This is absurd. If someone needs two seats, they should pay for two seats. From Tyler Durden at zerohedge.com:
Southwest Airlines is receiving a mix of praise and scorn over a policy giving obese passengers free seats to hold their overabundant girth. Basic economics suggests that it will result in healthy passengers subsidizing the humungous. Worse, some thin passengers will get booted from flights to make room.
Southwest didn’t announce its “Customer of Size” policy with fanfare. Rather, it came to wide public attention after fat TikTokkers started educating each other on how to take advantage of it.
The standard for getting a free extra seat strikes us as a little vague. According to the airlines posted FAQ:
“The armrest is the definitive gauge for a Customer of size. It serves as the boundary between seats. If you’re unable to lower both armrests and/or encroach upon any portion of a seat next to you, you need a second seat.”
As word spreads and more and more heavy people belly up to take advantage of the policy, maybe we’ll see test seats at Southwest gates akin to luggage size-testing boxes.
