Kevin Smith got more than he bargained for when he boarded a Southwest flight from Oakland to Burbank over the weekend. According to The New York Daily News, the 39-year-old writer-director of Clerks, Chasing Amy, and Dogma was booted from the flight due to his size, which on-board employees considered a hazard.
This made Smith none too happy, and he turned to his Twitter page to vent his frustrations and tell the whole sordid story, which ended with this:
...I asked for clarification and was given none ... ladies on either side said I wasn't a problem. SWA-lady said arm-rests the decider. Arm-rests come down, and voila! I'm legit! I've passed the stinkin' arm-rest-test. And still, the lady asks me to get up and come with her off the plane.
More angry tweets extended all through Sunday and into Monday morning. All the bile Smith spewed into the Twittersphere seems to have made an impact, because this morning, Southwest issued an official apology to Smith in a blog post entitled "Not So Silent Bob." The airline acknowledged that they had received many tweets from customers, and it tried to defend its decision not to let Smith remain in his seat.
First and foremost, to Mr. Smith; we would like to echo our Tweets and again offer our heartfelt apologies to you. We are sincerely sorry for your travel experience on Southwest Airlines.... 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.
We're guessing that not-really-an-apology isn't going to stop Smith's fury ... or tweets.
Posted 02.15.10 by reelz