I know, I’m stepping into the overweight people on airplanes — again. For those of you who don’t know, I’m a woman of size myself. But I do fit into an airline seat. You can see my March 3 post that outlines my views fully here.
So I was watching the “Today Show” earlier this week, and was subjected to another too-fat-to-fly-on-Southwest-Airlines story, featuring a woman named Kenlie Tiggeman. The video is below.
I applaud Southwest Airlines for having a policy for people of size on their flights. My problem is that it seems to be implemented on an arbitrary basis, despite having a pretty good Q&A on the policy. I do understand that one woman’s fat is another man’s average size.
It can be difficult — and uncomfortable — for thousands of Southwest Airlines employees to make that fat-or-not call. And it gets particularly sticky when a passenger of size has flown one segment without incident, like Tiggeman, then is confronted with the policy.
So here’s my question — we have overhead baggage sizers at check-in counters and gates. Can’t we have something similar — or even something as simple as a tape measure — to ensure people of size can be checked early in the process?
