Disney Tips Your Guide To A Great Disney Vacation
Flying to Walt Disney World is supposed to feel like the beginning of something. You have spent weeks, maybe months, building an itinerary. Dining reservations locked in, Lightning Lane passes mapped out, resort check-in timed to the hour. By the time you get to the airport, the hardest work is supposed to be behind you.
For larger travelers booking Southwest Airlines right now, that assumption is worth revisiting before you ever print a boarding pass.
Southwest has been in the news for a string of policy changes over the past year. The end of open seating. Cleanliness complaints. And now, another shift to its Customer of Size policy that is generating real conversation, real frustration, and real viral moments on TikTok that Disney-bound passengers should probably know about before travel day.
Here is where things stand.
Southwest’s Customer of Size Policy Has Changed — Again
Southwest originally updated its Customer of Size policy on January 27, 2026, requiring passengers who may not fit within a single seat to proactively purchase an additional seat before travel. The policy gave Southwest the authority to make that call “in its sole discretion,” with no defined measurements or objective criteria beyond potential encroachment on neighboring seats.
That triggered immediate backlash.
So Southwest walked it back. Sort of. The revised policy now encourages gate agents to offer any available open seats to passengers who need more room — at no charge — rather than requiring an upfront purchase in every case. It sounds like a step forward. The catch is that this only works if extra seats exist. On a full flight, there are no free seats to give, and Southwest has acknowledged that in those situations, they will try to rebook the passenger on a later departure.
If you have non-refundable park tickets for a specific date, “a later flight” is not a real solution.
Southwest still recommends that passengers who need extra space book a second seat ahead of time. If a gate agent ends up offering you a complimentary seat anyway, you can get a refund on the pre-purchased one within 90 days. In a statement, Southwest said the updated policy was designed “to create a more consistent and seamless travel experience for customers who require an additional seat.”
Consistent and seamless, however, is not quite what some passengers have experienced on the ground.
Two Passengers, Two Viral Stories
Erika DeBoer, 38, was flying Southwest from Omaha to Las Vegas on February 6 when a gate employee told her at bag check that she would need to purchase an extra seat. When she asked for clarification, the employee repeated the same phrase: “safety and comfort” of other passengers. “The part that lingers the most is the words used,” she told PEOPLE. “They just kept repeating it like robots without any care for the actual situation.”
DeBoer paid for an upgraded window seat to keep her travel plans intact. On the return flight home to Omaha, no one flagged her at all. Southwest later issued a refund for the extra ticket and the upgraded seat, plus a $150 voucher. As of her interview with PEOPLE, she was still waiting for actual clarification on what the policy requires.
“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.”
Grace Simpson’s situation played out just days later, and in some ways it was even more jarring. She had already flown a Southwest segment from Norfolk, Virginia to Baltimore on February 10 without any issue. At the gate for her connecting flight to San Diego, a supervisor pulled her aside and told her a gate agent had flagged her as a potential customer of size.
“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 moved her to an empty back-row seat at no cost. She did not file a formal complaint.
But the experience stuck with her. “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,” Simpson told PEOPLE. “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 added another layer. “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.”
Both women were clear that their objection was not to the existence of a customer of size policy. It was to the absence of any objective standard for applying it.
“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.”
Simpson called for transparency at the point of purchase. “If a policy could require someone to purchase an additional seat or potentially deplane, it should be clearly communicated at the point of purchase,” she told PEOPLE. “There should be a prompt, a checkbox or a clearly visible notice — something that ensures customers are aware before they finalize their ticket.”
When PEOPLE reached out to Southwest, the airline stated that its “policy is well defined” on its website and noted that the approach “is in line with airline industry standards.”
What This Means for a Disney Vacation Specifically
A gate confrontation does not just delay a flight. When you are headed to Disney World, it can collapse an entire trip.
Non-refundable park tickets tied to a specific date. Advance dining reservations that cannot be easily moved. A resort check-in with no flexibility. The financial and logistical stakes of a Disney vacation are genuinely different from a last-minute weekend trip, and a missed or delayed flight on the front end can create a cascade that affects everything downstream.
If you are a larger traveler booking Southwest for a Disney trip, review the Customer of Size policy directly on Southwest’s website before purchasing. Consider proactively booking a second seat if there is any uncertainty, knowing that a refund is available within 90 days if a complimentary seat opens up. And contact Southwest with specific questions before travel rather than encountering the policy for the first time at the gate on the morning of your trip.
How Disney Handles It Once You Get Through the Gates
Disney has made consistent, design-level choices to accommodate guests of varying body types. Classic attractions like it’s a small world and Pirates of the Caribbean use open boat-style seating without fixed individual seats. Omnimover attractions including The Haunted Mansion and Journey Into Imagination use continuous bench-style vehicles rather than bucket seats with defined individual dimensions.
Disney has also proactively updated attraction seating over the years, moving toward flatter and more open configurations that reduce the likelihood of guests being turned away at the boarding platform. 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.
The contrast with what DeBoer and Simpson experienced at Southwest is not a subtle one. Disney has built the accommodation into the design of the product. Southwest is currently asking individual gate agents to make judgment calls without objective criteria, and the February stories suggest that system is not working consistently for everyone.
If you are planning a Disney trip and Southwest is your carrier, go in informed. Read the policy, ask the questions you need to ask, and build in extra time on travel day if there is any uncertainty. The magic you have planned for is absolutely worth protecting — and knowing what you might face before you get to the airport is the best way to make sure nothing gets in the way of it.
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