothing to do with it).

First of all, if you show up late to a flight (so late that they've filled stand-by) you've lost your right to get on that flight. Period. That is always in the fine print and if they let you on they are being nice. They aren't supposed to.

Second, when you fly stand-by you can be bumped UNTIL they give you a seat. Then you are guaranteed that seat. When she has that ticket it was her seat as a full passenger, not standby person.

Lastly, booting because someone needs extra space is completely out. Did he, in any way, pay for that seat? No. Did she in some way pay for standby? Yes. It's again his fault for not making his needs clear.
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"why is it relevant that she is petite?"

I thought about this and there isn't an answer that doesn't involve an unnerving slant in the story, she's the one we're supposed to cheer for. I mean, she only weighs 110 pounds!
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Exactly HIller. It's like we're supposed to sympathize with her all of a sudden b/c she's a normal weight while we boo and hiss this KID b/c he's overweight.
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I refuse to get drawn into the whole Fat=Evil / Skinny=Virtuous debate that this story was clearly written to stir up.

Setting aside the possibility that they might have been able to juggle the seating of other passengers to put the larger kid next to a toddler or small child to even out the space issue and satisfy *everyone* (god forbid somebody should have to do a bit of lateral thinking!), the gate agents had two options: Bump the woman who was flying standby or deny boarding to the late-arriving unaccompanied minor.

It's a no-brainer. You can't just say "tough luck" to the kid and leave him to his own devices. The woman who was flying standby willingly accepted the risk that she might not be able to take that flight, and that's exactly what happened. Case closed.
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Sure, flying standby doesn't guarantee you a seat, but this is further proof that "fat acceptance" has gone too far. Fat girls parents surely realize their daughter is enormous, yet only purchased one airplane ticket for her. The fat girl was probably humiliated by this happenstance, as well. The thin girl, infuriated.
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I didn't know you could lose your seat after already boarding the plane. That's pretty douchey. They probably did her a favour, keeping her from an uncomfortable ride.
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The kid being an unaccompanied minor has nothing to do with it. I've flown as a UM since I was 6 years old. Someone brought this kid to the airport, and this someone knows he was late, so no way that person would have left the airport before getting a text message from the kid saying "I'm sitting on the plane".
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.
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The incompetent dullards at Southwest Airlines should have been more concerned with the safety of the fellow passengers if they were to board on the same plane as someone whose weight is equivalent to two refrigerators and a metal Mr. Rubbishman full of bowling bowls. It's just a tragic plane crash waiting to happen. I'm guessing that the parents of Wide Load wanted to save money from purchasing for another plane ticket so they can feed Little Pork Chop seconds, thirds, and infinity at their next All-You-Can-Eat buffet night at their local Ruby Tuesday. Why must the poor world step aside or be deprived from what they pay for or what they need due to other people's pathetic and selfish life choices? I am not buying that whole "incurable disease or disorder" crap about Obesity. Yeah, that's like the same kind of excuse about homosexuals as well. No solid or concrete evidence to support that. You bleeding-heart fat-people-loving liberals make me sick!
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This is exactly why kids need to stop beating each other up in buses just because they're the wrong skin color. Aside from idiots talking non-stop on their cell phones while driving, we need to also start beating up these fat fucks who pay for one plane seat but take up more than one seats on the plane. Seats aren't cheap bus fares. And fat fucks like that little shit with entitlement issues are the thugs of the damned sky!
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