By Megan Peters

Recently in the Bay Area as many of you may have already heard, director and actor Kevin Smith was reportedly booted off Southwest Airlines for being too fat for a single seat. Kevin Smith has twitted that he does fit in a single seat and can even buckle his seatbelt without a buckle extender.

However, a Southwest spokesperson said its “Customer of Size” policy requires that travelers must fit “safely and comfortably” in one seat – or make other arrangements. After hearing about this I suddenly started to worry about our up and coming honeymoon and the way we will be treated traveling as a plus size couple.

I began to research on this and I found that it is not only Southwest Airlines but also, United and Delta Airlines that enforce their policy of charging overweight passengers double if they can’t comfortably fit into one seat. The airline also could bump an overweight passenger if the flight is sold out and no extra seats are available. So the question is what can we do to avoid buying extra seats? Or if you are able to fit comfortable but not according to the airline; like Kevin Smith?

One suggestion I found is to find out ahead of time, prepare before you book a flight. You can look in advance the width of the seat on a flight by going to www.seatguru.com and click “charts.” Then you can sort by seat width, flight, type of aircraft, by airline or by type of service (such as international economy or domestic business class.) The difference can amazingly be as much as 2 inches in seat width.  This is great news for me because last time I flew I fit but I could feel the arm rests on my hips. I was certainly comfortable enough but wouldn’t mind that extra two inches. So before we book our flight from San Francisco to Florida to reach our cruise to the Bahamas. I will most definitely check the seat width ahead of time.