Feb 23, 2010
When The Fat Hits The Fan
In the “You Don’t Know What You Don’t Know” category, Southwest Airlines took a rare brand beating last week for kicking off an overweight passenger who happened to have 1.6 million followers on Twitter. Film director and best-selling author Kevin Smith initially purchased two seats for himself, changed flights that only had one seat, but said he still managed to fit into the seat with belt buckled and armrests down – the key criteria to determine a person’s likelihood for ejection. Even so, the airline said he had to leave. And that’s when the fat hit the fan.
Southwest ejects big guy; big guy fights back
Smith started telling his followers on Twitter about his experience vowing to never fly on Southwest again, the airline began backpedaling also on Twitter, and the short-lived, but intense war of 140 characters ended with apologies and vouchers (which Smith declined) from the airline.
This is an excellent case of the importance of having a good reputation and an ample supply of goodwill BEFORE a crisis happens. This is also another example of the power of a social media tool like Twitter, but that’s for another post. While Southwest suffered a slight bruising over the incident, its ability to recover quickly is commendable, as in they were few legs to this story. Southwest has the fewest customer complaints of any airline; its airfares are affordable; it doesn’t charge you for wanting to take your own clothes with you to your destination; and it’s still profitable. Yes, last week’s incident with a man of many followers was wrong. But in its totality, Southwest does a lot of things right.
Three lessons for Southwest: keep doing the right things, apply policies consistently, and be careful who you reject, especially if they have more Twitter followers than you do, and a new movie about to debut. Are there other lessons that need to be added?
If you have ever had to “share” your seat with a very fat fellow passenger on a long flight you will not sympathize with Mr. White. Next time it happens to me I will ask to change my seat. It is not fair to others –besides being very dangerous in an emergency.
Remember when airlines allowed smoking? I had to endure a 10-hour overseas flight smack in the middle of men who smoked unfiltered cigarettes. I don’t know what’s worse – the smokers or the overweight seatmates. Thanks for commenting!
AND…don’t let someone without any business experience tweet on behalf of the entire organization. I feel sorry for Christi Day because she did everything right. But if someone with more experience had stepped in to handle things before she followed procedure (and handled it as a one off situation), it wouldn’t have escaladed into a crisis.
Excellent point Gini! I agree with your assessment. Thanks for your insights!
Kudos to Southwest for standing up for the rights of passengers who pay for a ticket and wish to have the entire seat to themselves. I have no sympathy for Mr. White or anyone else who is too fat to sit in one seat, or who has to hang over into another passenger’s seat. How about this? A fat person is protruding onto my paid-for space, and I ask the airlines to charge me for exactly what I get – a partial seat.
Hmmmm…..charging for a partial seat – now that’s an idea. Thanks for commenting.
Should SWA treat someone with lots of Twits behind him better than an average Joe/Jane with less press potential? What did the actual person beside Mr. Smith have to say about his space requirements? Mr. Smith tried to do the right thing originally by buying two tickets, so good for him. Under those circumstances, SWA should have thought twice before letting him buy a one-seat ticket or later bumping him after they sold him the ticket. This is another example of a tempest in a Twitter teapot (of which I am quickly growing weary). If you are really abused by an airline, try calling CAPBOR at 877-359-3776 for help battling the airline 24/7. Welcome to the fiendly skies.
You brought up some thoughtful questions Don, i.e., what about the passenger beside Mr. Smith? Like most things in the media, we’ll never know the full story, but we do know that operational consistency is key. Thanks for your insights!
The good news for Southwest is the company has a stellar reputation to fall back on. In my opinion it recovered quickly enough. I agree with you that staff must keep doing the right things and apply policies consistently. If they are consistent, it really won’t matter how many Twitter followers an offended passenger may have.
Excellent point re: a quality reputation and/or the power of social media. You’re so right – the reputation comes first, and carries you through the “crisis”.
I think it’s sad that chubby folks need to buy two seats these days…I’m average and I can barely fit into a seat. Maybe part of the problem is cramming people into a plane as if they were sardines!
Yes, sardines is an excellent analogy especially to Southwest! Thanks for commenting.