southwest and the kevin smith dilemma

you've all heard about kevin smith, famed director, being bumped from a southwest flight due to his weight. he was allowed on a later flight without issue but tweeted the hell out of the issue.

here's my thoughts on the issue:

-poor handling - the issue on the plane was handled very poorly. if smith was already seated, why bump him? why come up to someone on a plane and make a spectacle of the person? it just doesn't make sense to me unless they legitimately pose a danger to other passengers (in the event of an emergency). i also imagine that smith was a bit embarrassed or put off and probably didn't make the situation any easier on the flight crew.

-he should have been bumped - smith admits he regularly buys two seats because he prefers the comfort but was flying standbye and was only able to get one seat. that's fine, but he was seen to be in violation on southwest's 25 year old policy on size. if they have a rule about large people, and he normally buys two tickets, he shouldn't have flown in one seat.

-if he wasn't too big for one seat, and he later flew in one seat, he shouldn't have been bumped. it's not like he lost a ton of weight between flights.

now, i'm a larger individual, although i don't know if i'm as big as kevin smith. many people don't realize it, but my 6' frame usually runs around 250 lbs. now, i wish i was ripped like some pro-football linebacker, but i'm not. i don't always fit into seats very well on planes, but i'm not too big yet. and, i've flown on some itty bitty planes, and even spent a flight from salt lake city next to a guy that was probably a few inches taller than i was, and a bit heavier as well. it was uncomfortable, but i sucked it up and lived with it for the duration of the flight. i can empathize for anyone that has to sit next to me on a flight because they're probably feeling the same way. if i was too big to actually fit in the seat properly, i feel that i would have no right to impose upon the people seated next to me. airplanes are very close quarters, and size can present safety issues.

i saw a person speaking out on nightline against southwest and the airlines in general and compared the issue to height. while it is true that an extremely tall person's legs may block the row, they don't affect the aisle. and, a tall person's legs aren't going to be all up in your space.

flights booked

so, today i tried making some airline reservations (vegas!). we have vouchers for some free flights. unfortunately, this means that i actually have to call the airline and deal with thir system rather than book online. i had found the flights online, so i knew what i wanted. i called the first time, and it goes somewhat smoothly. i'm not really fond of automatic phone systems, and i did have to do a few repeats. eventually, since i was using vouchers, it kicked us over to a nice gentleman whose accent seemed to tell me that he wasn't in my neighborhood. this was fine, most of these guys do a really good job, and have it worked out so the average english speaker can understand them. and, i didn't have any problems. well, that is, until they tried to tell me that i couldn't use my voucher for the return flight i wanted. so, i canceled, and went back to the internet.

after reviewing, i realized i was going to have to call in again, so i did. different guy, same situation. although, now i knew i didn't have as many options. it seemed to be going smoothly until the guy tried to tell me that i needed to stay over a sunday. at this point we had to disagree because my vouchers clearly state that i must only stay over a saturday. which i am. so, he worked hard to get it entered, and then i had to be placed on hold. but, when he came back, it was all worked out. tickets booked. of course, by the time that it was all said and done i was on the fone for about 40 minutes. and, most of that was either working with the automated system or on hold.

now, one thing i find stupid about this whole situation is that we still have to pay taxes on the flight. retarded. especially because the taxes for the two tickets comes to about 1/6 of what the cost would have been. now, that's not too bad, but the tickets were free right? shouldn't free include the whole price? i guess they're really mostly free tickets.

ah yeah, the other sucky thing is that we leave to come home @ 8 am. what a crappy time to fly out. our flight in is good, we arrive @ our destination @ 4 in the afternoon on thursday. but, having to depart sunday morning @ 8? that stinks. that means we need to be @ airport around 6. not exactly the way i want to end my weekend. oh well. at least we'll be home with plenty of recovery time on sunday before heading back into the work week.

UPDATE: so, despite making a booking, when i went to the airport (had to do before midnight tomorrow to turn in ticket voucher) i ended up standing around for 35 min. they pulled up the reservation but weren't able to redeem the coupons. the counter people were pretty useless. and, by this i mean that they couldn't figure out the issue, couldn't fix the problem, and eventually gave up and called their customer service. and, they had to wait for quite a while on the phone. eventually, the counter person and the person on the phone figured out that the person i booked with this morning gave me a flight that i wasn't eligible for (had a stop over). so, i had to cancel my flight. not good. this may mean we're driving. which i don't mind so much, but heather really doesn't like it. other options: come back monday. this most likely won't work because it would likely mean that i miss the first day of class for my next term. not really a good option. and, i'm not sure if we'd be able to extend our reservation. stupid plane company. so, we'll see where this goes.