Southwest has a Big Fat Problem
Notes from a disappointed "customer of size"
This was the post I’ve dreaded writing.
Since 2018, I’ve been a one-airline girl, giving all of my business (to the tune of, well, I can’t even count how many flights, but it’s been a hell of a lot) to Southwest Airlines for one very specific reason: they have a policy that not only makes it possible for fat people like me to fly, but to do so with dignity and without doubling our expense.
Because they keep the details somewhat buried, I learned about Southwest’s “Customer of Size” policy through word-of-mouth in a Facebook group for fat travelers. While the other airlines require fat people to buy two plane tickets, Southwest found more customer-friendly ways to accommodate those of us who can’t squeeze into a tiny economy airline plane seat: While they encouraged people to buy two tickets with a guaranteed refund for one of them after the flight, fat fliers could skip loaning the airline a hundred or three bucks by arriving at the check-in desk and asking to utilize the Customer of Size policy. Boom! Get an extra seat at no charge, along with pre-boarding, which is a godsend when you’re trying to Tetris a big body and baggage onto the plane.
It almost sounded too good to be true, but it was true! Southwest often said they were in the business of flying people, not seats. That meant not overcharging people who need more space.
Can you believe I didn’t fly from January 2013 until October 2018? The reason? Completely based on finances and fear. And for good reason. My last few flights before my embargo were after filmmaker Kevin Smith was removed from a Southwest flight because of his size in 2010, which made every flight far more anxiety-inducing than it was before.
In fact, my final flight in 2013, which was after eight months of flying around the country to research my Woody Guthrie manuscript, was humiliating enough to scare me away. I was seated on my flight before takeoff. The plane had more empty seats than passengers, but someone in management got on the plane and told me I would have to buy another seat because of my size. He spoke to me like I was a child who’d never been on a plane before, despite it being my fourth flight just that week. Because of the anxiety caused by Smith’s mistreatment, I made sure I knew the policy, which at the time was that I didn’t need to buy a second seat if the seat beside me was empty. Which it was.
Even though I was in the right and he immediately backed off and deplaned, it was enough for me to stop traveling by air for years.
Can you imagine me being grounded? Yeah, it sucked. Incidents like that were the reason Southwest developed its Customer of Size policy, which fat travelers discussed like it were forbidden knowledge. Personally, I absolutely thrilled in telling people about this policy once I tried it. I gave the details to my friend Meredith. She was able to make several trips she thought were out of reach, but thanks to Southwest treating fat people like people, she got to make some dreams come true before she passed a year ago this week.
I’m so glad I believed what I was reading in the Facebook group, and that I got the guts to try it. My first flight as a customer of size took me to Asheville, North Carolina, for my 46th birthday. I’m not a fan of my birthday, and having lost my grandmother that July, I just didn’t want to be home. I wanted to be someplace completely foreign to me. Because I took that flight, I was able to spend my birthday soaking in hot spring water, and then driving the Blue Ridge Parkway up the highest point east of the Rockies in a beautiful BMW.
Here are some of the things Southwest’s Customer of Size policy has allowed me to do:
Go to a music festival in Massachusetts, where I met one of my best friends.
See David Byrne’s American Utopia on Broadway.
SO many Wilco shows.
Experience flying from New York to Los Angeles.
Take my bestie on her first flight since college.
Chase the Afghan Whigs around the East Coast.
Fall in love with Los Angeles.
See Patti Smith at the Walt Disney Concert Hall and Pappy and Harriet’s in the Mojave Desert.
Spend time with my cousin and their family in the Twin Cities.
Meet one of my favorite people ever in Los Angeles.
Celebrate birthdays in Asheville, Santa Fe, NYC, New Orleans, and Los Angeles twice.
Spend a weekend at Georgia O’Keefe’s ranch.
And that’s just a few highlights. Southwest Airlines’ Customer of Size policy gave me the freedom to go places and do things I never would have been able to do without fear of humiliation or financial difficulties.
It all ends on January 27th. On the same day that Southwest switches to assigned seating, they’re also changing their Customer of Size policy. Fat customers will have to purchase two seats with no guarantee they’ll get any money back if a flight is sold out.
Southwest Airlines has decided to fly seats instead of people.
No, I’m not sure what I’m going to do. I don’t want to give Southwest a loan of money I may or may not get back whenever I fly. And frankly, I don’t want to give them any of my money. After all these years of customer loyalty—including being a member of their loyalty program and shopping with their rather pricy credit card—this is a slap in the face.
The thing is, the other major airlines offer the same policy or worse.
I’m looking at the possibility of my kid, also a customer of size, doing a post-grad program in California. Buying four tickets to travel with them is cost-prohibitive. And if their big fat daddy wants to go? Six seats.
Good thing I have a hybrid SUV, because it looks like a lot of road trips are in my future.
Suffice it to say, I intend to spread the word about these changes just as loudly as I spread the word about Southwest’s former generosity and customer care. I have two upcoming flights before the policy goes into effect, and I’ll be voicing my displeasure—kindly—to the customer service agents I encounter. That last flight, you know I’m giving a St. Louis gooey butter cake to the flight crew to mark my final Southwest flight. Thinking about writing, “Goodbye, Fatties” in icing. Because that certainly seems to be the sentiment.
I liked this post in the "clicked the heart" sense but I really don't like this post. Shame on Southwest for serving seats and stockholders before people.