Woman Sues Airline For Humiliation Over Her Weight

On 08/31/2004 10:58 PM Dennis found Nemo in a Sushi Bar and exclaimed:

Woman Sues Airline For Humiliation Over Her Weight

POSTED: 3:10 pm PDT August 30, 2004

SPOKANE, Wash. -- An Eastern Washington woman has sued Southwest Airlines,
saying company employees humiliated her in front of other airplane
passengers by suggesting she was too fat to fit in a single seat.

Trina Blake, 26, said a gate agent questioned her extensively about her
weight while she was boarding a plane from Orlando, Fla., to Seattle in May
2003, then told flight attendants to make sure Blake did not take up more
than one seat.

"I was told that if I even lifted the armrest, I'd be charged for a second
ticket at the next airport," Blake told The Spokesman-Review newspaper.

A lawyer for Southwest says the airline denies it discriminated against
Blake or harassed her.

Linda Rutherford, a spokeswoman for the Dallas-based airline, said
Southwest's policy requiring second tickets for large people is meant to
ensure passenger safety and comfort -- both for the heavy passengers and
those nearby.

Blake, who lives in the north Spokane suburb of Chattaroy, said she's flown
on Southwest and other airlines numerous times before and never had been
asked to consider buying an extra seat.

"I'm a bigger girl but I'm not that big," she told The Associated Press on
Saturday. At 5-foot-7, she wears size 22 pants and considers herself
overweight but not obese, she said.

She said she would not have considered the suggestion discrimination if
Southwest had been more discreet and polite in asking her to consider a
second seat. In her view, the treatment she received was abusive and
insulting.

Her lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court in Spokane in June. Her
attorney, Russell Van Camp, said he plans to seek unspecified monetary
damages for reckless infliction of emotional distress and harassment.

Blake said she'd like to receive a formal apology from the airline. She
wrote a letter after the incident and received two $50 Southwest vouchers
she has not yet used. She said a letter the airline sent did not include an
apology.

"Even if they offered me free tickets for the rest of my life, it would do
me no good," she said. "I'm not able to fly any more. The idea of flying
again gives me too much anxiety."

Rutherford said the airline does not track the frequency of its requests
for second seats, but said it happens "very rarely."

"More often it's the case that some passengers pre-order two seats before
coming to the airport," she said.

And in cases where passengers are asked to buy second tickets, the fares
are refunded if the plane leaves with any unfilled seats, she said.

Southwest is working harder to make sure employees are consistent in asking
passengers to consider two seats, so that passengers like Blake don't go
across the country and then encounter a request on a return trip.

"This is a very sensitive issue and we handle it with the utmost
discretion," she added.

In 2000, a California court ruled that Southwest did not violate a
passenger's civil rights by requesting a second fare when deemed necessary.

A brother and sister from New Mexico sued Southwest Airlines in June over
the same policy. Andrea Kysar of White Rock and Martin McLaughlin of
Espanola, who are described in the lawsuit as "morbidly obese," said they
were told in front of other passengers that they had to buy extra tickets
because their weight would cause "comfort and safety" problems for others.

Watch the video:

http://www.kxly.com/common/getStory.asp?id=39073





When I used to travel with my guitar (a collector's edition Gibson
12-string) I was charged for a second seat, even when there was room in
the overhead compartment. Parents with babies are charged for a seat
even when the baby is held for the majority of the flight. Likewise,
people who are wider than the width of the airplane seat, or who are so
tall they need to stretch out diagonally across several seats should
have to pay extra.

I'm single and sometimes vacation at AI or on cruise ships that way.
When I get socked for the "single supplement" I don't like it. But if I
want to use that particular transport / resort -- them's the rules. I
pay the supplement or I make other vacation plans.

--
________
To email me, Edit "xt" from my email address.
Brian M. Kochera
"Some mistakes are too much fun to only make once!"
View My Web Page: http://home.earthlink.net/~brian1951

john wrote:

I think it is TOTALLY unfair for SWA to stop a passenger on the RETURN
trip and tell the passenger they must buy two seats to return home.

If SWA did not demand that the passenger buy two seats before he
boarded the first leg of his trip then they should not be able to make
that demand on the return trip.

What if the first flight wasn't full and the return flight was full?
If the flight isn't full you don't pay for the second seat.

"anonymous" wrote in message
m...
john wrote:

I think it is TOTALLY unfair for SWA to stop a passenger on the RETURN
trip and tell the passenger they must buy two seats to return home.

If SWA did not demand that the passenger buy two seats before he
boarded the first leg of his trip then they should not be able to make
that demand on the return trip.

What if the first flight wasn't full and the return flight was full?
If the flight isn't full you don't pay for the second seat.


Their policy is to make the fat passenger buy the extra seat whether it is
full or not. If flight turns out not to be full then they get a refund.

Matt

Matt wrote:
"anonymous" wrote in message
m...

john wrote:

I think it is TOTALLY unfair for SWA to stop a passenger on the RETURN
trip and tell the passenger they must buy two seats to return home.

If SWA did not demand that the passenger buy two seats before he
boarded the first leg of his trip then they should not be able to make
that demand on the return trip.

What if the first flight wasn't full and the return flight was full?
If the flight isn't full you don't pay for the second seat.



Their policy is to make the fat passenger buy the extra seat whether it is
full or not. If flight turns out not to be full then they get a refund.

Matt



Not really.. If they know the flight won't be full, there is no reason
to sell the extra seat to a person of size.

Matt wrote:
Their policy is to make the fat passenger buy the extra seat whether it is
full or not. If flight turns out not to be full then they get a refund.

Which is why the pax did have a valid argument: if they didn't complain about
her size for the outbound journey, how come they complained about it for the
inbound ?

If one is definitely oversized, they should be trated as such 100% of the time.

Airlines need to have a butt metre, something similar to hand luggage sizer.
This way, judgement is purely logical and involves no judgement from staff.

Once they've dealt with fat passengers, they will then have to deal with
smelly passengers. In the end, passengers will have to pass through some form
or arch that will not only measure their size, but detect too high
concentration of odours and especially alchool. And they'll need a camera
below the crotch to ensure that any pax wearing a skirt is wearing underwear
(with some artificial intelligence software to ring the alarm, since having a
human monitor that camera would be considerred pervert).

What other problems did "Airline" point out ?

anonymous wrote:
Not really.. If they know the flight won't be full, there is no reason
to sell the extra seat to a person of size.

But consistency would have the check in staff still get the fat passenger to
purchase the dummy extra ticket so that 2 boarding passes can be issued. This
way, the rule would be applied uniformly and the passenger could never use
"but on my last flight, they didn't find me to be too fat" argument.

"anonymous" wrote in message
m...



Their policy is to make the fat passenger buy the extra seat whether it
is
full or not. If flight turns out not to be full then they get a refund.

Matt



Not really.. If they know the flight won't be full, there is no reason
to sell the extra seat to a person of size.

If you'd watched Airline the other night you would have seen that their
policy is exactly what I stated. The person selling the ticket or checking
in the passenger has no way of knowing if the flight will be full or not.

Matt

"nobody" wrote in message
...
Matt wrote:
Their policy is to make the fat passenger buy the extra seat whether it
is
full or not. If flight turns out not to be full then they get a refund.

Which is why the pax did have a valid argument: if they didn't complain
about
her size for the outbound journey, how come they complained about it for
the
inbound ?


Your right, they obviously need to work on their consistency. I will laugh
very hard if the result of this lawsuit is that Southwest has to install ass
meters at the gates.

Matt

Matt wrote:
"anonymous" wrote in message
m...


Their policy is to make the fat passenger buy the extra seat whether it

is

full or not. If flight turns out not to be full then they get a refund.

Matt



Not really.. If they know the flight won't be full, there is no reason
to sell the extra seat to a person of size.


If you'd watched Airline the other night you would have seen that their
policy is exactly what I stated. The person selling the ticket or checking
in the passenger has no way of knowing if the flight will be full or not.

?? I observed a WN flight a couple of weeks ago with about 20 people.
Are you saying that the person at the gate had no reason to expect that
another 100+ people weren't going to show up without reservations for a
7AM Saturday morning flight?

Matt wrote:
"anonymous" wrote in message
m...


Their policy is to make the fat passenger buy the extra seat whether it

is

full or not. If flight turns out not to be full then they get a refund.

Matt



Not really.. If they know the flight won't be full, there is no reason
to sell the extra seat to a person of size.


If you'd watched Airline the other night you would have seen that their
policy is exactly what I stated. The person selling the ticket or checking
in the passenger has no way of knowing if the flight will be full or not.

?? I observed a WN flight a couple of weeks ago with about 20 people.
Are you saying that the person at the gate had no reason to expect that
another 100+ people weren't going to show up without reservations for a
7AM Saturday morning flight?