400-pound man accuses Spirit Airlines of weight discrimination

Steve DeGrange is a large man, and he knows it. The Germantown, Maryland man stands more than six feet tall and weighs more than 400 pounds, so when he and his wife of 20 years booked an anniversary trip to Las Vegas, he purchased two airline seats for himself and a third one for her. The couple flew Spirit Airlines and, although their flight to Nevada was completely uneventful, on the trip back, DeGrange said the crew humiliated and discriminated against him due to his weight.

Tammy DeGrange told ABC7 that they had the same exit row seats for both flights — and even paid extra for a larger seat — but on the return trip, they were told that they would have to move to the rear of the plane. She said:

"That's when the nightmare began. The stewardess said, 'Don't get comfortable because you can't sit there'. Then she went on to say it was an FAA regulation."

According to the couple, the flight attendant told them that Steve could not sit in the exit row seat due to FAA regulations. Although the FAA does say that airline employees may determine which passengers can occupy those seats, the actual wording specifies that "age or size alone should not be a disqualifying factor."

"It was definitely discrimination," Tammy said. Rather than squeeze themselves into the rear of the cabin, they chose to get off the plane and pay $400 to fly home on a different airline.

To Spirit's credit, the airline did issue them a refund for the cost of their tickets and offered to pay for them to stay overnight in a hotel, as it could not guarantee that they could fly home within 24 hours. In a statement to ABC7, Spirit said that it was not about discrimination, but about safety; DeGrange requires a seatbelt extender, which could not be used on the seats that he had chosen. Spirit said:

"This was a safety related issue [...] Unfortunately, the seat he chose on this particular aircraft had inflatable restraints where the distance is greater between seats. The inflatable seatbelts cannot use an extender because it renders the seatbelt inoperable."

That same regulation is mentioned in Spirit's Contract of Carriage. Customers of Size are encouraged to read the information about seatbelt extensions and inflatable seatbelts, which clearly states that the former may not be used in any seat with the latter. Unfortunately, the DeGranges told ABC7 that they booked seats 1, 2 and 3 in Row 13 — and Row 13 is one of the four rows that is equipped with inflatable seatbelts on Spirit's A320 aircraft.