In September of 2012 my husband, Alan, and I traveled to Reno, Nevada to watch his cousin play college football. We had a great flight, a wonderful time at the game, and two full days of sightseeing and adventures. When we got to the Reno Airport for our return flight, we checked our bags and went through security just like before. However, when we went to our gate to ask about possibly sitting together on the flight, the gate attendant looked at me, made a quick judgement and told me I would have to buy another ticket for an additional seat. I am sure the look on my face was hurt mixed with absolute shock, disbelief, and tears. I asked her what she meant, and she said that because of my size I would need to buy an additional ticket for another seat, and she was puzzled about how I got to Reno without buying two seats for myself. Pure mortification set in and I began to get defensive. I let her know that I sat in the middle seat at the back of the plane b etween two male strangers and made it to Reno from Houston just fine in that seat. She was still going on about how I would need to buy a second ticket for a second seat. She even looked over at her colleague with a confused look on her face that said she could not believe I had not bought the second ticket on our trip from Houston to Reno. After many exchanges and judgements, they began to back down based on how upset I was. I told her that I was not going to buy another ticket and that we would just sit in the seats we had been assigned. As it turned out, Alan and I sat together with an empty middle seat between us. What a sad display of customer service and a cruel example of weight bias.
