I love flight, but I avoid the airlines at all costs. Airports are disgusting, “vaccinated” pilots cause me serious concern, and I seem to always be stuck next to, or in between, people whose lifestyles and eating habits create a reality in which they can’t even begin to fit in a seat. As a result, they end up staking a claim on the space for which I paid, my journey is far less comfortable, and I’m forced to touch people who have a hard time practicing proper hygiene; I also don’t prefer to be in confined spaces with maskers, and in general, the obese, who care so much about their health, can’t seem to quit that little bacteria trap.

But now, Southwest Airlines has introduced a new “inclusion” policy, which is fixing to see the carrier allow a single person an entire row; from a Fox News item out yesterday:

Low-cost carrier Southwest Airlines is being celebrated by ‘passengers of size’ on TikTok after they discovered they can request complimentary seats – one or two, depending on needs – to accommodate their girth.

Customers whose bodies ‘encroach’ past the armrest are entitled to an extra seat, according to Southwest's inclusion policy. They are currently one of the few, if not the only, airlines to offer free seats to larger passengers.

In response, “fatfluencer” (a mockery of “fitfluencer” but the complete opposite, a “fatfluencer” is an online personality that glorifies and affirms morbidly obese lifestyles) Jae’lynn Chaney, a young woman on a mission to “revolutionize” the travel industry, spoke to Fox News about the development:

‘Super fat is how we identify,’ Chaney, business owner of Jae Bae Productions, said. ‘There’s a spectrum of fatness. And as a super fat individual, you start needing different accommodations… I just felt really happy that there was something like this for people.’

(Funny enough, in October I wrote a blog on Chaney’s demands for widened hotel hallways and extra shower fixtures so people her size could hose off the places they can’t reach, and a little over two weeks ago, I penned a quick essay on the New York City ordinance that went into effect banning discrimination against the obese.)

Chaney continued:

‘I hope to see more airlines implement customer-of-size policies. The Southwest customer size policy helps many travelers offset the disproportionate costs that we incur because of needing extra room. And so, it's not just about physical accessibility. It's also about financial accessibility.’

(“Disproportionate costs”? Yeah, because you’re eating a disproportionate number of calories, and sucking up a disproportionate amount of resources. The extra costs are in fact, entirely proportionate!)

Now allow me to just state the obvious: these “complimentary” seats aren’t on the house, they’re on us! Southwest Airlines is not in the business of making sure the “super fat” feel included, nor is it concerned with protecting the obese from feeling ashamed about their unwillingness to maintain a normal weight—it’s an airline, and its business is to make money. The executives are running a PR stunt and no doubt, ensuring no revenue is lost by passing on the cost to every person that does pay for their seats.

“Financial accessibility”? If, in this economy, someone can eat enough to maintain a 500-plus-pound body frame, they can afford two or three plane tickets.

Image generated by AI.