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At least, according to Southwest Airlines, which threw him off a flight after he was seated and buckled in, when they decided they needed to charge him for two seats.

http://cbs2.com/entertainment/director.kevin.smith.2.1494178.html

I can see this somehow getting into one of his films.

Kevin Smith is fat, but he's not a walrus either. He's just an extra large guy. I can't see why they threw him off the plane.

Wow, that's messed up. Can't wait to see this play out. Kevin Smith is not afraid to publicly call people out and make fun of them.

Kevin SMith's weight seems to really fluctuate. I've seen him look only mildly overweight, and I've seen him be HUGE. But I've never seen him at a level where I'd say he'd need two airline seats. Seems more than a little out of line to me.

Shouldn't he be in first class? Theres no way he was to fat for first class.

Southwest has no first class, just one-size-fits-most class.

you know. I have the iphone app. He is not THAT fat. I have seen some really fat people out there that may require to have two seats, but I don't see how Kevin Smith would require two seats especially if he could normally fly on another plane without purchasing two tickets.

What's he really pissed about, and rightly so, was that he was allowed to purchase his ticket, board the plane, sit down, buckle up.... and THEN was ejected. If he's so effing fat why did they sell him only one ticket to begin with? Also, the rule is that the arm rests have to be able to go down. Kevin smith isn't fat enough to prevent the arm rests from coming down.

Jesus Humperdinck Christ on toast...

Calleja said:

What's he really pissed about, and rightly so, was that he was allowed to purchase his ticket, board the plane, sit down, buckle up.... and THEN was ejected. If he's so effing fat why did they sell him only one ticket to begin with? Also, the rule is that the arm rests have to be able to go down. Kevin smith isn't fat enough to prevent the arm rests from coming down.

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Bingo... My wife and I are following his tweet. He is pissed because of just that. he was able to go through all the checkpoint and finally gotten to his seat and buckle up WITHOUT extenders.

Hell, I'll be pissed too.

They can't see how fat you are unless you buy at the ticket counter, and ticket counter clerks are not typically the ones who make those judgment calls. It's not until passengers are inside the plane that attendants are able to make such decisions, like luggage that must be checked in or moving people around to other seats. Though if he could fit in the seat, there shouldn't be an issue, or at least make him buy the second seat instead of kicking him off the plane. Here's another story of Southwest attendants making a judgment call that didn't make much sense http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/20638479

I love what all this says about humanity as a whole.

klew said:

They can't see how fat you are unless you buy at the ticket counter, and ticket counter clerks are not typically the ones who make those judgment calls. It's not until passengers are inside the plane that attendants are able to make such decisions, like luggage that must be checked in or moving people around to other seats. Though if he could fit in the seat, there shouldn't be an issue, or at least make him buy the second seat instead of kicking him off the plane. Here's another story of Southwest attendants making a judgment call that didn't make much sense http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/20638479

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It doesn't really help that girls cause that she flashed panty to the entire viewing public when she sat down on the show.

Southwest responds:

Mr. Smith originally purchased two Southwest seats on a flight from Oakland to Burbank - as he’s been known to do when traveling on Southwest. He decided to change his plans and board an earlier flight to Burbank, which technically means flying standby. As you may know, airlines are not able to clear standby passengers until all Customers are boarded. When the time came to board Mr. Smith, we had only a single seat available for him to occupy. Our pilots are responsible for the Safety and comfort of all Customers on the aircraft and therefore, made the determination that Mr. Smith needed more than one seat to complete his flight. Our Employees explained why the decision was made, accommodated Mr. Smith on a later flight, and issued him a $100 Southwest travel voucher for his inconvenience.

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figmentPez said:

Southwest responds:

Mr. Smith originally purchased two Southwest seats on a flight from Oakland to Burbank - as he’s been known to do when traveling on Southwest. He decided to change his plans and board an earlier flight to Burbank, which technically means flying standby. As you may know, airlines are not able to clear standby passengers until all Customers are boarded. When the time came to board Mr. Smith, we had only a single seat available for him to occupy. Our pilots are responsible for the Safety and comfort of all Customers on the aircraft and therefore, made the determination that Mr. Smith needed more than one seat to complete his flight. Our Employees explained why the decision was made, accommodated Mr. Smith on a later flight, and issued him a $100 Southwest travel voucher for his inconvenience.

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but the flight wasn't even full!!!!!

He put up a new Smodcast spending an hour ranting about this. He sounds pretty in the right, and I gotta say, I agree with what he's saying here.

Zumbo Prime said:

I love what all this says about humanity as a whole.

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Try being potentially at the receiving end...

I remember seeing him post in a blog or something a few years back how he realised he needed to lose weight when he broke a toilet by sitting on it...

Anyone got any recent pictures?!

Has he said how much he weighs right now?

Southwest fails at basic reason. If he's seated, buckled in, armrests down... it's too late to charge him for a second seat. That the way they sell tickets didn't let them "appraise" his stature earlier is *their* bad, not his.

On a related note, does anybody else think "online check-in" is just asinine? If they're going to do that, they may as well do away with the whole check-in procedure.

GasBandit said:

Southwest fails at basic reason. If he's seated, buckled in, armrests down... it's too late to charge him for a second seat. That the way they sell tickets didn't let them "appraise" his stature earlier is *their* bad, not his.

On a related note, does anybody else think "online check-in" is just asinine? If they're going to do that, they may as well do away with the whole check-in procedure.

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I find it interesting that the article said that ticket agent does not have the "right" to determine if a person is fat or not, but I believe that the ticket agent should be train and make that determination. I mean at least you haven't "taken" their money yet.

I didn't think he was that big. I've sat next to some monster-sized folks on planes. I don't know why they didn't get charged for two.

I'm 6'2" and and about 190 lbs, and I feel too big for airline seats. I think there's a problem with the seats in general. However, there certainly are folks who take up more than one seat, and should be charged for it.

GasBandit said:

Southwest fails at basic reason. If he's seated, buckled in, armrests down... it's too late to charge him for a second seat. That the way they sell tickets didn't let them "appraise" his stature earlier is *their* bad, not his.

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Oh totally, i was just wondering where he's at weight wise now... last pics of him i saw he was huge, but that was years ago...

Our pilots are responsible for the Safety and comfort of all Customers on the aircraft and therefore, made the determination that Mr. Smith needed more than one seat to complete his flight.

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I LOLed hard at this. Some air pilots can make emergency landings in rivers without losing one person, other pilots can't take off without an overweight person in check.

SeriousJay said:

Our pilots are responsible for the Safety and comfort of all Customers on the aircraft and therefore, made the determination that Mr. Smith needed more than one seat to complete his flight.

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I LOLed hard at this. Some air pilots can make emergency landings in rivers without losing one person, other pilots can't take off without an overweight person in check.

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but but.... if there was TWO seat side by side, it is ok. *eyerolls*

It's a matter of weight ratios. The fuel costs a lot and they know exactly how much weight they can carry to efficiently get to their destination. And since they don't know exactly which pieces of luggage weights too much they take off the people who are overweight. Personally I think it's bullshit. If you listen to Kevin's podcast he mentions that in the next flight he got on they did the saem thing to a lady sitting next to him - with an empty seat in between them!! They made her get up, walk off and when they let her come back she had to ask Kevin if it was okay that she may have to use some of the empty seat in between them for which he paid. He says he was mad at first but this set him off and is what caused him to start his Tweets/Blog/Podcast, etc.

Unless the plane is completely filled up and there's literally no space for an overweight person, there's no reason whatsoever for "safety" to be a concern. They have seat belt extenders, even.

Dave said:

If you listen to Kevin's podcast he mentions that in the next flight he got on they did the saem thing to a lady sitting next to him - with an empty seat in between them!! They made her get up, walk off and when they let her come back she had to ask Kevin if it was okay that she may have to use some of the empty seat in between them for which he paid. He says he was mad at first but this set him off and is what caused him to start his Tweets/Blog/Podcast, etc.

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There you go! If you have to buy a second seat, find another fat person and split the cost for a third seat, taking 1.5 seats each.

Dave said:

It's a matter of weight ratios. The fuel costs a lot and they know exactly how much weight they can carry to efficiently get to their destination. And since they don't know exactly which pieces of luggage weights too much they take off the people who are overweight. Personally I think it's bullshit. If you listen to Kevin's podcast he mentions that in the next flight he got on they did the saem thing to a lady sitting next to him - with an empty seat in between them!! They made her get up, walk off and when they let her come back she had to ask Kevin if it was okay that she may have to use some of the empty seat in between them for which he paid. He says he was mad at first but this set him off and is what caused him to start his Tweets/Blog/Podcast, etc.

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I think it is total BS too. What is the weight limit per chair? maybe if they put down how much weight each chair can handle. I am not thin, but not overly obese either. I weight 235 lbs right now and can sit in an airplane (as of Oct 2009) with room to spare on each side of the arm rest.

On anything larger than a 727, weight ratios are of limited factor. If the guy was flying a puddlejumper turboprop, yeah that might be a safety issue... but a full sized passenger jet just means they use more fuel.

GasBandit said:

On anything larger than a 727, weight ratios are of limited factor. If the guy was flying a puddlejumper turboprop, yeah that might be a safety issue... but a full sized passenger jet just means they use more fuel.

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That's what I said. It has to do with fuel costs. If the added weight means $ spent > money gained by ticket sales, then take off a fatty.

A fatty named Kevin.

GasBandit said:

On anything larger than a 727, weight ratios are of limited factor. If the guy was flying a puddlejumper turboprop, yeah that might be a safety issue... but a full sized passenger jet just means they use more fuel.

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personally I worry more about the CARRY ON since airlines limit 1 luggage or less (via charging per luggage) I had help one day to put on the overhead bin. I can usually life 50-70lbs bag no problem, but this one was HEAVY. If they are worry about a SINGLE overweight person, the airline should worry about the 20+ overweight carry on that are store in the overhead bin.

This reminds me of a book I read once, Fat by Rob Grant. It's set in the near future where fat people face heavy discrimination. In the first few paragraphs he explains that it began with the airlines. They started charging passengers by weight, and when other industries saw that they could get away with it, it spelled the end for a comfortable life for 'fat' people.

The book is hillarious, and raises some interesting points. Entirely irreverent, though.

Chibibar;341732][QUOTE=GasBandit said:

On anything larger than a 727, weight ratios are of limited factor. If the guy was flying a puddlejumper turboprop, yeah that might be a safety issue... but a full sized passenger jet just means they use more fuel.

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personally I worry more about the CARRY ON since airlines limit 1 luggage or less (via charging per luggage) I had help one day to put on the overhead bin. I can usually life 50-70lbs bag no problem, but this one was HEAVY. If they are worry about a SINGLE overweight person, the airline should worry about the 20+ overweight carry on that are store in the overhead bin.[/QUOTE]

It's too difficult to tell how heavy a bag is just by looking at it. A fat person, though, is pretty easy to spot. Or hide behind.

Dave;341734][QUOTE=Chibibar;341732][QUOTE=GasBandit said:

On anything larger than a 727, weight ratios are of limited factor. If the guy was flying a puddlejumper turboprop, yeah that might be a safety issue... but a full sized passenger jet just means they use more fuel.

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personally I worry more about the CARRY ON since airlines limit 1 luggage or less (via charging per luggage) I had help one day to put on the overhead bin. I can usually life 50-70lbs bag no problem, but this one was HEAVY. If they are worry about a SINGLE overweight person, the airline should worry about the 20+ overweight carry on that are store in the overhead bin.[/QUOTE]

It's too difficult to tell how heavy a bag is just by looking at it. A fat person, though, is pretty easy to spot. Or hide behind.[/QUOTE]

True, but if the airline is going behind "it weight more thus cost more fuel" then airlines should weight ALL carry on and make sure it is "within" limit" if it is overweight (person or bags) then you charge more accordingly.

Last time I flew to Orlando, I saw people having 2-3 carry on and they are pack to the bring (bulging) and some of them are pretty heavy (from the look people struggling to get into the overhead bin) 2-3 that weight around 50 lbs (easy) that is equal to a person. That is one extra ticket.

Can someone link to something that indicates that he had the armrest down, and that there was space between him and the passenger(s) to either side of him?

The statement I read gave me the impression that the problem was likely that they couldn't re-seat him with space around him without inconveniencing non-standby passengers, and that the passengers next to him were forced to share their seat with him.

Keep in mind that he's aware of the airline policies, and usually buys extra space, but it was this one time that he decided to try to fly standby and fly without two adjacent seats that he had a problem he knew he would have if he booked in advance.

I'm with Amelie on this one: http://www.avclub.com/articles/whats-the-worst-part-about-kevin-smith-vs-southwes,38216/

Rob King said:

It's set in the near future where fat people face heavy discrimination.

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Ha!

stienman said:

Can someone link to something that indicates that he had the armrest down, and that there was space between him and the passenger(s) to either side of him?

The statement I read gave me the impression that the problem was likely that they couldn't re-seat him with space around him without inconveniencing non-standby passengers, and that the passengers next to him were forced to share their seat with him.

Keep in mind that he's aware of the airline policies, and usually buys extra space, but it was this one time that he decided to try to fly standby and fly without two adjacent seats that he had a problem he knew he would have if he booked in advance.

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Actually, he had purchased an entire row of seats for that plane, they muffed up and just sent him in with only one seat remaining. Then kicked him off.

And yeah, on the subject of plane comfort. I am about 6'4" and around 220 pounds. I am not comfortable in anything below business class, ever. Fuck how tiny airplane seats are.

Gruebeard;341754][QUOTE=Rob King said:

It's set in the near future where fat people face heavy discrimination.

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Ha![/QUOTE]

:smug:

Just to weigh in... I'm 6'4" & 280 lbs. I have never been comfortable on a plane.

6'0", 105kg.

Plane comfort is a distant memory for me also.

5'6", 160lb and planes are oh so comfy in Econ class:smug:

Where's the "must be this thin to board this ride" signs at?

Smith's full response, in video form. There's a little over 20 short clips, which I don't understand why he did it in that format, but anyway. Interesting side to the story, given that he had no problem putting the arm rests down in his seat.

southwest dropped the ball.. hard... with all their running around trying to defend themselves. The fact is Smith is well withing THEIR established guidelines for "overweight passengers" but they still threw him out. It's a mistake they could have just apologized for, promised they'd never do again, and move on. Instead they tried to shift blame to everyone but themselves and even outright LIED and this whole thing escalated to a point well beyond necessary.

Calleja said:

southwest dropped the ball.. hard... with all their running around trying to defend themselves. The fact is Smith is well withing THEIR established guidelines for "overweight passengers" but they still threw him out. It's a mistake they could have just apologized for, promised they'd never do again, and move on. Instead they tried to shift blame to everyone but themselves and even outright LIED and this whole thing escalated to a point well beyond necessary.

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I think that is the problem of our current society. People don't want to take OWNERSHIP of the blame. They (society in general) are too quick to blame everyone else.

It is video game faults
It is fast food faults
It is X company fault
It is Y book fault
it is Z games fault.

I was a fan of Garfield when I was young and now I'm fat and lazy.... GARFIELD MADE ME FAT!!

hmm

Hoof, he's gotten pretty big. Though, I think the excessively baggy clothes are accentuating it.

Na, he let it get out there. I saw him on Craig Ferguson last month and he barely fit in the guest's chair.

Kevin Smith has "fat guy with a skinny face" syndrome.

It's hard to find pictures of his actual waist, and his face, honestly, doesn't look that fat. But, he's a pretty big guy these days.

uhh.. guys:

http://twitter.com/ThatKevinSmith/statuses/9536374443

The Cop Out picture is from TODAY

yeah, that trench coat looks so much loser on him... no.

He may have lost 20lbs. but when you get that size it is hard to tell. I know.

look at his neck for fuck's sake!

And it's still not fat enough to need a belt extender, nor to not being able to fit with both armrests down... so what are you trying to say, that he DESERVED to be kicked out of the plane even though he is well within the airline regulations for overweight passengers? Why?

I am likely in the same weight category, but I look to be about 4 inches taller than he is, I worry about fitting into cramped seats. He should have kept his original flight plans, and not wasted those 2 tickets.

It is still up to the captain's discretion/capriciousness as to whether he gets to stay on the plane.

Have you not read ANYTHING he's spoken/video'd/written about this? He does NOT usually buy two tickets, and when he does it's not because he doesn't feel comfortable in one, it's because he doesn't want to sit next to a stranger. I'm a pretty sociable person, but even I can't stand sitting next to someone I don't know for hours at a time... can't even imagine what it would be for someone who gets recognized frequently like him.

He fits in one seat, both armrests down, no seatbelt extender needed, no overlap onto the other seats. Well within airline guidelines. He knew that so much that he was willing to give up the extra seat he had bought just to be able to get home earlier. He was still publicly ejected and called fat infront of 200+ passengers. For no reason whatsoever since he made it a point to buy only one seat on the next flight and use that comfortably, without anyone telling him he was too fat. You can see the picture he uploaded, he's not halfway onto the other seat.

---------- Post added at 12:37 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:35 PM ----------

Also... the captain never crossed paths with him, they never saw each other. The flight attendant used the "captain's orders" excuse even though the Captain has been said to not having even seen Smith's weight. This was all posted in Southwestern's blog later.

I quit reading everything about this after the first day. The stories seem to have changed several times since the first interviews. I'll read some more important news than some one getting kicked from a plane.

sixpackshaker said:

I quit reading everything about this after the first day.

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^^^ This. Just happened to run across a picture today. That picture certainly appears to put him within the "fat guy" policies of airlines. He seems to fit in that chair, but is oozing out of the sides of it a bit.

I don't know anything about seat-belt extenders, or how comfortably he fit on the later flight. I know the picture he tweeted only really shows his face. If he really wanted to make a point, he should've taken a picture of his ass in the chair. I don't know exactly how cramped he actually was on the flight. We don't have any real evidence to back up anything ANYONE has said on either side.

And honestly, I personally don't really care if he barely fit within the fat guy rules, was breaking the fat guy rules, or was well within the fat guy rules.

The reason I posted those pics is that I was totally surprised at how big he is, since he's usually good at covering up his body, and, as I said before, he's blessed with a skinny-looking face. Most pictures taken of him are very flattering.

Pictures like the one below are pretty hard to find.