Kevin Smith vs. Southwest Airlines
mca47
Posts: 13,283
Anyone else following this?
I think it's great!
http://www.cnn.com/2010/SHOWBIZ/02/15/k ... index.html
http://www.cnn.com/2010/SHOWBIZ/Movies/ ... index.html
Let me start by saying I am a Kevin Smith fan. I really enjoy his movies, but I do not support him on this at all.
Kevin Smith who frequently flies Southwest, also used to frequently purchase two standard tickets...as a means for extra room on a flight.
For those of you who don't fly Southwest, you don't get assigned seats, rather you are boarded by sections. Once you get on the plane, you can sit where ever there is an open seat.
Anyways, what's great about Southwest is that you don't necessarily have to fly your scheduled flight. If you want, you can catch an earlier flight (for no extra cost), but you have to be put on the stand-by list. As a frequent flier myself, I take advantage of this ALL the time! It's part of a number of reasons why Southwest is my #1 airline (I typically fly around twice a week).
On the standby list, you have less options and you are boarded last...but you almost always get on (especially regional).
So Smith wants to get on an earlier flight, but he's deemed "too fat" (probably a middle seat, as that's usually all that's left - Southwest only flies 737s...3 seats on each side of the aisle) for one seat, and is taken off. He makes a big fuss but I cannot support him at all!
For someone who travels all the f'n time, I deal with the Kevin Smith's all the damn time and it's horrible! Sitting next to that is not fair to anyone next to them! I could tell you stories all night about flights I've had with "Kevin Smiths".
Anyways, I'd like to hear some other perspectives...
CNN did a poll and the last I checked 60% of people sided with Southwest (as I do).
I think it's great!
http://www.cnn.com/2010/SHOWBIZ/02/15/k ... index.html
http://www.cnn.com/2010/SHOWBIZ/Movies/ ... index.html
Let me start by saying I am a Kevin Smith fan. I really enjoy his movies, but I do not support him on this at all.
Kevin Smith who frequently flies Southwest, also used to frequently purchase two standard tickets...as a means for extra room on a flight.
For those of you who don't fly Southwest, you don't get assigned seats, rather you are boarded by sections. Once you get on the plane, you can sit where ever there is an open seat.
Anyways, what's great about Southwest is that you don't necessarily have to fly your scheduled flight. If you want, you can catch an earlier flight (for no extra cost), but you have to be put on the stand-by list. As a frequent flier myself, I take advantage of this ALL the time! It's part of a number of reasons why Southwest is my #1 airline (I typically fly around twice a week).
On the standby list, you have less options and you are boarded last...but you almost always get on (especially regional).
So Smith wants to get on an earlier flight, but he's deemed "too fat" (probably a middle seat, as that's usually all that's left - Southwest only flies 737s...3 seats on each side of the aisle) for one seat, and is taken off. He makes a big fuss but I cannot support him at all!
For someone who travels all the f'n time, I deal with the Kevin Smith's all the damn time and it's horrible! Sitting next to that is not fair to anyone next to them! I could tell you stories all night about flights I've had with "Kevin Smiths".
Anyways, I'd like to hear some other perspectives...
CNN did a poll and the last I checked 60% of people sided with Southwest (as I do).
Post edited by Unknown User on
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I suggest getting his last SModcast to get his side of what happened before backing a corporation. I mean this is an airline that has booted a woman for showing too much leg, a person that was wearing a bush cheney rice shirt that read meet the fuckers...sooo go ahead and align yourselves with the greyhound bus of the skies. I'm backin Silent Bob.
You should listen to his podcast. http://www.smodcast.com
I know it's just his side of the story, but it sounds like he kinda got screwed.
He also went to great lengths to elaborate on why he normally buys two seats, and it's not because he can't fit into one, rather that SW is cheap, he is rich and he doesn't like to talk to people on airplanes.
He said he has flown several times on SW with just one seat, and it was never a problem until the other day...seems odd to me.
You said yourself- you've flown with several "Kevin Smiths" in your day- apparently the only one they let get on the plane, get settled, and then haul off in front of 200 people is the one that they recognize from TV...
Really?
Zack and Miri grossed $31 million at the box office and Clerks 2 did like $24 million.
Both covered costs and made significant profits.
I know they aren't Dark Knight numbers, but to say his pictures have done poorly is absurd.
I would agree with you that he's using this as publicity, but more because he is a self-proclaimed media-whore than because he is feeling heat because of his movies.
Clearly, I'm a fan. I think he's hugely entertaining. A little more emphasis on the huge part these days...
...but the dude should seriously lose some weight.
It seems to me too that Southwest screwed him on this one. I don't think its publicity he is enjoying either.
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Apparently Southwest doesn't have a business class.
But he said he only flies Southwest to go to San Francisco/Oakland or Vegas, just because it is one of the few airlines that flies in and out Burbank, which he said is a really nice/convenient airport for him to fly out of.
What I don't get is that if you are rich, rich enough to live in Ben Affleck's old Hollywood house, how the hell do you get so fat. I mean if you are rich it should be nothing to hire a trainer to make sure you get regular exercise and a chef to make sure all your meals are healthy food that tastes awesome. Yet when I used to read his blog the guy was hitting the McDonalds drive thru all the time. Wha
You buy lots of really expensive food?
It has nothing to do with "backing a corporation", rather the logistics of how the airline works.
He had his two tickets for his regularly scheduled flight. He decided that he wanted to catch an earlier flight, so he was put on the standby list. My guess as a frequent flier on Southwest he was atop that list (I know I am when I fly with them).
If he was printed a new boarding pass, he likely had one or two of the last seats on the plane. And for those that don't fly SW, it is certainly a center seat.
If this is the case, and it sounds like it is, the plane at this point is ready to backoff from the gate...just waiting on that last person.
My guess was that the overhead bins were packed (as they always are in this case) so they made him gate-check a bag...also delaying the flight a couple minutes. I don't know who he tried to squeeze in between (they could also be large), but I'm guessing it was probably incredibly tight and the other passengers were complaining.
Because the airline was doing him a favor by putting him on that flight, I'm guessing there was a lot of fuss between himself, the other passengers, and the flight attendant.
Ultimately, it was likely the pilot who decided to toss him.
A guy who could barely fit in his seat (where he admittedly buys two so he can fit better) and causing the plane to be delayed...I have no problem with them tossing him.
And besides, he THEN got on his regular/booked flight without an issue.
Poor fat man!
If he buys two tickets to "not sit next to someone because he doesn't like talking to people", wouldn't he have to purchase three then?
With Southwest, you have no control over who sits in your row. If he had two seats, there is still one more, and with a full flight, someone is sitting in that third...and therefore could chat him up, which he hates so much.
I'm sure he does and can squeeze into one seat, but I don't buy his reasoning "for not wanting to talk to people". It is strange why he got the boot, but if you read my latest post above, my guess there was more to the story than then picking him out because he is famous.
Yeah, he has a podcast out, but it would also be interesting to hear a podcast from a flight attendant, another passenger, or the pilot...
You really should listen to the podcast, it will help with all of the guessing...
Southwest is an economy airline. They don't have first class or business class.
Regionally, they are incredibly convenient. They have flights pretty much every hour, and they fly to destinations others don't.
They also allow you to catch earlier flights for no extra cost if there is room.
I fly in and out of LA and Burbank all the time, and I've seen quite a few celeb-types flying them.
On the Podcast, he said the only time he buys two seats for himself is when he flies with his wife, so they can have a whole row. So, yeah, he does buy three tickets on those occasions.
He also said that he flies SW regularly and the times that he buys two tickets for himself are "few and far between." So my assertion of it being normal was incorrect.
Well my original question was why he was flying a discount airline to begin with? But the convenience factor makes it make a little bit more sense I guess. But do no airlines with first class or business class fly out of Burbank?
And here he is in his own words talking about buying two seats... and it doesn't have anything to do with him fitting better.
http://smodcast.com/nrtjfk.html
http://smodcast.com/ocn815.html
Yeah- he said that he and his wife would be flying Jet Blue from now on.
I bet he still flies Southwest again.
JetBlue doesn't have inter-California flights (in and out only).
Flying from Oakland to Burbank (as he did to cause this issue) wouldn't be possible on JetBlue.
He spends a lot of time saying he's not known to purchase 2 seats, then at the 45 second mark he says that he is known to purchase 2 (sometimes 3) seats.
Sounds like he's used Southwest many, many times and this was his first problem with them. And, it was on a flight that he wasn't scheduled to be on. He was inconvenienced by their inability to accommodate his inconveniencing that particular flight.
I'm surprised he finds time to blog (and whatnot) in between eating ham and mayonnaise.
Look here cow, you want to eliminate embarrassing situations, drop a hundred pounds or so and remaster the art of peeing while standing up. I bet he hasn't washed his taint meat in 7 years.
In summation, Kevin Smith is a moderately funny pig who got his feelings hurt for being a fat. At least he doesn't have cancer or a scratch on his incredibly fat back that he can't reach.
yeah listen to his smodcast first. he explains his side of the story pretty well, and it seems pretty truthful to me.
smith doesn't need the publicity. he fucking hates publicity.
Butthead: It means that his friends are like turds and that they like suck.
Beavis: Heh heh. Oh yeah. Yeah! Get those spoons out of my face before I shove them up your butt!
Butthead: Huh huh.
Yeah- when he flies with his wife...and later he says those times are few and far between...
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My favorite part was the speculation about taint meat washing...
My bf is a big guy and I hate sitting next to him at football games. We use to have seats at the end of a row and he would sit on the outside. Two years ago, we got our seats upgraded, so now we are in the middle of a row. It sux. I feel worse for the person on the other side of him. They didn't sign up for that, I did.