Southwest says obese passenger policy is working DALLAS (Reuters) =97 Southwest Airlines said Thursday its stepped-up policy= =20 of charging double the fare to passengers too large to squeeze between the= =20 arm rests has worked well for customers and the low-fare carrier. Colleen=20 Barrett, the airline's president, told reporters when Southwest announced=20 in June it would more strictly enforce its long-standing "people of size"=20 policy, she was surprised by the ensuing frenzy of media reports, protests= =20 from activists for the obese and talk shows on the topic. "That was one of= =20 the more shocking lessons of life that I have ever experienced," Barrett=20 said. But after several months, the policy has resulted in a "win-win"=20 situation for the airline and customers, she said. Southwest has received=20 few complaints from passengers charged double and customers know they will= =20 not have to be shoehorned into their seats. Southwest, along with several other major carriers have a policy of=20 charging larger passengers who need two airline seats double the fare when= =20 they travel. Barrett said the public relations trouble for the airline was= =20 sparked by an internal memo she wrote reminding staff of the policy as the= =20 carrier moved to implement new boarding pass procedures. Southwest said it= =20 refunds the second fare if the aircraft is not flying at maximum capacity.= =20 In a recent month, Southwest said it flew about 6 million passengers and=20 enforced the policy on 100 people. Of that total, 92 customers were given a= =20 refund for the second seat. Southwest officials said one of the steady=20 complaints they have received over the years has been from customers who=20 said they were squished by a large passenger who infringed on their seat= space. Southwest seats are 18-3/4 inches (48 cm) wide. The Dallas- based airline=20 does not have first or business class sections with larger seats. Southwest= =20 was sued eight years ago on the issue by a larger passenger forced to buy a= =20 second seat and the case was dismissed, a spokeswoman said. Activists for=20 the obese said they planned to challenge the policy. "The policy is right,"= =20 Barrett said, adding it was a customer service issue. The owner of Roger's Trinbago Site: Roj (Roger James) *************************************************** escape email mailto:ejames@escape.ca Trinbago site: http://www.tntisland.com CBC Website http://www.tntisland.com/caribbeanbrassconnection/ The Trinbago Site of the Week: (I95.5FM) http://www.i955fm.com (Radio Station I95.5FM) courtesy of Roj Trinbago Website & TnT Web Directory Roj's Trinbago Website: http://www.tntisland.com TnT Web Directory: http://search.co.tt *********************************************************