Southwest Is Changing Its Rules for Plus-Size Passengers

Posted4 months agoActive4 months ago

bookofjoe

22 points

25 comments

nytimes.comOtherstory

calmmixed

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Airline IndustryBody PositivityConsumer Rights

Key topics

Airline Industry

Body Positivity

Consumer Rights

Southwest Airlines is changing its policy for plus-size passengers, requiring them to purchase an extra seat if needed, sparking a discussion about airline seat sizes, customer comfort, and fairness.

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01Story posted
Aug 22, 2025 at 7:23 PM EDT
4 months ago
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02First comment
Aug 22, 2025 at 7:24 PM EDT
22s after posting
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13 comments in 2-4h
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Aug 23, 2025 at 9:32 PM EDT
4 months ago
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Discussion (25 comments)

Showing 25 comments

Der_Einzige

4 months ago

1 reply

GLP-1 medication being the mandatory way to avoid a fat tax needs to have come yesterday.

barbazoo

4 months ago

Big pharma would love that!

ungreased0675

4 months ago

1 reply

I support this, but I also think airlines have a responsibility to stop shrinking seats. It shouldn’t be a contest to see how many more seats can be fit onto the airplane. Give us normal sized, comfortable seats as the standard.

Spooky23

4 months ago

1 reply

I agree. I’m 6’4”, 255 lbs - framewise, I am a gorilla. I can’t even get an exit row seat as my son isn’t old enough to sit there.

It’s ridiculous that seating is so tight that there is no way for me to be comfortable for any significant flight and it’s miserable for anyone other than a child around me.

Whenever I can, I fly in a premium cabin. But if that’s not an option, I’d rather drive 7-10 hours than fly economy.

cheald

4 months ago

1 reply

Same boat here. I'm 6'10", 260, and athletic. I'm very acutely aware of the shrinking space available on aircraft, and there's precious little that I can do about it. I typically just get an aisle seat and raise the armrest after takeoff (and then spend the whole flight dodging people going to the bathroom and refreshment carts, but it's better than nothing).

There is a problem with heavily obese people taking up significantly more horizontal space than is actually fair, but it's absolutely compounded by the airlines shrinking the per-passenger space to the size of the average passenger.

t1E9mE7JTRjf

4 months ago

2 replies

Ok but guys, 6 4 and 6 10 is incredibly tall. Surely you see that's edge case AF?

hattmall

4 months ago

At 6'10 I can't imagine much anything is comfortable.

Spooky23

4 months ago

I think it's unethical to design a seat for the median man or whatever they use. There is no other application that is as hostile as some economy air seats.

I've been on trains in a half dozen countries, the back of a police car (for business purposes), a donkey, bulldozer, dozens of different venues (theaters, arenas, etc) and various farm tractors. All are more comfortable, except for a stadium seat where i had to straddle a beam.

linotype

4 months ago

1 reply

I have very broad shoulders and while my butt fits in the seat with room to spare my shoulders encroach in other seats due to Southwest’s small seats. Why should I be required to buy another seat for something I can do nothing about?

Waterluvian

4 months ago

2 replies

For sake of argument, why shouldn’t you?

What if an airline wanted to charge by the pound? Or by the cubic metre? “Identify how you please! We just move matter. If the matter requires oxygen, water, or 2.5 pretzel sticks, we will gladly sell that too! Looking for extra savings this summer? Try our new sweat lounge! Your precious bodily fluids are fungible, so sweat them out now and reconstitute when you arrive!”

For what it’s worth, I’m very very strongly in support of socializing things like this and would prefer to live in a community that is of the leave a penny, take a penny mindset.

linotype

4 months ago

1 reply

It’s within their rights to do what they want, I just don’t like it and if they institute something like that I’ll take my business elsewhere.

I’m curious how people in wheelchairs are treated.

Waterluvian

4 months ago

People in wheelchairs are typically a protected class for whom the law enforces the socialization of their needs. In my experience, flying with a former girlfriend, it means the airlines do the absolute minimum required and oftentimes not even that.

ies7

4 months ago

In 2004, I fly to Enarotali (West Papua, Indonesia) in a twin otter plane.

I dint know what the policy, but sometimes we're charged by kgs.

avalys

4 months ago

4 replies

I’d like to see airlines charge for carryons and allow checked bags for free.

Carryons are by far the best experience for a passenger - your bag is there with you and you don’t have to arrive at the airport early, nor wait around at baggage claim. All business and frequent travelers would pay extra for this.

Meanwhile, carryons are worse for everyone else, and for the airline! They massively slow down the boarding and deboarding process while you wait for people to heft their massive suitcases up into the bins.

Fewer carryons means faster turnarounds which means more profit.

Thank you for listening to my talk.

hattmall

4 months ago

1 reply

Honestly that's pretty brilliant. But I think the airlines have some incentive to encourage travelers to carry less weight overall.

charlie0

4 months ago

Charging for it is the incentive.

d1sxeyes

4 months ago

Great idea to charge for carry-on. We will go ahead and do that. After careful consideration, we have decided not to implement your second suggestion.

Thank you for your feedback!

rogerrogerr

4 months ago

Airlines make a ton of money on cargo (those planes flying with one or two people on them during Covid? Full of paying cargo). It’s somewhere around 10% of revenue, depending on who you ask.

Carryons use space in the top half of the tube; checked bags use space in the bottom half of the tube where they’d much rather put a $10k pallet of stuff than 25 checked bags.

mc32

4 months ago

I'd be totally okay for them to charge by total weight/mass (passenger + luggage, etc.) Women would come on top (on average) call it even with regard to haircuts --children also get cheaper seats and it's the fairest system even if they have to set a "floor". The more weight or mass the more fuel is consumed.

m-hodges

4 months ago

1 reply

Is there any regulation around minimum seat size an airline can sell? Or could all airlines keep shrinking all seats while also implementing requirements to buy more seats?

Arnt

4 months ago

Complete evacuation in 90 seconds iirc. You could build a new plane with many more emergency exits, but for an existing plane that limits how tight the spaces can be.

jerlam

4 months ago

I found this article to be clearer:

https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/airline-news/2025/08/2...

The requirement to buy the extra seat beforehand makes sense because Southwest no longer has open seating and someone who bought that extra seat would need to be moved during the boarding process, but they wouldn't know what seat is open.

bookofjoeAuthor

4 months ago

https://archive.ph/boncC

dmitrygr

4 months ago

Oh thank god. i do not yet know a single person who did not favour such policy after at least once being impacted by an airline not having it.

dmd

4 months ago

Step two: make the seats smaller and smaller and smaller until MOST people have to buy multiple seats. Over 150 lbs / 70 kg? Two seats, sorry, nothing we can do, that’s the rule.

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ID: 44991175Type: storyLast synced: 11/20/2025, 5:39:21 PM

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