I  published this on Associated Content last week and thought it is a good post for Spin Sucks, as well. Enjoy!

By now, everyone has heard about Kevin Smith throwing a fit, and telling his more than one and a half million Twitter followers about his experience with Southwest Airlines.

Two weeks ago, the filmmaker was flying from Oakland to Burbank on Southwest Airlines. Smith is a big guy. So big, in fact, that he always books two seats when he flies. On this occasion though, there was only one seat available on the stand-by flight, so he took that, which is where the problems began.

Because I’m a communication professional, I’ll not go into why I think his getting stand-by on an earlier flight, and not having two seats available (which he purchased on the later flight), is the reason he was asked to leave the plane. Nor will I discuss whether or not he was profiled for being “fat”. Instead I’ll focus on what Southwest did really well, and what they could have done better, from a communication perspective. (more…)