Petite Woman Bumped from SWA for a hefty passenger.

[pilotwife_02]

So after talking to my DH (a pilot for MANY years) about this, he told me that her "standby status" was always standby, they call it revenue standby which means she had priority ONLY over nonrevenue standby passengars (airline employees and their families who fly on non paid tickets). So she was always standby and her tickets was to get her to her destination NOT for that particular flight.

I'm going to add the disclaimer that he doens't work for SWA so IF their policy is not the same as the other 6 airlines he has worked for (he flights for an express airline which operates most of the major's commuter/shorter flights, so they fly for United, US Airways, Continental, Delta, American and now they own Frontier) then sorry for the misinfo.

So again, the teens status trumps hers. She should have been told that when purchasing her standby fare? Who knows, if that really is SWA's responsibility. Was SWA wrong to clear her to board, perhaps. But they did the "right" thing in compensating her (and it wasn't like she didn't get there close to the original time) and yet she still whines like my 2 year old to the media. I think there are some people that are just out to make a stink and complain every opportunity they get (like the people at Disney that other people post about, they have poor service in a restaurant and aren't happy with "just" getting their meal comped, they want ANOTHER free dinner or a night or two free at the hotel). I don't think anything short of kicking the teen off the plane would have made her happy.

 

[Mickey'snewestfan]

One thing I don't understand is where were this child's parents? If she was on a connecting flight (IE - in a different city from her parents) she would have had to have already taken a flight and someone should have already realized that she needed a second seat, right? This shouldn't have been a surprise. If she was in her home town, call the parents back and get them to take her/pay for a second seat.

There's nothing that says that at that point they didn't pay for a second seat, and that as a paying passenger, someone who had bought her first seat in advance, she had priority over a standby passenger.

It may have been that they thought she wasn't going to make a connecting flight at all, and so sold one of the two seats they set aside for her. I've seen that happen with a single seat, they waited until they thought someone wasn't going to show, started to sell the standby ticket, and then the person showed up.

Southwest doesn't let 14 year olds fly as unaccompanied minors, they fly as adults. Although there is a procedure for getting permission to walk anyone to the gate if you think they need help, her parents might not have known about it or thought they needed to go through it, so they well could have been on their way back home by then.

 

[Mickey'snewestfan]

The difference is that none of you NEEDED to purchase your extra seat that you were able to take advantage of because of the plane not being at capacity. This girl NEEDED the extra seat. I NEED to buy tickets for every person in my family, yet if the plane isn't full, the obese person gets the refund. I don't.

There is compassion, for those that are blind, lost a limb, a loved one, have a debilitating condition, even for those that are overweight because of unforeseen medical issues. One loses my compassion when they just plain won't stop eating, or eat nothing but junk. Just today I was at the grocery store. An exceptionally large woman and her two large young children were in the cereal aisle. The children were going on and on about what they wanted.....Capn Crunch, Fruity Pebbles, Pop-Tarts. You should have seen what was in that cart! Nothing that showed any concern about what they were eating. Obesity can be overcome. One just has to be willing to alter their lifestyle. It's a choice.

Were you in the grocery store with this teen? Because that would have been quite a coincidence. If you weren't then you just don't know.

Even if this child was obese because of the choices her parents made, she's a child. I don't stop treating a child well because of their parents. If anything a child who is poorly parented needs more protection from society, not less. It's called compassion.