'Ample' flier sues airline for saying he needed 2 seats

'Ample' flier sues airline for saying he needed 2 seats

Henry K. Lee, Chronicle Staff Writer
Thursday, September 23, 2004
San Francisco Chronicle
Chronicle Sections

An Oakland man who describes himself as being of "ample proportion" is suing Southwest Airlines, accusing the carrier of humiliating him by asking him to buy a second seat.

Lionel Bea, 40, said in a lawsuit filed in Alameda County Superior Court that a Southwest employee asked him whether he could fit in one seat before boarding a flight from Oakland to Los Angeles on Sept. 28. When Bea, a Southwest frequent flier, said, "Yes, is there a problem?" the employee said he would have to sell him another seat because of company policy "regarding passengers too large to fit in one seat," according to the lawsuit filed earlier this month.

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Obese Flyer Sues Southwest

Obese Flyer Sues Southwest

August 25, 2004

MANCHESTER, N.H. (AP)--A cosmetics company CEO has sued Southwest Airlines (LUV), alleging that she was unfairly subjected to its policy of requiring large passengers to buy two seats because she is black.

Nadine Thompson, president, CEO and co-founder of Warm Spirit Inc. beauty and wellness company in Exeter, sued the airline in federal court in Concord last week, saying the company does not uniformly enforce its policy requiring obese passengers to buy two seats.

The lawsuit said "a disproportionate number of women and persons of color are subjects of Southwest's policy requiring a passenger to purchase a second ticket.

"But for the plaintiff being a large African-American woman, she would not have been subjected to Southwest's policy of requiring a passenger to purchase a second ticket."

The lawsuit said, "Similarly sized white male passengers are not subjected to Southwest's policy requiring a passenger to purchase a second ticket."

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Woman Sues Airline For Humiliation Over Her Weight

Woman Sues Airline For Humiliation Over Her Weight

Woman Sues Airline For Humiliation Over Her Weight

POSTED: 3:10 pm PDT August 30, 2004
SPOKANE, Wash. -- An Eastern Washington woman has sued Southwest Airlines, saying company employees humiliated her in front of other airplane passengers by suggesting she was too fat to fit in a single seat.

Trina Blake, 26, said a gate agent questioned her extensively about her weight while she was boarding a plane from Orlando, Fla., to Seattle in May 2003, then told flight attendants to make sure Blake did not take up more than one seat.

"I was told that if I even lifted the armrest, I'd be charged for a second ticket at the next airport," Blake told The Spokesman-Review newspaper.

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