Kevin Smith and Southwest Airlines

This will be short, but I need to address it.  If you haven’t already heard about this, I’d be surprised.  But just in case, here’s the gist: Kevin Smith, yes, THAT Kevin Smith, who is the director of the new Bruce Willis movie “Cop Out,” and previously directed the films “Clerks” and “Chasing Amy,” got kicked off a Southwest Airlines flight Saturday for being too fat.  Southwest instituted its “Customer of Size” policy over 25 years ago, and the pilot enforced it by deeming Kevin a safety risk to the entire flight and demanded he be removed from the flight.  Knowing that he’s a celebrity, he took advantage of the groundswell and used his Twitter account, @ThatKevinSmith, to turn his massive following against the company.

Within minutes, Christi Day, the PR Person who manages Southwest’s Twitter and Facebook pages was bombarded with hate posts and tweets.  Many of which consisted of things like, “F— You, Southwest!”  So what did she do?  She immediately realized the magnitude of the situation and began investigating.  She tweeted back at him and called him apologizing and began collecting details.  Kevin, in the meantime, continued to bash Southwest.  On Sunday, Christi posted a blog post on the Southwest blog telling their side of the story and once again apologizing to Kevin.  There were several details in that post that Kevin just happened to forget in his original telling of the story.  Such as, the fact that he regularly purchases two seats, had purchased two seats for this flight, but then decided to fly an earlier flight.  Therefore, there ended up only being one seat available for him on the earlier flight, and he wouldn’t fit in it (or so says Southwest).

Why am I blogging about this?

Here’s the thing.  He complained on Twitter over the handling of the situation.  Perhaps the pilot was rude to him – we really don’t know.  Here’s what we do know.  What’s the purpose of complaining? To be heard, and to be given a reasonable resolution to your problem.  The company immediately apologized via Twitter, Facebook, and phone and then later wrote a blog post about it.  They gave him a credit for his troubles and a public apology via several mediums.  What more does Kevin want?  The company has done all it can do.  They’ve done exactly what they would do for any customer with the same gripe.  What do I think he wants?  He wants the press for his new film.

Today, he continues to whine on Twitter about the situation.  The AP has written a story about it.  It’s the talk of the media.  That’s what he wanted, and that’s what he got.

Now, Kevin, will you please stop whining like a baby and accept the apology and credit like a normal, mature adult?  Your continued refusal of all apology is only making you look bad at this point.

(And by the way, Kevin Smith blocked me on Twitter after seeing my Tweets about the situation.  I guess I’m special now, being blocked by a celebrity.)