Man forced to buy 2nd seat on WN Flight

**Alex T** · 09-15-2007, 12:32 PM

http://www.khou.com/topstories/stori....d509641b.html

Too fat to fly? Man forced to buy extra seat on Southwest flight

11:51 AM CDT on Saturday, September 15, 2007

By Vicente Arenas / 11 News

J.R. Hill said he was forced to purchase an extra plane ticket because the airline said he was too big for one seat.

For many people, the fear of flying sometimes stops them from ever getting on a plane. J.R. Hill says in his case, it was something else.

“And the lady stops and says, ‘Sir, you need to have another ticket.’ And I said what for and she said, ‘because of your size.’”

Alex

**mirrodie** · 09-15-2007, 12:46 PM

At least that is established policy, not news.

**nwafan20** · 09-15-2007, 02:57 PM

Sheesh, its a WN slaughter house in the news. People are coming out of the woodwork accusing WN of this and that because they saw that they can get news coverage for this.

Good luck to WN on this PR disaster

**PhilDernerJr** · 09-15-2007, 03:11 PM

How is this a disaster?

It's a shame, but I can understand the rules. A 400-pound person most probably can't fit into one seat, or as the rule states, can't get the armrest down.

**cancidas** · 09-15-2007, 05:09 PM

HE SHOULD BE!! that dude is twice my size...

**Matt Molnar** · 09-15-2007, 06:01 PM

This was in the news about 10 years ago. Southwest implemented this policy quite awhile ago, did they not?

**nwafan20** · 09-15-2007, 07:28 PM

Originally Posted by Phil D.

How is this a disaster?

It's a shame, but I can understand the rules. A 400-pound person most probably can't fit into one seat, or as the rule states, can't get the armrest down.

Its a PR disaster Phil, WN has been in nothing but bad press for the past 2 weeks. People are coming out of nowhere saying "WN did this to me" and "WN did that to me" when they are policies that were already in place.

**cancidas** · 09-15-2007, 08:16 PM

i don't think that they're PR disasters. problem here is that common sense is dead and people try getting away with as much as they can. i can understand the first woman with the short skirt making the press, but the other woman and this dude are just riding the bandwagon. our wonderful media sure isn't helping matters.

**PhilDernerJr** · 09-16-2007, 01:44 AM

Bad press doesn't mean it's affecting people. Though I've seen so many news reports, I have a tough time finding people who care or are outraged by it. The media actually field here.

As for the fat guy, I think it's obvious that this guy takes up two seats, and WN is just following their existing policy the the media has supposedly already gotten over years ago.

**T-Bird76** · 09-16-2007, 09:15 PM

Originally Posted by nwafan20

Originally Posted by Phil D.

How is this a disaster?

It's a shame, but I can understand the rules. A 400-pound person most probably can't fit into one seat, or as the rule states, can't get the armrest down.

Its a PR disaster Phil, WN has been in nothing but bad press for the past 2 weeks. People are coming out of nowhere saying "WN did this to me" and "WN did that to me" when they are policies that were already in place.

The guy is freaking huge and is a clear policy at Southwest. Matt a PR diaster is NWA canceling over 900 flights and not having enough pilots to run that **** show.

btw did anyone notice the tower??? Its JFK tower and its a Houston news agency covering a story on WN. I guess only one of us would notice that.

**FlyNavy** · 09-16-2007, 09:33 PM

Or the 767 on the slide background? I for one totally support Southwest's policy here. I hope they stick to their guns and defend their policy - what this news report failed to mention was that this isn't just Southwest's policy. From what I understand, many airlines have similar rules.