on 15 February 2010
With the controversy still swirling about director Kevin Smith’s unceremonious removal from a Southwest Airlines flight Saturday, Smith kept up the pressure after the airline published a blog post Sunday about the incident, defending its 25-year-old Customer of Size policy and hoping to contain the damage.
In the blog post, “Not So Silent Bob,” Southwest apologized again for Smith’s “travel experience,” although it isn’t clear what aspects of that experience the airline was issuing the mea culpa for.
In fact, there was so much traffic to Southwest’s blog, that it overloaded a blog server. So, Southwest also posted the apology to its media relations website.
Filling in some of the details, Southwest noted that Smith had purchased two seats for an Oakland-Burbank flight, but decided to fly standby on an earlier flight. The airline said only one seat was available for Smith when the standby passengers boarded the earlier flight, and 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.”
“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,” Southwest said.
While lots of airlines have similar policies for safety reasons, Southwest said, the airline uniquely refunds the price of the second seat if the flight does not sell out.
“The spirit of this policy is based solely on Customer comfort and Safety,” the airline said. “As a Company committed to serving our Customers in Safety and comfort, we feel the definitive boundary between seats is the armrest. If a Customer cannot comfortably lower the armrest and infringes on a portion of another seat, a Customer seated adjacent would be very uncomfortable and a timely exit from the aircraft in the event of an emergency might be compromised if we allow a cramped, restricted seating arrangement.”
Meanwhile, Smith, who portrays the fictional character Silent Bob, was not soothed by Southwest’s apologies and $100 voucher, and has kept tweeting away about the incident, telling travelers that Southwest “might be coming for you next.”
Early Monday, Smith, claiming he fit into the seat and should have been allowed to fly, challenged Southwest to bring the same row of seats to the Daily Show.
He tweeted: “Hey @SouthwestAir: you bring that same row of seats to the DailyShow, and I’ll sit in ‘em for all to see on TV.”
Smith said he’ll donate $10,000 to charity if he doesn’t fit in one seat and can’t buckle the belt.
If he fits, Smith said Southwest should change its policy or or at least re-train your staff to be a lot more human & a lot less corporate…”
He’s also issued an “emergency smodcast” with the nuanced title, “Go Fuck Yourself Southwest Airlines,” in which Smith chastises Southwest’s “corporate” focus of trying to get flights out on time to the detriment of customer service.
The Southwest-Kevin Smith viral stand-off will make for an interesting social-media case study.
Southwest has been out-front and deft in tackling the incident head-on and in a timely manner.
But, sometimes such situations can take on a life of their own on social-media airwaves, whether they have merit or not.
So, how does a brand, which feels it is in the right, push back effectively?
The jury is still out.
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I would love to see SWA take their seats to the Daily show. If they are confident in their call that Smith could not fit the seat according to their standards this would be a big thing for them with free airtime
How about they take their seats to the show, but more importantly have two people who can sit on either side of the fat guy and honestly say they are comfortable with that.
The policy isn’t just about one fat guy — the policy is about the rights of the people that have to sit on either side of said fat guy.
That would make a nice “ambush” on the Daily Show – let Mr Smith sit down, make his point, and then bring in two other people to sit down on either side.
The sooner Southwest Airlines does this, the less time Mr Smith has to lose weight. Corporations typically act at glacial speed. Actors have access to a broad range of trainers whose specialties are sculpting physiques to prepare them for specific roles in a very short time period. These two factors make Mr Smith’s bet a very smart one, unless Southwest Airlines moves quickly.
The question isn’t whether Smith could fit in the seat or not, but why airlines think they can design seats to maximize profits instead of comfortably fit the range of sizes that people come in. I am never comfortable when sitting next to a toddler or infant, yet I respect their right to fly because even annoying children need to be free to travel around the country. Smith has that same right and I am glad he is asserting it, in his inimitable style. Shame on Southwest.
Dear God! Have you actually listened to the ‘Smodcast’? It sounds like a whiny 13 yr-old complaining to mommy cos somebody might have been nasty to him – and it’s endless. I had to stop listening after 27 mins of sub-clause-riddled whinging.
Jeez. Get a life!
I don’t doubt for a minute that SouthWest Airlines’s normally deft customer relations deserted them, and their fat passenger rules might need looking at… but I won’t be joining any campaigning bandwagon this Vicky Pollard-esque child is on.
My guess is that this guy has taken on the wrong airline! Southwest is not a company to mess with as they do understand social media and the use and “abuse” of it. If the guy does fit into one seat, it begs the question why he purchased two seats on the original flight?
Move on buddy, and as for Southwest. Keep your sensible policy which seems to work for everyone but a tiny minority in place.
I’m with Southwest on this one. He’s had his winge, Southwest responded very well and now he just needs to let it go. At some point he’s crossing a line legally and I’m sure we’re not far off the first massive internet lynching that backfires.
Maybe I’m just starting to get tired of everyone with enough followers being able to generate a mob on Twitter or their blog (did you see the anti-Expedia rant on Techcrunch yesterday?!), whether they are right or not. In court at least typically people and companies are innocent until proven guilty. That right does not seem to have extended to the internet yet but when it does the libel and slander cases are going to swirl thick and heavy.
Yes, Smith’s podcasts is over the top and not to be taken seriously. He isn’t his own best spokesman on this one and seems out in large measure to keep the buzz going.
Of course, I have no way of knowing — didn’t anyone have a cellphone video camera? — of how Smith was treated when the Southwest crew asked him to leave.
But, I do tend to agree that he appears to be abusing social media and this whole thing may backfire on him.
Southwest appears to be doing everything right — at least as far as its response is concerned.
Reading the article on this topic on Adotas I came across this paragraph at the end of it:
Smith is still griping and the braindead megaphone known as the mass media is blowing some smoke, but this incident will blow over fast. It may linger a little as Smith has a new movie called “Cop Out” coming out in a few weeks and publicity is publicity, but Southwest has esxemplified how damage control is done in the social mediascape. Hope you other airlines were watching.
Looks to me like a guy trying to get some free PR out of this for his next movie!
Joe: He pooh-poohed that argument on Twitter, but sure rings true.