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Digital News Report – Whether you are on the side of Kevin Smith or the policy of Southwest Airlines, you would probably agree that this is a PR-nightmare for the low-cost carrier.
One question always raised by public relations departments and firms is: Should you apologize? Many concerned customers believe Toyota was slow to apologize while other PR firms may believe Southwest apologized too quickly.
“We are sincerely sorry for your travel experience on Southwest Airlines,” the company said on their website. The apology wasn’t accepted by the movie actor / writer / producer, even after the company phoned him.
In the first telephone conversation, the airline admitted that Smith wasn’t a “problem”, according to his latest blog entry. But there was a problem with another overweight person and the pilot probably never saw either Kevin or the other passenger.
Apparently Kevin didn’t want an apology, but wanted the airline to admit he wasn’t too fat to fly. When Linda, the Southwest Airlines representative, called him back again to tell him about her blog entry, Smith told her: “there’s nothing about me not being Too Fat To Fly”.
“The people around you said they had to lean over to make room for you,” Linda replied. But Kevin contended that they were already leaning away from him. “They were already leaning when I sat down! … I just want you to put in print what you told me: that I was grabbed because I was the last guy on, not because I didn’t fit with the arm rests down.”
Today both Smith and the airline would like to put this behind them. Kevin is the director of the new Bruce Willis movie titled “Cop Out”.
By: Jael Kirk
Entertainment Writer
i just sat next to a large person yesterday from london… it was unfair to me.. i had to sit next to this person.. she was nice, and good looking.. but it was not fair that i had to have the armrest up and, have her overflowing into my space… i could not even get my tray table down.. due to her leg.. the flight attendant could not tell of her seat was in the upright, they had to have her lean forward,,, to make sure… if we had to get out.. i would have to jump over the seat ahead of me, if she could not get herself out… as i said ..she was a nice person.. but when i found out she bought her tkt cheaper than me,.. and she took up more space.. that ticked me off even more