Too fat for your seat? Pay more!

[jesslla]

http://blogs.citypages.com/blotter/2009/04/united_oversize.php

United Airlines is following in Southwest Airlines footsteps and are requiring passengers to purchase two coach seats or upgrade to business class if they are too fat. Even though it only takes 15 passengers to pay for a flight and the airlines are the ones who have consistently installed smaller and smaller seats in order to cram as many people as possible into a single flight.

I do understand that other people don't want to have their personal space invaded by a stranger sitting next to them. I like to go to the movie theater early to watch the other people take their seats (and to see all of the slides/ads) and unless the theater is packed for a hot new release people don't generally sit in the same row as other moviegoers. They don't usually sit in the row right in front of someone else.

The comments are especially LULZy and ignorant. If you have a 60 inch waist how dare you fly 1000 miles! Just walk that distance fatty! 

[Spacecadet]

I'll tell you who infringes on other peoples' seats - just about ANY man, that's who. Even the skinny ones put their arms all over the armrest. Unless you really want to snuggle up to a complete stranger, the only available option is to try to scrunch up as small as possible. They do this in cinemas too. At least in a cinema you're probably not trying to read a book or eat something using a knife and fork. Every time I fly, I tell myself to assert MY personal space if my neighbour is a man, but I can't bring myself to do it, and end up trying to tuck my elbows into my hipbones.

Sure, if your butt can't fit into an airline seat with the armrest down, you probably need to plan ahead and think about the options available, but business class seats are NOT that much bigger than economy.

[shd]

I'll tell you who infringes on other peoples' seats - just about ANY man, that's who. Even the skinny ones put their arms all over the armrest. Unless you really want to snuggle up to a complete stranger, the only available option is to try to scrunch up as small as possible.

My sister is a nurse and recommends for this problem any nursing textbook that has a really good photo spread on the subject of skin lesions.

[Lorelei]

Put one of your arms in a sling, and wince in pain whenever your seatmate intrudes on your personal space, or hold a hook in one hand so it looks like an artificial limb, as people get really hypersensitive about being caught noticing disabilities.

I suppose my question is: how FAT are we talking, here? Like 200-250 pounds? Or, "knock down a wall, rent a forklift" fat? I wouldn't want to deny either person a chance to travel, but I also wouldn't want to be stuck next to the really big person, or have to climb over them in the event we had to use an emergency exit. If they are THAT big, the only place wide enough to give them girth room is likely to be next to an exit.

Even when I was underweight and even before airlines started incrementally making seats tinier, airline seats were not comfortable. My complaint was mostly due to long limbs. When your arms and legs are long, it makes you ache to sit folded up like a beach umbrella or a preying mantis for 8 hours.

Honestly, I have avoided air travel since 9/11, because I don't like my stuff pawed through and my shampoo and nail clippers being regarded as terrorist weapons. Also, airlines are inconsistent about whether ferrets are allowed.

Even before 9/11, I saw road trips as a chance to be blissfully alone with my music, operating on my own time and schedule, taking my own routes, and so on. I'd driven from Atlanta to Chicago (two days, stop off in Indiana), from ATL to New Orleans, from NC to Nevada (three days) and back (four days), from Savannah to the Blue Ridge Mountains, from ATL to Tampa, and ATL to Cincinnati, for instance. My car at the time was a Geo Metro convertible that got an umptillion miles per gallon. Alas, it died after an asshat rear-ended me. 6-8 hours on the road isn't too bad. I prefer not to exceed 4-5, though.

I also prefer to drive really late at night, when I am often one of only a handful of other cars on the road. Since I've had idiots total two of my cars by running into me, and more idiots sideswipe my current car while it was PARKED, there may be some accident avoidance going on there, too.

[Gypchan]

My husband is a big guy. I am talking 6ft 6.5in tall and built like a linebacker who has let himself go.
He hates traveling by airplane if only because the seats don't fit a guy like him very comfortably.
Now, he would fly for business and would tell me that international flights in business class were niiiiiice. Flying business class for a plain ol' jump from one American city to another he would dread the ones that flew for longer periods of time. Poor guy, all scrunched up and not even able to fold down that little tray to hold his beverage. And forget about taking a nap!

Flying with him was, well, cozy and snug. He'd leave the armrest up when I was next to him, but I don't know what he would do on flights where I was not with him.
I always prayed that it was not a full flight so I could get some breathing room but I am not a skinny minnie either.

Now that we have 2 kids, I think he is planning to bring back the days of the family road trip.
We plan to drive from Indianapolis to Philly for Thanksgiving this year. We're going to pack up the minivan, invest in a portable DVD player and such, and hit the road!

Still, what is with men sitting with their legs all spread out and their arms on both armrests?
And I agree that no one wants to sit next to anyone else in a movie theater unless it is a friend or it's a packed house and they are forced to.

[jendajen]

Hm. I once flew non-stop from Seatac to Heathrow between two very large people, like, they stuck me in between them because I was skinny and "didn't need as much room". That was not fun. I haven't flown in years, mainly because it's such an uncomfortable and uncontrolled experience!

Personally I think if they are going to charge so much for seats to begin with they need to make them larger and more comfortable. THEN, and only then, if people can't fit in one seat, go ahead and charge for a second seat. I mean really, those seats should fit at least the average sized adult. The last time I was actually comfortable on a plane I was 14 years old. Given the choice I'd rather drive 20 hours than fly for 5 just because planes suck.