Last night I posted the following statement regarding Southwest Airlines:
On a @SouthwestAir flight. Passengers still standing in the aisle, but no remaining open seats. I hate this airline.
Well….let me now share with you: “The Rest of the Story”
Turns out Southwest had not oversold the plane as it first appeared, though the real story is almost worse. I was the second passenger on the plane, and saw a large number of children boarding (I would estimate 30+ under the age of 12) after I had taken my seat. Many of these children were carrying large trophies, some of which were taller than they were. I later learned that they had participated in a large chess tournament held in Nashville.
After most of the passengers had taken their seats, the flight attendant in the back announced to the passengers still standing in the aisle that there were no more seats in the back and they would have to grab a middle-seat in the front. The front flight attendant quickly announced that there were no seats remaining in the front, so they would have to find a seat in the back. At this point I counted 10 people still standing in the aisle.
This back-and-forth went on several minutes, before the flight attendent in the back admitted that the reason why the back of the plane was “full” was because she had buckled the chess trophies into multiple seats in the back of the plane, even though it was a completely full flight.
You can’t make this stuff up.