Large passengers to pay double on Southwest Air By Chris Woodyard and Barbara De Lollis, USA TODAY The airline industry is having a problem with wide bodies. Not big planes = =97=20 rather, big passengers. As many Americans have grown wider around the=20 middle, they are having an increasingly hard time fitting into=20 economy-class seats. Now, airlines are taking action. Starting Wednesday,=20 Southwest Airlines will begin enforcing a 22-year-old policy requiring that= =20 larger passengers be charged extra if they need two seats. And it doesn't=20 matter if the flight isn't full. A passenger unable to fit in one seat=20 would pay $160 one-way for a Houston-Dallas ticket bought on the day of=20 travel, instead of the usual $91 fare, says Southwest spokeswoman Christine= =20 Turneabe-Connelly. Passengers who buy any kind of advance-purchase ticket=20 will be charged the same fare for the extra seat. Those who buy their=20 tickets on the same day of travel will pay a child's fare for more space.=20 Once their travel is completed, if the flight wasn't full, they can request= =20 a refund for the second seat. No matter what they pay, those who buy extra= =20 seats won't get extra frequent-flier points. In the past, gate agents might have let extra-large people slip by. But not= =20 now. "We're not allowing our customer service agents to turn a blind eye,"= =20 Turneabe-Connelly says. It's no small problem. The government says 61% of=20 Americans weigh too much, and 26% are deemed obese. Yet, coach seats seem=20 made for the svelte set. Southwest's seats measure 17 1/4 inches across. With so many citizens shopping for plus sizes, the issue presents a prickly= =20 problem for airlines concerned about not provoking a backlash from larger=20 folks. "The airlines are putting the public in the unfortunate position of= =20 being the bad guy," says Barbara Brooks of the Strategy Group, a crisis=20 public relations firm. "But the truth of the matter is, they've squished=20 all of us into miserable little seats." Major airlines such as American and= =20 Northwest say they require extra-large passengers to buy an extra seat on=20 full flights. And the policies appear to have held up in court challenges.= =20 But advocacy groups for large people say these policies discriminate=20 against them. "If a person takes up more than one seat, that's not the=20 problem of the person, that's the problem of the seat," says Miriam Berg,=20 president of the Council on Size & Weight Discrimination. Just ask 6-foot, 2-inch, 350-pound software executive Steve McAllister.=20 He's flown 2 million miles on business, including seven around-the-world=20 trips, and never once been asked to buy a second seat =97 until he decided= to=20 fly Southwest last Thursday from Sacramento to Burbank, Calif. "The agent=20 looked and me and said, 'You're going to have to purchase a second seat,' "= =20 McAllister recalls. Incredulous, he says he asked why. "Safety reasons,"=20 she responded. McAllister says he talked to a supervisor and eventually=20 talked them out of assessing him the price of another ticket, but the=20 incident left him disillusioned and unlikely to fly Southwest again. "Not=20 if they force me to buy another seat, not if they make a freak show out of= =20 it like they did the other day," he says. "This is not too much different=20 than the Nazis." The laws seem to be on the airlines' side. Southwest says= =20 the courts have ruled in its favor in two cases in the last decade. Two years ago, a woman weighing more than 300 pounds, Cynthia Luther,=20 claimed discrimination after Southwest asked to her to buy a second seat on= =20 a flight from Reno to Burbank. A California state judge dismissed the case,= =20 and that ruling was upheld on appeal last year. "We won. End of story,"=20 says Southwest spokesman Ed Stewart. In a previous case, Pamela Hollowich=20 sued after she was told to buy a second seat in August 1990. The judge=20 ruled in Southwest's favor, and that ruling was upheld on appeal. The=20 Department of Transportation's rules don't prevent airlines from charging=20 passengers for a second seat if they need one, says Alexander Anolik, a=20 travel attorney in San Francisco. The federal Americans with Disabilities Act includes provisions about=20 obesity, but lets airlines off the hook. While the ADA requires businesses= =20 to make "reasonable accommodation," the notion of airlines giving away the= =20 second seat isn't considered as reasonable by the government, Anolik says.= =20 Attorney Jim Goodman of the Persons with Disabilities Law Center in Atlanta= =20 says there might be a way around that problem since "many times, obesity is= =20 symptom and not the disability itself." He also pointed out that airlines=20 don't require the legally blind to buy a ticket for their guide animals.=20 But airline experts say the policies are a matter of simple business=20 fairness: People who use more of a product =97 in this case, airline seats = =97=20 should be willing to pay for them. "It's not their fault," says airline=20 industry consultant Mike Boyd. Some companies are sensitive to the traveling needs of their larger=20 employees. Thom Nulty, president of Navigant, a large travel agency chain,= =20 says his company has, on the occasions it was required, upgraded traveling= =20 workers to first class so they would have enough seat room. Airlines say=20 their intention is not to discriminate. They say their hope is that those=20 needing two seats will take action themselves to buy one rather than force= =20 the issue at the airport. Southwest, for its part, says it will bring its=20 policy into play at the airport when a passenger needs to lift the armrests= =20 to fit into a seat and requires a seatbelt extension. Southwest says it=20 began reviewing its policy two years ago after passengers complained.=20 Southwest frequent flier Jerome Bannister of Nashville applauds the=20 airline's decision. "If you have someone in the 250 (pound)-plus range,=20 they can start making it uncomfortable" for other fliers, Bannister says. New boarding passes The change will take effect the same day that Southwest begins its switch=20 from numbered plastic boarding cards to electronically generated paper=20 boarding passes that show, among other things, whether a passenger has=20 bought a second seat, Turneabe-Connelly says. Unlike other major airlines,= =20 Southwest is the only one that allows open seating, a policy aimed at=20 speeding the boarding process. While most airlines make seat reservations=20 when people book their trips, allowing them to block out two seats for=20 people who say they are extra-large, Southwest has a strict policy of no=20 reserved seats. It also is an airline known for having a lot of planes that= =20 are full. It filled 70% of its seats in May, roughly the same as last year,= =20 and about the same as the industry's average for domestic flights. Yet, all= =20 airlines face the same challenge of accommodating oversized passengers.=20 What some are doing: =B7 Delta. The airline says big people won't have a problem if they= can=20 find an empty seat next to them. If the plane is full, they are asked to=20 buy another seat or are allowed to book on a less crowded flight without=20 penalty, says spokesman John Kennedy. =B7 Northwest. Gate agents broach the subject of a passenger's size by= =20 asking if they might need a seatbelt extension. Some passengers wedge=20 themselves into the seat fine without one. But if it appears they can't,=20 they are asked to buy another seat. =B7 United. If a passenger needs two seats, then they have to pay for= =20 two seats =97 but they will get double frequent flier miles, says spokesman= =20 Chris Braithwaite. 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