California Woman Says Southwest Airlines Refused To Let Her Board Denver-To-Indianapolis Flight After She Didn’t Pay $406 For An Additional Ticket

A California woman says Southwest Airlines refused to let her board a flight unless she paid hundreds of dollars for an additional seat.

Content creator and stand-up comedian Asia Chardonay (@alldisbody) shared a storytime video about an experience she says has made her swear off flying with Southwest Airlines as a “customer of size.” Her video has garnered over 240,300 views.

In the clip, Chardonay explains she had been traveling from Los Angeles back to Indianapolis after attending a comedy festival audition. The trip required a layover in Denver, and, at first, everything about the journey seemed routine.

“So this is a storytime on how I will never fly with Southwest,” she says.

Like many travelers, she checked in for her flight the day before departure. While her initial boarding pass appeared normal, she says she noticed something unusual with the second leg of her trip.

“For some reason, my second boarding pass wasn’t coming up,” she explains. The screen instead instructed her to check with airline staff at the gate.

She says she arrived at Los Angeles International Airport around 7am for her 8am flight and approached the gate desk to sort out the issue. While she was there, she also asked whether the flight was full.

“She said, ‘Yes, it’s a completely full flight,’” Chardonay says the gate agent told her.

At that point, the conversation took an unexpected turn. According to the creator, the agent began asking questions about whether she had any trouble fitting comfortably into airline seats.

“She started to ask me real polite, like, ‘Miss Asia, when you sit on the plane, do you have any issues?’” she says.

Before the employee could finish the question, she says she clarified that she could sit comfortably.

“I said, ‘I can get the arm seats down, baby girl,’” she says. “Don’t you worry about that.”

The employee confirmed that the armrests going down was the key requirement.

“Cool. No problem,” the worker said, according to Chardonay.

Believing the matter was settled, she returned to the waiting area to relax until boarding began.

Southwest Airlines Gate Agents Asked Her To Purchase A Second Seat

About 10 to 15 minutes later, Chardonay says her name was suddenly called over the airport intercom.

At first, she assumed it had something to do with the boarding pass issue or a seat reassignment.

“I’m thinking maybe they found a row with extra space,” she says.

Instead, when she approached the desk, she was greeted by the same employee, but this time along with a supervisor.

“She said my supervisor mentioned that it would be safer and better for you to go ahead and purchase a second seat,” the gate agent reportedly told her.

Chardonay says she was immediately confused. “I said, ‘Purchase another seat?’”

The supervisor explained the request was related to “safety concerns,” though she says she struggled to understand the reasoning.

“Y’all said it was a full flight,” she recalls responding. “So where did this extra seat come from?”

The situation escalated when the gate agent began looking up the price of an additional ticket.

“She’s typing away and says, ‘It’ll be $406.95,’” Chardonay recalls.

The creator says she was stunned by the amount.

“Who are you talking to, ma’am? $406 for who?” she remembers thinking.

When she asked what would happen if she didn’t purchase the seat, she says the answer was blunt.

“’Well, we can’t let you board the plane,’” she recalls the staff telling her.

Not only was she denied boarding, but she says the airline canceled her reservation entirely.

“They went ahead and canceled my flight,” she explains.

Adding insult to injury, she says the airline initially offered her a travel credit instead of a refund.

“A credit? As if I’m gonna ever book with y’all again?” she exclaims.

She pushed for a full refund, which she says the supervisor eventually processed, though she was told it could take up to 30 days.

“Thirty days?” she asks. “It’ll be faster for me to dispute it with my bank.”

She Booked Another Airline Instead

The creator believes the situation might have unfolded differently if she had never approached the desk in the first place.

“My thing was, I felt like y’all intentionally did this,” she says.

She says she asked the supervisor what would have happened if she had simply boarded normally without speaking to the agent earlier.

“He said, ‘I would have approached you,’” she recalls. “Excuse me? You would have done what, sir?”

Chardonay says she ultimately had to scramble to find a new flight out of the Los Angeles area. She ended up traveling to Burbank Airport and purchasing a ticket with Delta.

“My ticket actually cost more than what they were gonna charge me through Southwest,” she says. “But I didn’t give a damn, ‘cause I’d rather give Delta my money than Southwest my money, and for making me feel how you made me feel.”

After boarding her replacement flight, she says she had no issues fitting in the seat or lowering the armrests.

“I asked for the seatbelt extension like I normally do, and that was it,” she explains. “The lady next to me looked comfortable as hell.”

The experience, however, left her feeling frustrated.

“They just sent your girl on her way,” she says.

The creator says situations like this could be handled more respectfully. In her view, airlines should provide a private area where passengers can test seating accommodations rather than being questioned publicly at the gate.

“What I think they should do is have a private room with a seat,” she suggests. “If the armrest goes down, don’t say nothing to me about an extra ticket.”

She ended the video by encouraging viewers to share the story widely and tag the airline.

“Let me know if I’m tripping,” she tells viewers. “If I’m not tripping, tag Southwest.”

The creator even called for a boycott of the airline among plus-size travelers and their supporters.

“If you big, if you used to be big, if you love somebody that’s big… we boycotting Southwest,” she concludes.

What’s Happening Here?

Chardonay isn’t the first passenger to report being allegedly mistreated by Southwest Airlines as a plus-size traveler. Other creators have shared similar stories over the past couple of months.

These stories have coincided with Southwest’s updated policy on what the airline calls its “customers of size.” Previously, plus-size passengers flying with Southwest Airlines could purchase an extra seat ahead of time and, after the trip was over, request a refund for it.

As of January 2026, however, those who may need extra space must proactively purchase a second seat and are not guaranteed a refund. The condition now is that there must have been at least one additional seat available on the flight.

The situation has also caused confusion because there are no clear outlines as to who is considered a “customer of size.” Southwest Airlines describes the category as “customers who encroach upon the neighboring seat(s),” which some passengers say is subjective.

Many travelers who weren’t aware of the previous policy are now reporting being stopped at the check-in counter by staff who ask them to purchase an additional seat in order to board. For some passengers, this means the cost of flying could effectively double if a flight is full.

Commenters On Her Side

In the comments section, some viewers shared stories of their own, and others expressed frustration with the policy change.

“They made my mom buy an extra seat and then put the other seat across the plane,” one user shared. “File a complaint.”

“I am so sorry!” another wrote. “SW went from being the best to THE WORST.”

“I SO want to see a class action lawsuit!!!” a third exclaimed.

BroBible has reached out to Southwest Airlines via email and Chardonay via Instagram messages for comment.