Southwest Airlines is facing backlash over its controversial new “Customer of Size” policy.
The policy, which states that overweight customers must purchase additional seats, has been called a “fat tax” and criticized for its lack of clarity and objective criteria.
It requires plus-sized travelers to “proactively” buy an additional seat and states that the airline can decide “in its sole discretion” who must purchase the extra seat, citing customer safety and comfort as justification.
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The policy is already causing issues. On March 6, Jessica Skinner was stopped by a Southwest agent when she was flying from Tampa to Austin-Bergstrom International Airport.
She said that, despite losing 200 pounds (90 kg) and not extending beyond her seat, she was told she was too big and had to buy an extra seat. The discussion with the Southwest supervisor caused her to miss the deadline to check her bag.
“She walks to me, and she’s just like, ‘You’re going to need an extra seat because you’re wide at the bottom and you’re going to spill into the other seat, and it’s for the comfort of our other customers, and you won’t be able to fit.’ She was really rude about it,” she told SFGATE.
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Erika DeBoer faced a similar issue with the airline. When she arrived at the airport, a Southwest gate worker told her she needed to spend $176 on an additional seat for the “safety and comfort” of other passengers.
The only passenger sitting next to her was her best friend, who clarified that she had no issue sitting next to Erika.
“The part that lingers the most is the words used. ‘Safety and comfort’ of other passengers. They just kept repeating it like robots without any care for the actual situation,” Erika told People.
After her flight, the traveler contacted Southwest about the issue. She received a refund for the extra ticket and a $150 voucher.
A separate customer, Grace Simpson, said a Southwest worker flagged her as a “customer of size” and decided she needed to buy an extra ticket.
She had taken a Southwest flight from Norfolk to Baltimore without issue on February 10 but was told she was a “customer of size” by a gate agent before her connecting flight in San Diego.
“I told him that I had already flown from Norfolk to Baltimore without issue, so I was not going to buy another ticket,” Grace said in a video, adding that the issue left her feeling “embarrassed.”
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She also said that the airline worker who enforced the policy shared her discomfort.
“The supervisor who approached me was clearly uncomfortable and embarrassed to single me out and discuss my body,” she said. “In many ways, it felt unfair to both of us.
“While I do believe he had some discretion in how he handled the situation, it was evident that he was put in a difficult position enforcing a policy he did not create.”
Ultimately, Grace was assigned to a seat in the back of the plane adjacent to an empty seat.
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A Southwest spokesperson told The Independent that any customer who feels they may be a “customer of size” should contact the airline in advance.
“We ask Customers who may need an extra seat to let us know in advance of their day of travel so we can do our best to accommodate their needs,” the spokesperson said.
“Our goal is always to provide a comfortable experience for everyone on board; however, with assigned seating, adjacent seats may sometimes already be occupied.”
Southwest notes that armrests are considered the “definitive boundary” between seats, so those who “encroach upon the neighboring seat(s) should proactively purchase” an extra ticket.
Still, the carrier states that it “may determine, in its sole discretion, that an additional seat is necessary for safety purposes.”
Before the change, the airline allowed plus-size passengers to request a complimentary extra seat at the gate or receive a refund after buying one in advance. The policy had been in place for over 30 years and ended in January.
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Southwest’s new policy more closely resembles those of most other major US airlines, which do not guarantee a refund for purchasing an extra seat. Under the new rule, a refund for the second seat is only guaranteed if the flight departs with at least one open seat in the same fare class.
Flyers who did not book their ticket in advance can be forced to buy an extra ticket at the airport.
“If you did not purchase an additional seat in advance and our Employees determine that a second seat is needed,” the airline states. “You will be required to purchase an additional seat and pay any applicable seat fee at the airport (at the applicable fare available on the day of travel).”
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“I guess I was a bit embarrassed. I was upset more than anything,” Kari McCaw told SFGATE after she was stopped and told to buy an extra seat.
“You just made this arbitrary look at my body. … I don’t have any hips, so I sit in seats just fine all the time.”
Influencer Samyra Miller dubbed the policy a “fat tax” and slammed the subjective nature of its enforcement.
“It is discrimination that is at the discretion and fatphobia of whoever is at work that day,” she said.
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In her viral video, Erika said she is considered “bigger, plus-size, overweight, fat, or whatever you wanna call it,” and claimed she was told to purchase an extra seat despite never needing more than one.
On social media, critics have called the policy “cruel” and accused Southwest, which had a welcoming reputation, of “profiling and discriminating against customers just to make more money.”
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