SnakeDoctor
02-17-2010, 08:35 PM
77
When a Southwest Airlines flight attendant asked filmmaker Kevin Smith to get off a flight over the weekend, the New Jersey native said he went quietly. But that was the end of his silence.
Smith — the Red Bank-born director known for his "Silent Bob" character in "Clerks" — unleashed a barrage of more than 200 Twitter posts (http://twitter.com/ThatKevinSmith)and produced a lengthy podcast slamming Southwest for kicking him off the plane for being too obese to fit in his seat (http://www.nj.com/entertainment/index.ssf/2010/02/kevin_smith_responds_to_southw.html).
"I’m way fat, but I’m not there just yet," Smith twittered.
Smith says he purchased two seats for comfort for himself on the Oakland-Burbank flight. But he arrived at the airport early and got the last standby seat on an earlier flight. Once he was seated, he says a flight attendant told him the pilot had determined him a safety risk and asked him to leave— even though he fit in the seat with the armrests down.
Southwest officials apologized to Smith and offered him a $100 voucher. But they also used their own blog and Twitter account to defend their "Customer of Size" policy, which requires overweight passengers to buy two seats or risk getting ejected from the plane if the flight crew feels they are too big.
Bloggers immediately took sides in the Silent Bob-Southwest fight, debating when and if airlines have the right to single out passengers based on their weight. Some also questioned whether Smith, a celebrity with 1.6 million Twitter followers, abused the power of social media by turning the issue into a public relations war.
http://smodcast.com/ <----podcast of him talking about it
When a Southwest Airlines flight attendant asked filmmaker Kevin Smith to get off a flight over the weekend, the New Jersey native said he went quietly. But that was the end of his silence.
Smith — the Red Bank-born director known for his "Silent Bob" character in "Clerks" — unleashed a barrage of more than 200 Twitter posts (http://twitter.com/ThatKevinSmith)and produced a lengthy podcast slamming Southwest for kicking him off the plane for being too obese to fit in his seat (http://www.nj.com/entertainment/index.ssf/2010/02/kevin_smith_responds_to_southw.html).
"I’m way fat, but I’m not there just yet," Smith twittered.
Smith says he purchased two seats for comfort for himself on the Oakland-Burbank flight. But he arrived at the airport early and got the last standby seat on an earlier flight. Once he was seated, he says a flight attendant told him the pilot had determined him a safety risk and asked him to leave— even though he fit in the seat with the armrests down.
Southwest officials apologized to Smith and offered him a $100 voucher. But they also used their own blog and Twitter account to defend their "Customer of Size" policy, which requires overweight passengers to buy two seats or risk getting ejected from the plane if the flight crew feels they are too big.
Bloggers immediately took sides in the Silent Bob-Southwest fight, debating when and if airlines have the right to single out passengers based on their weight. Some also questioned whether Smith, a celebrity with 1.6 million Twitter followers, abused the power of social media by turning the issue into a public relations war.
http://smodcast.com/ <----podcast of him talking about it