Fritz
08-11-2003, 07:37 AM
Has anyone encountered having to buy two seats?
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http://www.newsday.com/news/local/longisland/ny-liair063405954aug08,0,5055573.story?coll=ny-linews-headlines
Discomfort in the Sky
Weight policy doesn't sit well with all
By Carrie Levine
STAFF WRITER; Staff writer Kristopher Banks contributed to this story.
August 8, 2003
It was bad enough when the Southwest ticket agent told 333-pound Mike Pollack he was too big to fit on the plane and needed to buy an extra ticket.
But the last straw, he says, is when the man pointed to his stomach and started laughing.
"It was a miracle I didn't kill him, but I can't do my job from jail," said Pollack, 35, who works for DSA Community Publishing, a subsidiary of Newsday. "I'm dieting, and this didn't help my morale."
Pollack, of Farmingdale, tried to redeem a voucher for a free flight at the ticket counter at Long Island MacArthur Airport on June 14. He is taking a trip to Baltimore later this month and wanted to use the voucher to book the flight.
Instead, he bought his ticket on the Internet to avoid a similar situation at the ticket counter, and is hoping the gate agent doesn't make him buy a second seat to accommodate his 6-foot, now 290-pound frame before he gets on the flight.
Pollack is the latest to complain about a Southwest Airline policy that requires heavy customers to purchase two seats, but does not provide a weight limit or standard guidelines to apply the long-standing policy, which the airline announced a year ago it would start enforcing.
Many overweight frequent fliers say that over the past few years, airlines have begun aggressively discriminating against fat people, and since the number of available flights offered by troubled airlines has been shrinking, overcrowding is worsening the problem.
Frances White, a board member and spokeswoman for the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance, said she expects to hear horror stories as the group's members squeeze into 17- to 20-inch wide seats and fly from all over the country to a convention this month in Los Angeles.
"It didn't used to be this bad when there were all kinds of flights every time of the day and night," she said. "Now that flights have been reduced and fill up faster, you have problems with people dealing with spatial issues."
Whitney Eichinger, a spokeswoman for Southwest Airlines, said the policy affects less than 5 percent of Southwest's customers.
"For both sides, it's a sensitive subject," she said, adding that employees are supposed to discuss the issue privately with customers.
"It's just handled as well as it can be because it's a very difficult situation for the customer and Southwest Airlines," she said. "We see how the customer will best fit and make a judgment."
But some advocates for the overweight say the judgment of gate attendants and untrained airline employees is inconsistent, resulting in uncertainty and fear of humiliation every time an overweight passenger checks in for a flight.
"It's a huge problem," said Sondra Solovay, an Oakland-based attorney who has written a book on what she terms "fat prejudice."
Solovay said she has looked into representing passengers in weight-discrimination cases against airlines and "this is a very hard situation to combat. There's no protection in the Constitution or in most federal regulations that prohibits weight-based discrimination. The general public has to become aware of just how unfair the treatment is."
White said part of the problem is uneven application of Southwest's policy. "If you get someone who doesn't like fat folks, you're going to get hassled. If you get someone who loves their fat mother, they'll go out of their way," she said.
Airlines have yet to coalesce around a single industry standard on the issue. For instance, a spokeswoman for Atlanta-based Delta Airlines said the airline tries to provide a second seat free when needed, and provides frequent-flier miles for the second seat when a customer decides to purchase one - something Southwest says it does not do.
But David Stempler, the president of the Air Travelers Association, an industry watchdog group, said the problem is two-sided. "I represent all the passengers, and a lot of times fairly heavy people are trying to get in these seats by raising the armrests and encroaching on the space of the other passenger," Stempler said.
Stempler said he believes it is fair for passengers to buy the extra seat when they cannot fit in the confines of the armrests.
He acknowledged that standardizing the way the regulation is applied is important, but said it is extremely difficult. "Unless you want to get a tape measure out and measure people's [behinds], I don't know how you're going to do it," he said.
Stempler said that to be fair, airlines should award double frequent-flier miles to people forced to buy a second seat - currently a bone of contention - and be as courteous as possible when enforcing the policy.
"Maybe there's an opportunity for some entrepreneurial airline to have extrawide seats," he said.
Staff writer Kristopher Banks contributed to this story.
Copyright © 2003, Newsday, Inc.
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http://www.newsday.com/news/local/longisland/ny-liair063405954aug08,0,5055573.story?coll=ny-linews-headlines
Discomfort in the Sky
Weight policy doesn't sit well with all
By Carrie Levine
STAFF WRITER; Staff writer Kristopher Banks contributed to this story.
August 8, 2003
It was bad enough when the Southwest ticket agent told 333-pound Mike Pollack he was too big to fit on the plane and needed to buy an extra ticket.
But the last straw, he says, is when the man pointed to his stomach and started laughing.
"It was a miracle I didn't kill him, but I can't do my job from jail," said Pollack, 35, who works for DSA Community Publishing, a subsidiary of Newsday. "I'm dieting, and this didn't help my morale."
Pollack, of Farmingdale, tried to redeem a voucher for a free flight at the ticket counter at Long Island MacArthur Airport on June 14. He is taking a trip to Baltimore later this month and wanted to use the voucher to book the flight.
Instead, he bought his ticket on the Internet to avoid a similar situation at the ticket counter, and is hoping the gate agent doesn't make him buy a second seat to accommodate his 6-foot, now 290-pound frame before he gets on the flight.
Pollack is the latest to complain about a Southwest Airline policy that requires heavy customers to purchase two seats, but does not provide a weight limit or standard guidelines to apply the long-standing policy, which the airline announced a year ago it would start enforcing.
Many overweight frequent fliers say that over the past few years, airlines have begun aggressively discriminating against fat people, and since the number of available flights offered by troubled airlines has been shrinking, overcrowding is worsening the problem.
Frances White, a board member and spokeswoman for the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance, said she expects to hear horror stories as the group's members squeeze into 17- to 20-inch wide seats and fly from all over the country to a convention this month in Los Angeles.
"It didn't used to be this bad when there were all kinds of flights every time of the day and night," she said. "Now that flights have been reduced and fill up faster, you have problems with people dealing with spatial issues."
Whitney Eichinger, a spokeswoman for Southwest Airlines, said the policy affects less than 5 percent of Southwest's customers.
"For both sides, it's a sensitive subject," she said, adding that employees are supposed to discuss the issue privately with customers.
"It's just handled as well as it can be because it's a very difficult situation for the customer and Southwest Airlines," she said. "We see how the customer will best fit and make a judgment."
But some advocates for the overweight say the judgment of gate attendants and untrained airline employees is inconsistent, resulting in uncertainty and fear of humiliation every time an overweight passenger checks in for a flight.
"It's a huge problem," said Sondra Solovay, an Oakland-based attorney who has written a book on what she terms "fat prejudice."
Solovay said she has looked into representing passengers in weight-discrimination cases against airlines and "this is a very hard situation to combat. There's no protection in the Constitution or in most federal regulations that prohibits weight-based discrimination. The general public has to become aware of just how unfair the treatment is."
White said part of the problem is uneven application of Southwest's policy. "If you get someone who doesn't like fat folks, you're going to get hassled. If you get someone who loves their fat mother, they'll go out of their way," she said.
Airlines have yet to coalesce around a single industry standard on the issue. For instance, a spokeswoman for Atlanta-based Delta Airlines said the airline tries to provide a second seat free when needed, and provides frequent-flier miles for the second seat when a customer decides to purchase one - something Southwest says it does not do.
But David Stempler, the president of the Air Travelers Association, an industry watchdog group, said the problem is two-sided. "I represent all the passengers, and a lot of times fairly heavy people are trying to get in these seats by raising the armrests and encroaching on the space of the other passenger," Stempler said.
Stempler said he believes it is fair for passengers to buy the extra seat when they cannot fit in the confines of the armrests.
He acknowledged that standardizing the way the regulation is applied is important, but said it is extremely difficult. "Unless you want to get a tape measure out and measure people's [behinds], I don't know how you're going to do it," he said.
Stempler said that to be fair, airlines should award double frequent-flier miles to people forced to buy a second seat - currently a bone of contention - and be as courteous as possible when enforcing the policy.
"Maybe there's an opportunity for some entrepreneurial airline to have extrawide seats," he said.
Staff writer Kristopher Banks contributed to this story.
Copyright © 2003, Newsday, Inc.