{"id":63849,"date":"2026-03-17T18:37:19","date_gmt":"2026-03-17T22:37:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=63849"},"modified":"2026-03-17T18:37:24","modified_gmt":"2026-03-17T22:37:24","slug":"woman-goes-to-tampa-airport-to-catch-flight-then-a-southwest-worker-forced-her-to-pay-for-another-ticket-because-shes-wide-at-the-bottom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2026\/03\/17\/woman-goes-to-tampa-airport-to-catch-flight-then-a-southwest-worker-forced-her-to-pay-for-another-ticket-because-shes-wide-at-the-bottom\/","title":{"rendered":"Woman goes to Tampa airport to catch flight. Then a Southwest worker forced her to pay for another ticket because she\u2019s \u2018wide at the bottom\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This incident occurred recently at Tampa International Airport<\/strong> and has since gone viral, sparking a heated debate about airline policies and how they are communicated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Incident<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

A TikTok traveler (creator @msunforgettable_88<\/strong>) shared her experience of being stopped by a Southwest Airlines supervisor before her flight. According to her account:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n
  • The Confrontation:<\/strong> A supervisor allegedly told her she would have to pay for an additional seat because she was “wide at the bottom”<\/strong> and would “spread into two seats.”<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • The Cost:<\/strong> The traveler claimed she was forced to pay an additional $800<\/strong> for extra seats for both legs of her journey.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • The Compromise:<\/strong> She noted that the flight had many empty rows and offered to pay for a $140 upgrade instead, but she says the staff refused and insisted on the full price of a second ticket.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • The Outcome:<\/strong> The dispute reportedly caused her to miss her original flight, though she was able to catch a later one.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
    \n\n\n\n

    Southwest’s Policy Shift<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

    The incident highlights a significant change to Southwest\u2019s “Customer of Size”<\/strong> policy that took effect on January 27, 2026<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Feature<\/strong><\/td>Old Policy (Pre-2026)<\/strong><\/td>New Policy (Current)<\/strong><\/td><\/tr><\/thead>
    Booking<\/strong><\/td>Could request a free extra seat at the gate.<\/td>Required<\/strong> to purchase the extra seat at booking.<\/td><\/tr>
    Refunds<\/strong><\/td>Guaranteed refund for the extra seat after travel.<\/td>Refund only<\/strong> if the flight has at least one open seat.<\/td><\/tr>
    Seating<\/strong><\/td>Open seating (first come, first served).<\/td>Assigned seating<\/strong> (enforced strictly).<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    Why is this controversial?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
      \n
    • Inconsistent Enforcement:<\/strong> Many travelers are frustrated that they are being charged for extra seats even when planes are half-empty.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • “Draconian” Rules:<\/strong> Recent reports indicate Southwest has become very strict, even scolding passengers who try to move to empty window seats or rows to create more space for themselves.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • Communication:<\/strong> Critics and travelers like the woman in Tampa argue that the way these policies are enforced\u2014often in public view\u2014is humiliating and lacks empathy.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      This incident occurred recently at Tampa International Airport and has since gone viral, sparking a heated debate about airline policies and how they are communicated. The Incident A TikTok traveler… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":63850,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"14","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":true,"token":"eyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvaTAud3AuY29tXC9sYWtlbGFuZGdhemV0dGUuaW5mb1wvbmV3c1wvd3AtY29udGVudFwvdXBsb2Fkc1wvMjAyNlwvMDNcL1dvbWFuLWdvZXMtdG8tVGFtcGEtYWlycG9ydC10by1jYXRjaC1mbGlnaHQud2VicD9maXQ9MTAyNCUyQzU3NiZzc2w9MSIsInR4dCI6IldvbWFuIGdvZXMgdG8gVGFtcGEgYWlycG9ydCB0byBjYXRjaCBmbGlnaHQuIFRoZW4gYSBTb3V0aHdlc3Qgd29ya2VyIGZvcmNlZCBoZXIgdG8gcGF5IGZvciBhbm90aGVyIHRpY2tldCBiZWNhdXNlIHNoZVx1MjAxOXMgXHUyMDE4d2lkZSBhdCB0aGUgYm90dG9tXHUyMDE5IiwidGVtcGxhdGUiOiJoaWdod2F5IiwiZm9udCI6IiIsImJsb2dfaWQiOjE2MzA0MDY2MX0.YLjBRB6PXdWV2oropTGSV1Mk22Kilau2NEXk5C2brDoMQ"},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[14],"tags":[14110],"class_list":["post-63849","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-woman-goes-to-tampa-airport-to-catch-flight-then-a-southwest-worker-forced-her-to-pay-for-another-ticket-because-shes-wide-at-the-bottom"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63849","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63849"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63849\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":63851,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63849\/revisions\/63851"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/63850"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63849"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63849"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63849"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}