A woman claims she and her daughter and her friend were bumped off a Southwest Airlines flight to accommodate a passenger of size who needed more room onboard. But if that sounds far-fetched, it’s probably because there likely is more to the story than simply an accommodation of an obese passenger.
Woman Claims She Was Bumped Off Of Southwest Airlines Flight To Accommodate Passenger Of Size Needing Extra Seat
As flagged by View From The Wing, a woman named Lana posted a lengthy video on Tok Tok which frankly leaves more questions than answers:
@dontflysouthwest @Southwest Airlines #southwestairlines #southwest #southwestbaltimore #baltimore #fyp #scandal #southwestwildlife #personofsize #why #pleasehelp #mom #momsoftiktok #momissues
She says she was stranded “outside of the country” on a trip from Montego Bay (MBJ) to Denver (DEN) via Baltimore (BWI) but appears to be 1.) filming and 2.) interacting with a Southwest Airlines customer service agent from Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport.
Last I checked, Baltimore is still in the United States.
She says that her party (herself, her daughter, and her daughter’s friend) was bumped off their flight so because a passenger of size (overnight passenger) needed an extra seat. Southwest liberally provides a free extra seat to passengers of size, though ostensibly on a space-availability basis. Those passengers can also purchase a second seat in advance.
Beyond the inconsistency of claiming to be trapped outside the USA while in Baltimore, a Southwest Airlines spokesperson told VFTW that “from a regulatory sense, there was not a denied boarding on the flight referenced as there was an error with one of the reservations.” The woman seems to reference this, arguing that she was not on standby but had purchased confirmed tickets.
The Southwest spokesperson further explained that the carrier “followed established procedures for both the customer of size and reaccommodating these customers” and further added that it “compensated the customer for interim expenses, offered three LUV vouchers as a gesture of goodwill and booked them for the following day when seats were available.”
It is still not clear what happened, though the passenger denied boarding wrote on TikTok, “I came almost 3 hours early and they there was another SW mistake that snowballed into this.” It is not clear what that mistake was.
Here’s my theory. Southwest offers two daily flights from MBJ to BWI. I suspect that there was a problem on WN907, the first flight at 12:10 pm, which bumped them to WN917 at 3:00 pm. By the time they reached Denver at 7:25 pm, the last flight of the day to Denver, WN3148 at 9:40 pm, was full. What was that problem?
She says on Tik Tok that she booked her ticket over the phone. I bet that she changed her ticket and somehow it was not re-ticketed so when she showed up to the airport her reservation and ticket did not match. Or perhaps she misunderstood the agent and thought she was rebooked on a later flight but was actually indeed just put on standby even though she did pay for her ticket (the two are not mutually exclusive).
CONCLUSION
We will see if anything more comes out from this, but I think the takeaway is that this was not simply a bump to accommodate a passenger of size. Yes, it appears they ultimately did not get on the flight because the POS took a second seat, leaving only two seats (and you cannot exactly leave a teenage girl behind). But there were other issues with their ticket at play which contributed to them missing their flight.
If anyone has any other theories, please share them below.
Continue to call it like it is. OBESITY. Time to stop sugar coating this epidemic. Time to stop glorifying it. This is the #1 threat to the health and welfare of Americans. A burden we are going to have to share due to the poor choices of others is one reason why health care costs are so ridiculous in this country.
Thicc is the new chic.
Yep this cost every American about $1200.00 a years in shared Healthcare cost, disability, loss of job performance. It is even a national security issue, since only 20% of men from the age of 18-35 years old, can pass a military physical. IN the 1980’s, 80% of men that age passed. When someone is 100 pounds or more obese, they are basically addicted to food and they are thinking is just like a drug addict. Full of excuses, denial of facts, effects there relationships, job performance, finances, health and can even take their life. It is basically the number one cause of heart disease, diabetes qnd can even cause some Cancers. The sick thing is these fat activist who align themselves with people of color and disabled as they are the same. Well your Food intake you can control, your disability or skin color you cannot. I am a disabled Veteran and I do not use my screwed up spine to make excuses for my 5’2″ 110 body. I work at it and stay away from junk and processed food.
That’s pretty rude!!!!mind your business!!!
It becomes people’s business when they pay extra money so Trigglypuff can eat herself into immobility and die of preventable disease. I notice you can’t actually refute any of the points the comment before made, you just whine that it’s “rude” to point out. I’d rather be rude and honest than spare people’s oversensitive feelings and let them live in delusion. And I’m fat, in case you’re wondering.
Matt, please say fatty. Stop with this PC bs. They aren’t a POS, well, maybe they are, but they are a fatty. They are Obese. Etc. Let’s not dance around this.
Your comment made me feel threatened and uncomfortable. Please provide your race so I know whether it is safe to contact the police.
You eat fast food everyday and are going to pretend that you aren’t obese?
I’m not. Clearly you don’t understand the difference between “overeating” and “fast food” eating. Hey matt, I just want to say ……. See? This pedantic little asshole is still at it.
Completely unsurprising you can’t even research the claims you make.
“The obesity prevalence based on BMI and WHR was 21.3% (95% CI: 19.4, 23.2%) and 33.2% (95% CI: 0.7, 35.7), respectively. Fast food consumption was related to abdominal obesity as WHR (OR: 1.46, 95% CI: 1.11, 2.26), but was not related to general obesity as BMI (OR: 0.97, 95% CI: 0.63, 1.52). ”
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6196377/
Your jealousy of my lifestyle is noted. Try not being poor.
I really feel your terminology is both disrespectful and mean. There are some people who have endocrine disorders, and there are other medical issues causing obesity. So calling someone “fatty” is just cruel when you don’t know what the person’s issues are. It’s not always over eating, so think before you speak, or write.
If they have an endocrine disorder then they shouldn’t be eating as much. Caloric intake is intrinsically linked to obesity. If one doesn’t eat more than required for their metabolism then one will not gain weight. Stop making emotion based excuses for fat people who can’t control themselves.
Even if you have a disorder, that doesn’t mean that you can gain in a caloric deficit. It means you need to talk to your doctor and possibly a dietician about what your needs are. Let’s face it, the “customers of size” are not people who have a disorder – they’re people who eat McDonald’s every night.
For one thing, they are rare. I have literally never met a person who had a disorder like the one you’re describing. I have met a lot of them insisting that they have a thyroid disease or PCOS, both of which can make losing weight more difficult than for an average person, but certainly far from impossible. Yet somehow for every obese person, losing weight with those conditions is allegedly impossible so they don’t even try.
If that is Southwest’s policy, then fine, but they owe this woman and the kids compensation including lodging for the night and some food. I don’t care what their policy is but if she sues them she will get compensated so why dance around it. Just pay the woman and be done with it. Somehow they seem to think their policy trumps her rights as a paying passenger.
Did you bother to read the entire article? They were compensated.
If you’re too fat to fly then buy a second seat in advance. That’s all I ask. The rest is between you and your doctor.
Nope, that isn’t good enough. According to fat activists, “the thins” must suffer because fat people “deserve to take up space.”
We are all, everyone of us, “of size”. I am of the “fits in an airplane seat” size.
Moooooooooooo…
This is the fake, meth-addled Billy bob
Seek help, brother
Seek rehab you rural opioid addict
Literally ever comment from you is an insult. *EVERY SINGLE ONE*
@Matthew, “But there were other issues with their ticket at play which contributed to them missing their flight.”
That may be true, but was any of it their fault? If it was a ticketing issue, that’s on WN (phone agent mistakes can and do happen). If it was mechanical, that’s also on WN. The COS issue is definitely on WN.
Of course, it would be great if you hear more details about what happened, but at first glance, it seems as though WN’s responsible.
Btw, a few corrections:
– You wrote “overnight” pax when you probably meant “overweight” pax.
– They reached BWI at 7:25 instead of Denver.
– IIRC, WN uses “COS” for “customer of size,” since “POS” can mean something entirely different…
Really dude, corrections? Get a life.
Why are bigoted comments tolerated to such a degree in our society when it comes to girth?
Being fat is “generally” a choice. There are medical conditions, but that is the exception and not the rule here. I don’t mind fat people, but if you make the choice to have that lifestyle, it shouldn’t be affecting others.
Otherwise if we’re allowing our CHOICES to impact others without opposition then someone being bigoted should be allowed too as they’ve chosen to be bigoted and we should all accommodate it. Turns out, we DON’T like people who have made the choice to be bigots, so we oppose it. The same thing applies here to fat people. People don’t like that someone who chose to be fat is allowed the privilege to make others’ days harder/worse.
Again, all of the above is 100% based off the assumption the fat person is CHOOSING to be fat and not forced by a medical issue.
Because girth can be controlled. Everyone can get fat and everyone can get skinny. Also, obese people scream resource hog when others see them. So why no hate for the resource hogs?
Because unlike disabilities, diseases/disorders, race, etc, fat people CHOSE to become that way and are inconveniencing others with their choices. Everyone knows how a person becomes fat (except fat activists, who will literally insist that humans can produce body mass from nothing, in defiance of all scientific laws), and everyone knows how to reverse it.
Is it easy? No. But that isn’t the fault of others, and others shouldn’t have to pay the price for someone eating a whole box of Twinkies every night.
I was military flying in Uniform and got denied boarding due to a COS. Delayed my arrival overnight and the best I got from Southwest was almost this exact same message about customers of size “who may not know the policy”. Such BS and why I will fly SWA as a last resort.
SW isn’t stupid… most of their customers are from the plus-sized economic strata traveling cheap; the airline isn’t going to kill the (literally) fatted calf that is their bread and butter by denying boarding to passengers who meet their most common customer profile. Obesity is an epidemic (accompanied by all of the biproducts such as diabetes, heart conditions, etc. Are airlines responsible? No. But as long as the pax has a ticket he/she is free to travel.
As a “fatty” myself, I do qualify for the COS policy. I’m 6’6″, 375lb. Yes, I can fit in a seat with the arms down without an extender, however, the person next to me is not going to enjoy the armrest. When I fly with my wife, this isn’t am issue as she is smaller and we “share” the “wiggle room”.
I never book two seats ahead of time. On the day of the flight, after we arrive at the gate, I have my much smaller wife ask if the flight is full. If there are open seats, then I approach about a second seat. If the flight is full, we make due. I will not be the reason someone is bumped.
Do you even proof read this story. What an amateur.
Hello Pot … the Kettle wants you to know that the use of “Do” is not grammatically correct … phrasing the way you did, it should have been “Did you even proofread this story” … or if for some reason you want to use “Do” you could have said Do you proofread the stories” Also it’s proofread not proof read. There now I sound like as much of a jerk as you did! 🙂 … life is too short to be so critical of others. especially when you make the same kinds of typo’s or grammatical mistakes. No one is perfect. It’s a website/blog for goodness sakes they are supposed to be informative and entertaining. No reason to take it so seriously or be offended by some typos. Geez!
If an obese person intends to fly, there should be in large print, a statement to say you will be escorted to a private room within the airport where you will be asked to sit in a mock airplane seat. If the mock arm rests fly up or your fat plunges through the hole, you should be paying for TWO SEATS! Stop invading in another passenger’s area. This makes me upset that the airline expects the non-obese person to find another seat (if there’s one), or reschedule their flight! It should be the obese person hauled off of the plane and told to make other arrangements. This has already happened to me once, where two obese passengers were sitting at the window and aisle. They were hoping nobody else would be seated next to them do they could roll out to the middle seat! Lucky me, that was the only seat left. “Take it or leave it,” I was told by the flight attendant. I should not have had to be inconvenienced to take a later flight, or be swallowed up by these two obese passengers!
Rose, that would be considered to be discrimination. I don’t know or care if you have a medical condition or not, but if you did have one, how would you feel if you were discriminated against for your medical condition. For example, you are a very brittle diabetic that often has debilitating low blood sugars causing you to pass out and be transported to the ER for treatment fairly often. You get fired because of this disability. What’s the difference? Discrimination is discrimination.
I absolutely agree with most of what you’ve said and I myself am not skinny and I find fat shaming abhorrent, but I have 2 points I’d like to make.
1.) We all have personally accountability and no one individuals’ rights should trump another’s. When flying, going to a concert, or even a movie theatre I don’t expect special treatment, nor do I feel it is owed to me. I try to be prepared and have contingency plans if I think I may not fit in a seat. I do not have an expectation that I should be able to just walk up and be accommodated, even to the point of inconveniencing others. It isn’t right to expect that from a business (especially with no advance notice) or my fellow patrons.
2.) How did we get to a point where anyone considered marginalized, or to have some sort of disability, or a person of X color, or X gender, should have more rights or more consideration given to them than those that are not in that state? For me I don’t think a disability or a gender or someone’s skin color makes them less than anyone else, but I also don’t think it makes them more. I do believe in equality for all, I don’t believe in equity of outcomes.
I also don’t believe in painting anyone as a victim due to unique circumstances they may face. We all have our own issues to overcome, and some are definitely way worse than others. I think it’s wonderful when businesses can accommodate differences, but I think the person with the difference has some ownness to advise the business in advance to make sure they can be accommodated without impact to others. Certainly, in this situation if taken at face value, the average sized people were inconvenienced in order to accommodate the oversized person … or better yet to accommodate a large person, the smaller people were discriminated against. How is that any better?
I can also say if I was the COS in this situation I would have been mortified and I would not have wanted 3 people to be not get to travel on their designated flight just to accommodate me/1 person. Business wise it would have made more sense to ask the COS to wait for another flight where they had an available extra seat. But then with the victimhood, sue happy, cancel culture we have cultivated WN was probably afraid of being sued, or canceled if they upset the COS whereas the 3 averaged sized ladies being turned away was less of a PR nightmare … very sad
Obesity as a medical condition is not comparable to having Type 1 Diabetes. It’s not discrimination for a person DELIBERATELY choosing to live outside the norms of society to not have society bend to accommodate them. Furthermore, “customers of size” are not facing death if they buy a second seat because they have made themselves too large to fit into a single seat.
It is not discrimination. It is an FAA regulation. CFR 14. 121.310(f) and 121.311(d) are superseded by bulletin 1-94-9. This requires that armrests be placed in the down position during takeoff and landing.
If an obese person cannot fit between the armrests they should be required to purchase 2 seats. In addition the FAA requires airlines to publish the dimensions of all the seats on a particular flight. It’s not that an obese person is unaware that they cannot fit into a seat, it’s that they choose to ignore that fact and infringe of the space that others have paid for.
If you order a car online and go to the dealership to pick it up, do you allow an obese person to drive away in the vehicle you purchased because theirs did not allow their body sufficient room? Do you then accept a lesser vehicle with no compensation other than I’m sorry or we will have to order you another one?
Would you do business with that car dealership again? Would you be defending this obese person that took the new car you paid for?
Let’s say you are sitting in your aisle seat and you are on your way to have a surgery done in another state. You booked your flight 5 months in advance in an aisle seat. At the last minute an obese passenger weighing 350 lbs books one seat next to you and you are bumped from your seat and flight. As a result you lose a $3,500 deposit at the hospital that is non refundable as it is a booked surgical suite. You are now out the money for the surgery, your accommodations, and the airline issues you a credit for your flight. You never fly so the credit is worthless. Travel insurance DOES NOT cover these types of issues. Are you still defending obese people? Do other people not have equal rights?
Calling obesity a choice is being a jerk. There are many reasons and for many of us this “choice” is a very difficult condition resulting in a daily and often humiliating lifelong battle
There is some obesity that isn’t a choice, and some that is. Depending on the size, it is within one’s control.
Do you just reserve your scorn for those who made the wrong choices? And can you tell the difference?
I prefer to treat people as I would like to be treated and give them the benefit of the doubt, and some empathy. Of course, that’s just me, it seems.
So you automatically assume that every obese person has an incredibly rare metabolic disorder or a mental disability that leaves them unable to comprehend caloric needs? That seems statistically unlikely, but hey, I’m a person who values facts over self-righteous “compassion.”
Just because you don’t like the facts doesn’t make them not facts. With exceptions like children, obesity is absolutely the result of your choices, and we should not encourage fake victimhood by pretending otherwise.
Wow I just stumbled upon this blog because I love flying. This is the meanest, most immature group of commenters I have ever encountered. Matt, moderate much? Enjoyed the article but not the audience. Will be sure to avoid this blog in the future, bye!
I’m sure everyone is devastated by your loss.