http://www.news.com.au/travel/news/passengers-too-fat-to-fly-ordeal/story-e6frfq...

    Airline says it's "tough" dealing with fat fliers
    Women were told they were "too fat to fly"
    Airline has apologised over the incident

SOUTHWEST Airlines has apologised for telling two women they were "too fat to fly" but says its obese passengers policy can lead to "tough" conversations.

Passengers Kenlie Tiggeman and her mother Joan Charpentier were furious after being singled out by a Southwest employee because of their weight on a stopover at Dallas Airport last month.

The airline has admitted that the situation was not handled appropriately and has contacted the passengers to offer a "heartfelt apology".

"Southwest Airlines apologised to both customers for the manner in which we addressed the situation," a Southwest spokeswoman said.

"We expect our employees to treat customers with respect and address any issues with the utmost discretion."

The airline insists that its "Customers of size" policy - which states passengers need to buy a second seat if they cannot fit between the armrest - is important for the comfort of all passengers but admits that conversations with overweight fliers can be difficult.

"Our employees do their best to have these tough conversations on behalf of the comfort and safety of all customers onboard our flights."

The airline admits on this occasion the policy was not applied consistently on all legs of the trip, however it says it stands by the 25-year-old policy.

Ms Tiggeman relived the "humiliating" incident on her blog, telling how the situation developed into a 45-minute confrontation over the airline's weight restrictions in front of other passengers.

"I asked him what the weight restrictions were and he said that he didn't know, just that we were too heavy to fly,” Ms Tiggeman said. “Too fat to fly."

The women say during the public stoush with the Southwest employee he even told them they could board the plane but only if they sat next to a third overweight person in a row.

A supervisor eventually intervened and they were able to board their flight without any special conditions.

Southwest has already taken flack over the policy with high-profile and sizeable film director Kevin Smith also told he was too fat to fly.

The current rules encourage people to pack heavy, dense items in carry on luggage and their person to save money. This is not good, especially if you hit bad turbulence.

When you front up to the counter, both you and your luggage should be weighed. You should pay a fixed price for the seat (or two if that is what you need), and a price per kilo of total weight on top of that, to cover extra fuel consumption etc.

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A healthy weight range would be between 70 and 100 Kg (at a generous guess). If everybody weighed 250 that's a big difference. It costs them more to eat, buy clothes and get around, (they obviously don't walk much) so it's okay, they're used to paying more. 

Some people are overweight due to medical conditions and I have every sympathy for them, however there are those who are obese due to laziness and over indulgence and sitting next to these on a plane is something no one should be subject to.  Therefore I see no reason they should not be charged for an extra seat.

maqqa's a simpleton, but that's no excuse for humiliating disabled people.

Re: FATTER than fat
Reply #8 - Today at 5:05pm     Well, well well, isn't this just a little meeting of bigots. What is it next time Maqqa little girls with crossed eyes.
Nairne, in some respect I agree with you, but sitting next to someone with a weight of 150kg plus on a long flight can be sheer hell.
I'am no expert on obesity, but during the last war in Europe, there were hardly any oveweight people, never mind obese, so medical conditions cannot play such a great role in obesity.

I find it interesting the number of 'fat-haters' on public message boards.

Of course, no fat people sit on their asses using the internet to post opinions on forums, it's only skinny 'beautiful people' that do that.

Nevermind that over 50% of the adult population of Australia is overweight or obese - none of them are here of course!

Did anyone bother to read this woman's blog?  She's doing some good stuff raising money for cancer research. 

More than many are doing.