Air travel has never been a perfectly comfortable experience for everyone. The seats are smaller than they used to be, the boarding process is more complicated than it needs to be, and the gap between what an airline promises and what a passenger actually experiences has been a source of frustration for decades. Most travelers absorb those frustrations as the cost of getting somewhere and move on. But when an airline policy singles out a specific group of passengers and applies it inconsistently, without clear standards, at the gate, sometimes mid-journey, the frustration becomes something more personal than a bad seat or a delayed departure.
That is exactly what is happening with Southwest Airlines right now, and the stories coming out of it are generating the kind of attention that does not go away quietly.
Southwest updated its Customer of Size policy on January 27, 2026. Under the new guidelines, passengers who may not fit comfortably within a single seat are required to proactively purchase an additional seat before travel. The policy gives Southwest authority to make that determination at any point based on its “sole discretion,” without specifying objective measurements or clear criteria beyond possible encroachment on a neighboring seat. Since the policy went into effect, passengers have taken to TikTok and other platforms to share experiences that have raised serious questions about how the policy is being applied, whether employees have the tools to apply it consistently, and what the experience of being flagged under it actually feels like from the passenger’s side.
For anyone flying Southwest to Walt Disney World, the answers to those questions matter before they get to the airport.
Erika DeBoer: Flagged at Bag Check, Not Flagged on the Way Home
Erika DeBoer was 38 years old and a frequent Southwest flyer when she traveled from Omaha, Nebraska to Las Vegas on February 6, 2026. She did not expect the trip to become a viral moment. At bag check, a Southwest employee informed her she needed to purchase an extra seat. When she asked why, she was told it was for the safety and comfort of other passengers.
“The part that lingers the most is the words used. ‘Safety and comfort’ of other passengers. They just kept repeating it like robots without any care for the actual situation,” DeBoer told PEOPLE. She paid for an upgraded window seat and boarded the flight. On her return trip from Las Vegas to Omaha, no Southwest employee flagged her at any point.
After returning home, DeBoer contacted Southwest. The airline issued a refund for the extra ticket and the upgraded seat and sent a $150 voucher. She told PEOPLE she is still waiting for a response on policy clarification.
“It feels powerless to be given two options — either buy an extra seat or not be allowed on the flight,” she said. “I was not humiliated or embarrassed or on the verge of tears. I was angry. I have zero shame in my size.”
She also raised a question about the scope of the policy that has resonated widely: “The scrutiny wasn’t about space alone — it was about size, and specifically about fat bodies, when it should be about every body that might spill past an armrest or encroach on the seat next to them.”
Grace Simpson: Cleared on the First Flight, Flagged on the Connection
Grace Simpson’s experience unfolded differently and in some ways more starkly. She successfully completed the first leg of a connecting flight, traveling from Norfolk, Virginia to Baltimore on February 10, without any issue. At the gate in Baltimore for her connection to San Diego, a supervisor approached her and said a gate agent had identified her as a potential customer of size. She would need to purchase an additional seat to continue.
“I told him that I had already flown from Norfolk to Baltimore without issue, so I was not going to buy another ticket,” Simpson recalled. The supervisor ultimately gave her a newly printed boarding pass relocating her to an empty seat in the back row at no additional cost.
Simpson told PEOPLE the experience raised questions that went beyond her individual situation. “It’s hard for me to wrap my head around the fact that I could go through ticketing, security, boarding and take my seat — with multiple employees seeing me — and yet if one person decided I didn’t fit the policy, I could be publicly deboarded. Even if nine people before thought I was fine, the 10th person could override that. That level of discretion feels less about safety and more about personal judgment and discrimination.”
The timing compounded the emotional impact. “I had just hit the 100-pound milestone less than a week before this incident,” she said. “Instead, the experience felt like a slap in the face.”
Simpson described the anxiety the policy creates for larger travelers more broadly. “When something as personal as your body is left up to real-time opinion, it doesn’t feel clear or fair. It feels like you’re one decision away from public embarrassment.”
She has not formally complained to Southwest about the incident.
What Both Women Said They Actually Need From Southwest
Neither DeBoer nor Simpson told PEOPLE they objected to a customer of size policy existing. Both were explicit that their concern was with how the policy is implemented in the absence of objective standards.
“It’s completely unfair to get to the airport and be told you have to purchase an extra seat with no actual parameters or guidelines,” DeBoer said. “It was all up to the discretion of the Southwest employee by looking at me. Also, how awful to make your employees have to have that conversation. Maybe just make better seats for people. You’ve addressed extra legroom, why not make a bigger seat?”
Simpson called for transparency at the moment of purchase rather than at the gate. “From a consumer standpoint, transparency means more than just having information buried on a website. If a policy could require someone to purchase an additional seat or potentially deplane, it should be clearly communicated at the point of purchase. There should be a prompt, a checkbox or a clearly visible notice — something that ensures customers are aware before they finalize their ticket.”
She added: “Without clear measurements or objective standards, there’s no way to prepare or make an informed decision before arriving at the airport. When enforcement is based on ‘sole discretion’ instead of defined guidelines, it feels subjective — and that directly impacts fairness.”
DeBoer noted the broader message the policy sends to larger travelers: “The message it sends is that it made me feel evaluated before I was respected. It sends the message that larger travelers’ access to public space is conditional.”
Both women agreed on the core issue. “When people say this is about ‘comfort and safety for all passengers,’ I think what’s often missing is that people of size are also part of ‘all passengers,'” DeBoer told PEOPLE.
Simpson echoed it directly: “Fat passengers deserve dignity, predictability, and respect in public spaces too. The conversation often centers on how other passengers feel sitting next to someone larger, but it rarely considers how it feels to be the person being evaluated, flagged or potentially removed.”
How This Connects to a Walt Disney World Vacation
Related: Universal Confirms 17 Attractions Are Banned for “Plus-Size” Guests
For larger travelers booking a Disney World trip on Southwest, the policy creates a specific kind of pre-trip uncertainty that standard travel inconveniences do not. A Disney vacation is not a flexible itinerary. It is a structure built months in advance with non-refundable park tickets, dining reservations held by credit card, resort check-ins with defined arrival windows, and Lightning Lane selections tied to specific days. A gate confrontation that results in a delayed boarding, a missed flight, or an unexpected seat purchase does not just inconvenience the traveler. It destabilizes every piece of a trip that took significant time and money to build.
The inconsistency both women described, cleared on one flight, flagged on another, is what makes advance planning genuinely difficult. There is no measurement a guest can apply at home with certainty. The most protective approach currently available for larger travelers booking Southwest to Disney World is to review the Customer of Size policy on Southwest’s website before purchasing, consider proactively booking a second seat if there is any question about fit, and contact Southwest directly before travel with specific questions rather than encountering the policy for the first time at the gate.
Travel insurance that covers trip interruptions is also worth considering for any Disney vacation where the arrival day is tightly connected to park reservations or time-sensitive bookings. A missed flight due to a gate dispute is not a scenario most guests plan for, but the current policy environment makes it a real possibility for affected travelers.
Disney’s Approach Inside the Parks Is Worth Knowing About
The contrast between what these Southwest passengers experienced and what Walt Disney World does inside its parks is notable and worth understanding for guests who have concerns about size inclusivity.
Disney has made consistent and ongoing efforts to design attractions that accommodate the widest possible range of guests. Classic boat ride attractions like it’s a small world and Pirates of the Caribbean use open vessel seating without fixed individual dimensions, allowing guests to settle into positions that work for their bodies rather than conforming to a molded seat shape. Omnimover attractions including The Haunted Mansion and Journey Into Imagination with Figment use a continuous bench-style vehicle design rather than individual bucket seats, which removes the fixed width constraints that cause issues on other ride types.
Disney has also made proactive design changes over the years to convert attractions with more defined individual seating configurations to flatter, open bench styles. The intent behind those changes is straightforward: Disney wants as many guests as possible to be able to experience each attraction, and removing unnecessary physical barriers from the ride vehicle design is one of the most direct ways to accomplish that.
Test seats are available outside several attractions for guests who want to check compatibility before committing to the queue. Cast Members at attraction entrances are trained to handle those conversations with discretion. Disney’s overall approach treats size accommodation as a design challenge to be solved rather than a policy to be enforced at the point of boarding.
For guests who have experienced the Southwest situation and arrive at Walt Disney World with existing anxiety about how their body will be treated in public spaces, that design philosophy is worth knowing about in advance. The parks have put genuine thought into this, and it shows in the experience.
If you are flying Southwest to Disney World and have concerns about the Customer of Size policy, address them directly with the airline before your travel day rather than at the gate. And once you get through those park gates, know that Disney has been working to make sure the magic on the other side is as accessible as it can possibly be.
