I had a horrible experience flying to Italy..

I was on the row seat.. this guy in the middle and then his wife at the window..
This man was SO BIG.. he came over into my "space".. It was a over night flight of course.. It was HORRIBLE.. my R arm was hugged to my body (NO way did I ever get near the arm rest) the whole time.. I was smushed into my L side arm rest. IT SUCKED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was very very uncomfortable.. Airline tickets over sea's are expensive enough.. but to then BARELY have room in a already cramped area??!!!

IT SUCKED !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It is the same principle. The expectation to unrestricted personal space is much the same as the right not to have to breath someone else's 20/day habit.

Oh jesus we've been here already. And secondly, nobody is saying you shouldn't have a right to unrestricted personal space. I feel like you don't understand the question, which is not "is it ok for someone to take all their seat and a third of yours too?"

After reading this.. I DID post my annoying experience.. AND voted.. (and I know your reply wasnt directed to me)

But I will further put.. YES.. they should pay for another seat.. Full price? maybe not.. Like how the kids get a discount.. OR maybe if there is a extra seat available.. change their seating around..
BUT why should the airlines loose their "precious" dollars cause someone IS over weight?

Should someone obese or just very large who does not fit in their seat be required to buy two? - Yes (along with 58 other people). Obese is in the wording of your question - I'm not surprised that the debate is revolving around the issue of obesity.

If you can't sit in your assigned seat or get the seat belt around your body - you're (first and foremost) a safety liability to yourself and other passengers. No I don't think they should make concessions to bigger people because it would be cost prohibitive to the airline - and would raise ticket prices significantly. I don't believe its fair to everyone else to have to pay extra to subsidise the cost of travel for a few large or obese people.

More than that - do we really want to broadly categorise the overweight with the disabled?

Go back about 3-4 pages & read my replies to that (loaded) question....

It just seems that whatever anyone says the comments are being used as a judgement on people's perceptions of 'large' people.

Since we can't get off that argument - it would not be inaccurate to suggest that one of the leading causes of obesity (obesity being mentioned in the poll question) is poor diet and lack of exercise.

Perhaps I'm the only one wonder if anyone here was in situation where they had to buy a second seat? I'd really like to hear more about their experience. I'd also like to know how common this actually is.

I think fat people should buy two seats. as a former gate agent. if we had extra seats I would not charge extra to the passenger.. but would advise them on their return trip they may have to purchase an extra seat.

where didja think i got the idea from

Told to buy 2 seats, Exeter woman sues Southwest, claims racial discrimination


Physicians concerned about obesity warn that expanding waistlines in America are posing an unexpected cost - to airlines.

The report, featured in this month's American Journal of Preventive Medicine, said that weight gain in the 1990s, estimated at approximately 10 pounds per person, required the use of an additional 350 million gallons of jet fuel in 2000.

That represents about 2 percent of the total volume of jet fuel used that year.
source

Older story but interesting:
http://www.naafa.org/Convention2002/airlines.html

Yaaaay, the race card again

300-330 lbs and it's the race card...



Well seems like she has her bases covered!

actually, that pic wasn't too bad

Well that's completely ridiculous. Nobody is going to ask people to buy 2 seats because of their race.

http://www.overlawyered.com/2006/02/jury_c...e_not_vict.html

Agreed. They should buy 2 seats because they won't fit in the seat.

Oh my gosh, you remind me more and more of Charles every day!

You asked the question - I'm sorry that you don't like the answer, but I can hardly be dishonest about it.

Political correctness about being 'fair' to obese people isn't going to solve the problem that the seats aren't designed for them.

It was the style of your post, not what you said, that reminded me of Charles. Pretty soon you will be referring to things as "such"!

But I asked the question, and it's not that I "didn't like your answer," and I half-agree with you. I do think you have some prejudices that you aren't willing to admit, but I don't think someone in your airplane seat is your responsibility. I was expecting disagreement, so I don't understand why you think I didn't like your answer, just because I don't agree with your style.

I wouldn't call it prejudice - the question was framed in terms of obesity to begin with. Obviously there is a wide latitude in obesity - but if we're talking about an obese person in a position where one seat isn't enough, then it stands to reason that they're going to be impacting on their neighbours. Ultimately its a safety issue as much as it is about 'inconvenience'.

Alex, are you a licensed psychiatrist? I'm wondering just how it is you assume erekose has prejudices she is unwillng to admit. The issue is not liking or disliking obese people, it is strictly a question of whether they will fit in the seat they purchased, and what to do if they don't. I just don't get the assumptions running through this thread that there must be unadmitted prejudices behind people's views.

Whatever comments were made I would certainly attach a "present company excluded" disclaimer to it. Its not like everyone I know has a perfect physique - but (surprisingly) "when are you going to lose some weight" doesn't factor into conversations I have. Its simply irrelevant to me.

That said its hard not to focus on it as a negative when you're stuck in an enclosed space with someone. As I said at the outset people are generally not happy when they fly-long haul coach class, in fact I don't know anyone who is. Approaching the argument from the mind-set of being in that situation is of course a little different to approaching it from a detached perspective and a desire to be politically correct. One is honest, the other is not.

I am a "he" BTW

Once again, as the Southwest lady(?) said, it's cuz I'm black or fat or a woman. Anything BUT admitting she is too.darn.fat!

Sorry Could have sworn I'd read otherwise a while back...must have you confused with someone else

Hm, no, I'm not a psychiatrist and I'm not reading into fish's emotions. I'm just reading into his anti-fat jokes throughout the thread. That's it!

I believe I mentioned "Jabba the Hut" and "Beach Ball" in connection with one or two people who inconvenienced me on several transatlantic and domestic flights. Again as I said - they were arseholes for reasons other than being overweight - I don't generally consider myself shallow enough to judge on appearances, but lets review. When you have a 300lb guy sit next to you (he's in the middle seat, you're in the window) who is:

1) Pressing you against the window, and then asks me to move over because he hasn't got enough room.
2) Grumbles and complains when you say you need the bathroom - refuses to get up, and finally puts his seat aaalll the way back (thereby pissing off the people behind) so I can clamber around him while trying not to pull the hair of the lady in front.

What words would best describe such a person? I can hardly expect to be sympathetic to his 'feelings' when he has all but ignored mine... And I would also suggest that when a person has shown themselves to be a complete tosser - that person's exterior tends to factor into your assessment of their already rotten character.

So hardly "anti" fat. And hardly "throughout the thread".

Perhaps I can ask again - why did you start this poll if you didn't think people would respond to the obese part in the wording of your question? There's a fairly heavy implication that the people we're talking about are overweight and that this is the reason they would need 2 seats... That is what people have responded to. And where have we gotten? That 'yes' they should buy more than 1 seat - you seemed to agree with this, unless I remember incorrectly.

OMG! That dude was on my last flight to Germany!

I think the fact that we all suffer transatlantic (or transpacific or trans...anyway) flights for our loved one says enough about our relationship to make us all immediately qualify for the approval of our petitions. But I digress.

I am certainly not tiny, I'm a happy size 8/10 and though I'm not huge, I am terribly uncomfortable in those airplane seats, and I'm sure that at times my bum leaks over.. A heavier person may have a hard time with the seat size, but I don't think they should be required to purchase two seats...unless they "spill over" into another person's seat. There's a big difference b/n a bum slightly going over the "line" of the seats, and the guy described above (who really, I think was on my flight too). If they take up more than their own seat, then get two. Plus, they're more comfortable (and so is everyone else).

Haven't read this whole thread-so if I am repeating stuff already said apologies.....

If a large person needs 2 seats to safely fly then YES they should pay extra. Not only is the airline losing revenue on the extra seat by not charging them, but typically airlines charge cargo shippers by the weight of the item ( there is only so much weight an aircraft can carry)....The heavier the " cargo" the more the shipper gets charged...therefore it should be the same for passengers....They are shipping themselves from A to B. It should also be remembered that passengers are referred to as " the load" and the weight of them and their luggage is figured into the operating costs of the flight in question.
It makes economic sense that the more space you take up and weight you add the more you pay.

It's not discrimination, it's economics IMO.

i think you're being overly sensitive

Embraer is indeed the brazilian airplane industry.

I forgot to say, yeah, people who will end up using more space than the seat allows should buy two tickets, and no, it's not discrimination, but airplanes are uncomfortable as it is, travelling long hours in a plane, with your seat space reduced 'cus the passenger next to you is too big and end up using most of your space as well as his is definitly not good.

Indeed, Embraer makes very comfy aircraft. Their engines on the 130-145 line are a little weak but it is very comfy.

Ok, I am a BBW (big beautiful woman for those that don't know) ANYHOW... It is quite unfair to judge all larger people as being lazy..or just FAT as one said. Some people cannot help how they are due to medical conditions..and people generalizing others that way is in fact discriminating. I for one can't afford the 2000 dollar price tags on buisness first class air fare...when I've flown to the UK for under 600 in economy. I tend to keep to myself..and in my own seat..if I do bump someone's arm..I apologize. I for one had booked my seat..and rechecked it before I left..It said the seats next to me were empty. I get on the plane..and 2 elderly people are sitting in the seats next to me.

Now, I use to be quite fit and very active. I use to play alot of sports and lift weights..even pushing more than the guys with my legs....but...When I had my children from my previous marriage, I became real ill, and could have died...before even giving birth from what the doctor told my mother.. My organs began shutting down, and I had gained alot of weight from it...I had preeclampsia.....because I had the same illness with both pregnancies, and had to have emergency cesarean sections..and I can no longer have any more children. I've had to have another major surgery 2 years ago because of complications with an organ in relation to the preeclampsia.

I don't think it's fair to charge double..especially when they charge an arm and a leg as it is... some of us just can't afford it....the airlines do in fact need to find a solution to make everyone happy...it's their duty to do so..that's all part of customer service.

The only people making a fuss are the ones who might have to pay more. Those same people cry discrimination, while smaller people don't.

I guess the bottom line is, you can't please everyone all the time.

sure you can. scoot over

punk a$$!

Sounds to me like the only ones making a fuss are the ones who know what it's like.

Walk a mile, man... walk a mile...

What it's like to be squished.....? I don't think anyone has paid for an extra seat here...

Hmm there should be an other option here. So I could not vote. I mean it depends on how big. I think a bigger person should upgrade to 1st class, where the seats are bigger...but at the same time, the seats seems to me have gotten smaller and smaller. But there should be some type of arrangements, like paying some extra for getting 2 seats, on flights where it is not full.

This is, like, the best thread ever!

Round 'n round we go, where it stops, nobody knows!

Strange...I expected to think everybody was so fat here after six years in North Yorkshire, but I have to say that people in Texas don't seem any fatter than people in northern England.

Haha, I thought the same thing! So did my fiance, he kept saying he expected everyone around where I lived to be super fat I think N England is worse!

I voted yes. I paid for my seat and I dont think I should have to share it! THough I could see how the airlines could abuse this rule. The vast majority of the population isn't large enough to warrent another seat.

I'm sick of hearing people say "It's not their fault". Really?? Are you serious? EVERYONE can control their own weight. In fact, I think tickets should be priced according to passenger weight. How do you like them apples? hey, you asked....

You obviously didn't read the whole thread did ya?

He's on a roll, bumping old polls. Hehe.

I just noticed that...post boosting at its best, eh?

at least he is posting a comment and not just one of these... etc.....

i say we tackle him & sit on him!