The once go-to affordable airline’s questionable new guidelines have caused major social media backlash.
By Bridgette Bartlett Royall
Essence
https://www.essence.com/
The checklist for traveling via airplane seemingly gets longer each year. Arriving to the airport at least two hours early for domestic flights and a minimum of three hours earlier for international trips. Ensuring you have a “real” id. Disposing of all non-essential liquids in your carry-on bags. Removing certain electronics from luggage before going through security. It can be exhausting before you even reach your gate.
Adding yet another travel requirement for flying was not on any of our bingo cards for 2026. But, Southwest Airlines had different plans.
In January 2026, the once affordable and plus-size accommodating airline implemented a controversial set of rules called the Customer of Size Policy. Said policy is explained on their website as follows:
“Customers who encroach upon the neighboring seat(s) must purchase the number of seats needed. Customers should purchase the seats prior to travel to ensure adjacent seats are available. The armrest is considered to be the definitive boundary between seats.”
The next part of this policy is questionable and sending social media into a frenzy.
“In addition, Southwest® may determine, in its sole discretion, that an additional seat is necessary for safety purposes.”
A firestorm of complaints from passengers is turning the heat up on the Dallas-based airline because of the apparent inconsistency by gate agents at airports nationwide. Customers, many of whom were regular Southwest fliers, have shared serious grievances of being singled-out, humiliated and treated rudely as a result of the policy.
One such customer is Arlonda Harper of Akron, Ohio. Harper admits, “Southwest has been my primary [airline] choice for years.” Harper took to Instagram to vent about an unfortunate experience she had returning from a Myrtle Beach, South Carolina vacation with her mother and brother. [See video below.] Although Harper was traveling in the same row as her family who were more than fine with the spacing between their seats, she was repeatedly asked to purchase yet another ticket for an additional seat. She recalls, “I definitely believe the Southwest agent singled me out. There were a lot of people waiting to board and she only approached me about getting an extra seat. Even after I told her no, as I was traveling with my family, she continued to ask me several more times.”
Harper is not alone. Meg Elison of North Adams, Massachusetts recently had a similar Southwest experience. “I’ve flown airlines of all sizes, all over the world. I’ve flown on planes that seat 4 and planes that seat 400. I’ve never been treated as poorly as I was by Southwest during my most recent—and final—round of travel with them,” says Elison who explained in an Instagram video that she flew six times in five days and was mortified at how she was treated by a Southwest agent on the return leg of her last trip. “I think Southwest agents have been trained to single out people like me to enforce their policy and extract more money from their customer base. I think they look for people who are not only fat, but specifically wider in the hips and thighs. I imagine there’s a chart of various types of bodies in their break room, with a wide-hipped fat woman circled in red. I have never seen or heard of this policy becoming a problem for someone with very wide shoulders, or long legs that inevitably end up in someone else’s space,” Elison offers.
Harper shares this sentiment, “Eyeballing a customer to determine if they are too big to fly leaves room for discrimination. Black women tend to have larger hips. If you look at the videos where customers are being targeted by Southwest because of their size, it is mostly Black women speaking out.”
Both Elison and Harper raise valid points that have left people both in and outside of the plus-size community confused and sometimes enraged. If this new policy is truly about ensuring the safety and comfort of all fliers, what about extremely tall people with very long legs and arms, those with wide shoulders, those (who tend to be men) who insist on sitting with their legs spread far apart?
The dozens (and growing) of complaints on social media alone detail disturbing incidents of customers arbitrarily singled out and forced to pay upwards of $1,000 for a new, extra seat at the gate. Not only is this a financial burden that some customers simply cannot afford, but what about the necessary guardrails surrounding whether or not a flight is full, the size and design of the aircraft, the length of the flight and the amenities that should be offered for an extra seat? For example, if one purchases an extra seat under these circumstances, shouldn’t they be allowed to carry on an extra bag and given beverages/snacks for two? Let’s not forget that not everyone flying is doing so for pleasure. If a passenger is attempting to board a flight for work or to visit an ill loved one or for a funeral, the situation becomes even more problematic should they have to wait for a later flight.
Tigress Osborn, Executive Director of the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance, is quite familiar with the new Southwest policy and says that most people in the plus-size community are actually not bothered by the additional fees related to an extra seat but rather the lack of professionalism and consistency in how this new policy is being implemented. “It is very unclear. Like, how are you training your agents?” Osborn questions. She continues, “People [are being asked to purchase a second seat] who are flying with their best friend and that’s the person who is going to be in the seat next to them. Their best friend doesn’t care if their hips are touching. And Southwest did not do an education campaign. So what happens is a lot of people who used this policy for years as it used to exist, are showing up at the airport and finding out at the last minute that no, they’re not going to let me get on this plane without a second seat, and they want me to pay the price that that second seat cost today.”
“So, if you bought a $79 basic fare, you know, 4 months ago and now you want to go on that flight today and if you need another seat on that flight, that seat might be $600. If you don’t pay it, they won’t let you board or they’ll take you off if you’re already on the plane. We’re seeing incidents from people who’ve already been seated and talked to the customer next to them and the person was cool [with the spacing], and then a flight attendant still came and told them to get another seat.”
Upon reaching out to Southwest for a comment on this matter, Essence did not receive a response. The airline did share this statement in a recent New York Times article about their new policy: Southwest’s goal is “always to provide a comfortable experience for everyone on board” but that assigned seating meant adjacent seats might be occupied. The airline has reached out directly to affected customers to “ensure we address any concerns with the appropriate discretion.”
Elison nor Harper had received an apology from Southwest at the time of publication. The future of this Customer of Size Policy, and the rather alarming way it is being executed, remains to be seen. But if customers like Elison have anything to do with it, matters are bound to change soon. She admits, “The policy itself is perhaps defensible, but only if there’s a stated and established limit. Charge travelers by the pound if that’s what it takes, but make your policy clear and not a matter of the indiscretion and horrifying interpersonal conduct by your staff. The treatment I and others like me have received is indefensible and ultimately unsustainable.”
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