Weather 
Starting Tuesday, Southwest Airlines is enacting its controversial new policy that will raise ticket prices for plus-size passengers.
Under the new rules, announced last year, travelers who cannot fit between their seat’s armrests will be required to buy a ticket in advance.
“To ensure space, we are communicating to Customers who have previously used the extra seat policy that they should purchase it at booking,” Southwest reps said in a statement regarding the policy change.
That marks a stark change from the current “Customizer of Size” mandate, which allows plus-size passengers to proactively purchase an additional seat with the option of being refunded later, or request a free extra seat at the airport.
By contrast, the new mandate stipulates that the second seat is only refundable if the flight is not fully booked and if both of the passenger’s tickets are booked in the same fare class. In addition, the flyer needs to request the refund within 90 days of the plane trip.
If the flight is fully-booked, the flyer will be rebooked onto a new flight.
Critics were quick to lambast Southwest, which has long been seen as a haven for plus-size passengers in the otherwise unfriendly skies.
“I think it’s going to make the flying experience worse for everybody,” previously declared Jason Vaughn, an Orlando travel agent who shares travel tips for plus-size tourists on his website Fat Travel Tested.
He compared the overhaul to Cracker Barrel’s much-maligned logo makeover, lamenting, “They have no idea anymore who their customer is.”
Tigress Osborn, the executive director of the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance, seconded his sentiment.
“Southwest was the only beacon of hope for many fat people who otherwise wouldn’t have been flying,” she lamented, per the New York Times. “And now that beacon has gone out.”
One Southwest Airlines die-hard on Reddit announced that they were “debating going to Frontier.”
However, not everyone pooh-poohed the plus-size policy.
In December, radio host Charlamagne tha God praised an upcoming airline policy change, claiming that obese passengers should consider consuming less food if they don’t want to purchase a second seat.
“Why don’t they just make them fly cargo?” the shock jock asked on “The Breakfast Club” radio show as his crew discussed the revised rules.
This new measure is part of an overall trend of Southwest rolling back popular policies that passengers felt helped distinguish it from the competition.
In May, the carrier bagged the decades-old “bags fly free” policy, whereby passengers were allowed two complimentary checked pieces of luggage regardless of their ticket fare.
Southwest also did away with the beloved open seating perk that allowed customers to choose their own seats upon boarding.
Starting Tuesday — the same day as the plus-size seating policy goes into effect — travelers will be assigned seats in advance, increasing their odds of ending up in the dreaded middle seat.
In fact, Subway is offering a consolation prize for passengers in the “sandwich” spot — a chance at a free meal.
The sandwich merchant will reward 737 passengers who fly on Tuesday with a $20 Subway gift card that they can redeem for their choice of a footlong sandwich or other menu items.
Middle-seaters flying that day simply need to take a selfie in their seat and upload it to SubwayMiddleSeat.com for a chance to receive this freebie.
It’s the hero they deserve.
