Over the past few months Southwest Airlines has come under fire for a policy stating that large passengers will be required to purchase second tickets on their flights. Southwest has fired back on its website, claiming that the policy is neither new, nor unique in the industry. Fat acceptance and consumer protection groups have been equally vocal. What are the facts?

First, it is only fair to note that Southwest is not the only airline with a similar policy. It is, however, the only one pushing enforcement of it, and making a public announcement that it will be doing so. United and Delta have no such policies, and no other major airline has enforced existing policies, which are either murky or unavailable when requested. But if Southwest is getting all the flack, they have drawn it by enforcing the policy so publicly and forcefully.

The policy, as stated by Southwest, is as follows:

We are ... asking a customer who must lift the armrest in order to sit in the aircraft seat and who, at that point, is obviously occupying a portion (or all) of the seat next to him/her, to pay for the additional seat being occupied. Again, we will offer a refund if the flight does not oversell.

Sounds reasonable, right? The company further defends itself:

Southwest Airlines does not condone discrimination in any form. We have Employees and Customers of all races, ethnicity, religions, shapes, and sizes. Our Mission has always been and will always be to provide safe, reliable, and affordable air transportation for America.

There are a few problems with the picture of innocence Southwest paints for itself. First, as has been noted by Sandy Sabo of the National Association for Advancement of Fat Acceptance (NAAFA), Southwest (and all other airlines, for that matter) does not sell tickets for a seat. Next time you take a flight, check your ticket. It is for PASSAGE from one place to another, not for a seat. The airlines do this so they can change your seat, bump you, or overbook flights. So they want to have their cake and eat it, too. Southwest wants to claim it is looking out for fair access for all passengers but they have never provided it. And they are charging double for something they were never selling to begin with. The purchased item is a trip, not a seat.

Second, they specifically claim that making seats wider to accommodate ALL passengers better is not a viable solution. According to Jeff Adkins of the San Francisco Chronicle:

So to accommodate the large people, Southwest could charge between 2 and 5 percent more for a ticket and bump a few hundred passengers to less crowded flights. [Colin Barrett, Southwest Airlines President] is being disingenuous when he implies that redesigning the aircraft to accommodate a half-dozen oversize passengers would double fares for everyone.

Now the argument is not so straight-forward. Over 57% of all Americans are considered “obese.” Airlines have decreased seat size, increased the number of seats, and increased the number of passengers bumped steadily over the past 20 years. These same airlines sell passage for a trip, not a seat, yet claim they have a right to charge passengers for two trips if they need to lift an armrest on seats that have been made smaller by the same airlines.

What’s more, Southwest has no standardized measure for a “butt-size” that is either acceptable or unacceptable. Decisions would be made on the spot by the flight crew, leaving huge margins for error, misinterpretation, and discrimination.

Southwest is copping an attitude and taking a stance that may, at first glance, appear defensible and even fair. But look at the fine print. Overbooking, bumping, crowding, and deliberate re-sizing of the seats in question has not been counted as unfair. Selling customers a ticket for passage only to charge them double because Southwest made its own bed too small is simply unfair, prejudicial, and should not be legal.