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Southwest Airlines recently announced that it’s making changes to its business model with assigned seating and some premium options (more here). While many passengers are excited about a new Southwest, the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance (NAAFA) is concerned that this will be an end to the free extra seats that the airline’s Customer of Size policy provides plus-sized passengers.
The association released this statement after Southwest announced its changes:
The Southwest Customer of Size policy is the most clear and affordable procedure in the air travel industry for those who need more space than a standard economy seat. Open seating has been key to the success of the Customer of Size policy. Allowing Customers of Size to pre-board and select two adjoining seats ensures that passengers are able to choose seating in a part of the plane that is safer and more accessible.”
It followed up recently with this:
Southwest made a public commitment to ensuring that bags continue to fly free. We are calling on them to make a public commitment to ensuring that accessibility for Customers of Size and disabled passengers will not be undermined by upcoming changes to their planes and procedures. Southwest currently has the best policy in the country for plus size passengers. As they work toward a better customer service experience for everyone, that has to include us. Now is the time to make flying even friendlier for fat people, not to regress to the difficulties larger people have with Southwest’s competitors.”
When Southwest’s first announcement came out in July, The Washington Post covered these concerns. Southwest has said that it has no immediate plans to change its policy and told the news outlet that it would provide an update next month (that never came). In NAAFA’s eyes, Southwest began stirring up this controversy during “Fat Liberation Month,” which runs the month of August and is as much a real observance as National Ice Cream Sandwich Day. The airline needs to pivot to be solvent and I’m sure that passengers who cannot fit in a single seat are the least of its worries.
As Gary at View from the Wing points out, other airlines let you purchase two seats. With assigned seating, I can’t imagine that Southwest would stop this either. What it will possibly due is rescind its policy on refunding these costs when the flights are not full and the seat would have flown empty. Baggage fees impact many passengers. This policy touches far fewer. Southwest has not released any changes to its current policy. This could change in the future, but that has not been hinted at either.
Anthony’s Take: If you need two seats, you should buy two. I’ve said this many times before. I’m tall (six foot five) and need legroom. I always purchase the seat I need. Yes, not everyone can afford it. But, that’s like saying that other businesses should give products away because of an individual’s financial means. That doesn’t happen in restaurants, retail store, or other places and should not happen here.
(Featured Image Credit: Ozgurcoskun.)
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Advertiser & Editorial Disclosure: The Bulkhead Seat earns an affiliate commission for anyone approved through the links above This compensation may impact how and where links appear on this site. We work to provide the best publicly available offers to our readers. We frequently update them, but this site does not include all available offers. Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed, or approved by any of these entities.
