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An enraged woman raised concerns about Southwest Airlines’ policies when she was allegedly asked to buy an extra seat for being “plus-size.”
She then proceeded to accuse the airline of discrimination, alleging that it is charging a “fat tax.”
The woman in the talk is the viral influencer Samyra, who documented her experience with the airline on TikTok and received a prompt reply from them for the inconvenience caused.
A TikToker Felt ‘Discriminated’ by Southwest Airlines
In the clip shared to her official handle, @samyra alleged, “Southwest is charging a fat tax. And, y’all, they’ve been doing this way before their little new policy was even supposed to go into effect.”
She then recalled her experience with the airline in December, sharing, “Remember, they kicked me off my flight in December. And when I talked about it, they were so quick to come in my DMs and be like, ‘Oh my gosh, no, no, no. What was your information?’ Blah, blah, blah, whatever.”
The TikToker went on to say that her primary concern was “that whole back and forth with Southwest was for how they were about to treat their plus-size customers in changing their Customer of Size policy.”
The Influencer Alleged Southwest Does Not Care About Plus-Size Travelers
She then added a screenshot of the reply she sent to the airline when they reached out to her, in which she wrote, “So just to confirm, you are unable to directly and specifically confirm that Southwest stands against weight-stigma and anti-fat bias?”
Apparently, Southwest had no response to this question.
Samyra said, “What’s so funny is that they were so quick to reply to everything else I said, but when I asked them this, silence. Nothing. Hmm.”
She proceeded to allege: “They do not care about plus-size travelers. On their website, they talk about you encroaching the person next to you. You need to buy extra seat. But then at the airport, they just eye them people.”
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She Alleged Southwest of Judging Plus-Size Travelers Based on Their ‘Fatphobia’
The TikToker continued with her rant, saying, “They told that one girl, ‘You know, ’cause you’re wide at the bottom.’ First of all, I’m wide in a mouth too, so watch yours. ‘Cause what are we even talking about?”
“Like, it’s not even up for debate. There is no criteria that they are using to determine who has to pay for an extra seat. They are literally just discriminating,” she further accused the airline.
Samyra concluded her venting, saying, “It is literally just at the discretion and fatphobia of whoever is working that day.”
Social Media Users React to the Influencer’s Claims
The clip has since garnered mixed reviews from netizens. While some support the TikToker for speaking out, others are calling her out for having a problem with having to pay extra for a seat.
As one TikToker wrote, “Every airline charges for an extra seat. Southwest has not charged for an extra seat for 50+ years and now they do. If the flight is not full you are refunded the extra seat.”
Meanwhile, another countered, “Literally in the process of trying to get a refund for a ticket I bought for late April. They REFUSE to refund me, they apparently ‘don’t have a supervisor’ I can speak too and my only option is to file a complaint and hope someone calls me. I told them I REFUSE to be singled out and shamed for being plus size in front of everyone and to go through that trauma. And they said because “nothing has happened yet” they can’t refund me.😭”
Other users, in the meantime, are calling for a class action lawsuit against the airline.
