So this is relatively 'old' news by now, but I've been busy with actual work and haven't had five free seconds to talk about this, but I have got to say my peace.
This business of Southwest Airlines booting a petite 5'1" 110 lb. passenger to accommodate an obese 14 year-old girl who required two seats while her parents had only paid for one, is quite upsetting, particularly as they had recently booted filmmaker Kevin Smith due to the fact that he too was too large to fit into one seat himself. Unfortunately, the situation there was vastly different. Smith had originally purchased two seats, but opted to fly standby on an earlier flight where only one seat remained. Perhaps not the best decision, considering he's well-aware of his heft, but nobody objected, until he was seated and was then asked to leave. To add insult to injury, Smith claims to have seen someone far larger than he on the very same flight, who was permitted to remain on-board.
In this case however, we're talking about a 14 year-old female who could not comfortably fit into one seat. Nevertheless, rather than boot her from the plane, they booted a petite woman, (who also chose to fly standby), but would've only taken up one free seat. The only reason she was booted was because the seat was free thanks to the kid's parents who failed to pay for the extra space.
I suppose what I'm getting at here, is that if you're going to impose a policy wherein you require that passengers who don't fit comfortably into one seat purchase two, then enforce it in a very black and white manner with no exception.
As for the parents of this kid, well... they're probably either
a) in denial
b) irresponsible
c) obese
d) negligent or
e) all of the above
If your kid is actually classified as obese, you're probably doing something quite wrong.
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