“I’m normally not the type of person to complain, but …”
Airline passengers put up with a lot these days, including bad food, cramped conditions, high ticket prices, and the ever-present fear of being detained by the TSA. But they draw the line when it comes to their seats.
Being denied a whole seat is enough to turn the most cooperative customer into a complainer. That’s what happened to Ashley Bolton after she boarded a recent Delta Air Lines flight, only to learn she’d be sharing it with an extra-large passenger.
Here’s how she described the ordeal in a letter to Delta:
I’m normally not the type of person to complain, but I had a terrible experience on a flight yesterday morning from Denver to Atlanta.
I was seated in seat 34C, and was actually very excited that I was able to get an aisle seat. Unfortunately, an obese woman who was going stand-by was seated next to me.
I felt bad for her — she even apologized to me that she had the seat next to me. She easily took up 1/4 to a 1/3 of my seat in addition to her own. I could not put down my arm rest to listen to any of the entertainment, and had to spend 3 hours with her body pressed up against mine — not something I am comfortable with even when I know the person.
The experience left Bolton scarred.
When my right leg was forced to go partially under the arm rest on the right hand side of me, there was a screw sticking out of the underside of this seat, and when I moved my leg to get out of my seat, it ripped the brand new pants I was wearing.
Bolton asked to be compensated for the damaged pants. Here’s how Delta responded to her letter.
Dear Ms. Bolton,
Thank you for your e-mail describing your recent experience with Delta.We apologize for the inconvenience and appreciate your taking the time to share the details.
As a public carrier, we accommodate all passengers who are acceptable according to federal regulations. It is disturbing to learn from your letter that the individual seated next to you caused you discomfort.
When making reservations, many customers recognize their own need for more space and request to purchase two seats. They are charged double the applicable fare they would pay for one seat. Whether a reservation is made directly with Delta, a travel agency, or via the Internet, we are unaware of the need for two seats unless the customer volunteers the information at the time of booking. Therefore, situations surface at departure that must be addressed.
When this occurs, we expect our personnel to try to rearrange seating whenever possible. Please note you may request, from the flight attendant, alternative seating prior to departure. It is Delta’s intention to ensure a safe and comfortable flight for all passengers and our staff will do all possible to assist you with your request.
We apologize if our representatives have not consistently applied these guidelines during your travels with Delta. Your comments will assist us in our continued efforts to provide service that is unparalleled in the airline industry.
While we regret your disappointment, Delta does not give refunds in situations of this kind. Nevertheless, to demonstrate our concern, we
will be sending our $100.00 Transportation Credit, which may be used toward future Delta travel.Again, thank you for writing. We appreciate your selection of Delta and will always welcome the opportunity to be of service.
Sincerely,
Susan P. Bethel
Manager
Customer Care
Nice letter, but it doesn’t answer Bolton’s question. How about those pants?
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29 Responses to ““I’m normally not the type of person to complain, but …””
Please share your thoughts...
How about THIS strategy.
Contacts the Atlanta FAA Flight Standards District Office which oversees the operation and inspection of Delta Airlines - Address and phone # here:
Atlanta FSDO
Campus Building Suite 2-110
1701 Columbia Ave.
College Park, Georgia 30337
Phone: (404) 305-7200 Fax: (404) 305-7215
Office Hours: 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., Monday - Friday
Here is what you say [and do NOT accept the name and title of ANYONE EXCEPT the Operations Inspector who is responsible for Delta - if you complain to him, he needs to inspect and respond]:
“On [date'] Delta airlines operated flight ____ in an unsafe manneer by failing to ensure that all persons were able to exit the aircraft in the event of emergency.
I was a passenger in seat 34C, and Delta sat an obese person in seat 34D such that that obese person prevented me from easily exiting my seat. Flight attendants on teh flight were aware of this violation of federal air regulations and did nothing to prevent my inability to adequately exit my seat. The person located in seat 34F was trapped and unable to exit the aircraft at all given the girth of the person who was blocking the space between the seat backs.
Further, the obese person placed my life at risk by not allowing me to properly be seated in the chair, which meant that inthe event of an emergency, I would not be able to properly brace. Once again, Delta flight attendants refused to take any action on that flight. When the danger was pointed out to Delta in a letter, they completely ignored the safety aspects and failed to respond to the issue at all. - Sincerely - Ima Passenger.
When the operations inspector gets the letter, s’he will be forced to act - the action will likely be setting up a meeting with Delta officers. He will inspect their manuals and their training, speak to the flight attendant and captain of the flight. Delta will be forced to spend thousands of dollars on lawyer and employee time dealing with the FAA inspection even if no fines or other action is taken. The Inspector SHOULD ask for a remediation plan to ensure that passengers are not trapped in their seats by fat people.
The FAA officer has to respond.
Be sure to send a copy of the letter to the PRESIDENT of Delta - I am willing to bet you will get a personal call from someone and something other than standard answer number 7. . . .
If the FAA guys does nothing, go to the FAA.gov website and send a copy of your letter in 90 days to the inspector general and tell him that nothing has been done and the safety complaint swept under the rug. That’ll get you a call from the ATL FSDO. . . .
Americans are getting bigger, the population of the developed world is geting bigger, but Airline seats aren’t…It sure is easy to blame those fat people…we look at them with disgust in our eyes, we complain about them in the travel industry and we even try to legislate against them, the law in W. Virginia trying to disallow restraunts from serving obese people. Until there is a way to “build” skinnier people cheaply and safely, i suggest building accomodations to size. But i know you’re out there saying…”but I dont need the extra room…” It’s always about you isn’t it? According to all the pop culture studies the “large” people outnumber the small yet we cater to the smaller crowd, why is that? Because we HATE fat people, and luckily for us fat people are a nice safe niche that its still O.K…heck its even encouraged…to hate. But seriously, onward genetic engineering onward until we get perfection, blonde hair blue eyed perfect teeth size two women and broad shouldered winning smile trim waistlined men, can’t wait for that can you? I cant wait till I can design my offspring right down to their musical aptitude and scholoastic performance. But the question then will be what would they do with us…we un-enlightened non-perfect people?…Maybe in their moral upstanding goodness, which we engineered them to have, they will find a place for us…maybe a camp, or reservation somewhere, because the flying spaghetti monster knows they wouldnt want to have to “share space” with the non-perfect.
Maybe she should leave the fat person out of it and simply ask for a refund for the pants that were damaged by a defective seat.
I experienced something similar to this, except the man sitting next to me wasn’t obese at all. Instead, he was about 6′9″ and 300 pounds, with HUGE shoulders. If he wasn’t a football player at some point in time, collegiate teams around the US sorely missed out. Now I’m a slim woman, but I’m also tall (5′10″) and we had a terrible time fitting into the two seats in the row. He could not fit his legs straight ahead, so he had to sprawl them to each side, and his shoulders were so wide that they also came across into my seat. Just to complete the terrible space crunch, we were the last row before the bathroom. So I would take the half of my seat that he wasn’t using (no, the armrest wouldn’t go down), and spread into the aisle as much as possible. However, when people started lining up to use the bathroom (yes, they actually formed a line!), I was wedged between this man and some obese woman’s backside. I had no where to move and the flight attendant laughed at how squished I was.
I contacted United about it, and they basically told me that it’s out of their hands because they had already sold the first class seats, so they couldn’t move me or the man (he needed it more, to be honest). Instead, they gave me a $75 voucher. How worthless is that?
These seats are made for someone 5′8″ and 140 pounds. When a woman who is 5′10″ and well under 140 pounds has a hard time fitting her legs into the seats, don’t you think that’s a sign the airlines have gone too far? Come on!!! I’m sick of sharing my tiny seat with other people. Not to mention the bruises I get from the jerk in front of me tilting his seat back all the way, right on to my knees for 3 hours….
And Carlo - exactly how do you think she is going to get Delta’s attention about her pants?
Did you read the response from DL? They ignored the part about her pants. Intentionally I would think. She askd them nicely, and they ignored her.
In the real world where the rest of us live we generally treat someone nicely and with respect and kindness when we ask they they do the right thing. When they do not do the right thing, then the normal reaction is to step up the response.
I think that I have a properly escalated response for the original poster. . . . get someone else involved who will cause them lots of trouble and be a large thorn in their side. This way = something happens.
If enough of people stop just taking abuse from airlines and travel companies and actually react intelligently and cause a big stink everything they ignore customer service, then, the focus will change.
You know, Carlo, in this case, nothing would happen to Delta from the Operations and Safety inspector if they just would have added to the meaningless apology - here is a check for $75 to cover your pants. We will locate the aircraft and fix the screw that caused the tear so someone else will not have the same thing happen.
But they did not do that Carlo - they tried to make the problem go away. Now, $100 voucher is nice, but did you know that the ONLY way to redeem the voucher is directly from the airline? You need to go to the AIRPORT to redeem it. Just want everyone wants to d0 - droive out to the airport and spend $20 in gas and parking to save $50 - because - DL does NOT waive the $10 ticketing fee since a human being was involved. Great gift, huh?
I ride a commuter train every day. I am a petite woman - 5′2″ and weigh about 130 pounds. I never take up my entire seat. I always place my bag in my lap or in the overhead rack. At least 3 out of 5 of my commute days, an overly large person sits in the seat next to me, with their larger arse taking up part of my seat. I am thus forced to squish closer to the window so that my legs are not touching the other passenger’s, which I feel is inappropriate. Last week, a larger woman sat next to me and kept elbowing me. She was taking up 1/4 of my seat. At one point she actually asked me to move over. I told her no. She looked me up and down and said, ” Well you are quite uncooperative. You could move over a bit more. I’m sure you have some room.” I was appalled!
I had a similar situation to Aimee, also on a United Flight, except I had the middle seat. I’m 5′9″ and was flying from LA to Philadelphia…not my idea of fun. The only solace I could find in the trip was the person to my right was my boyfriend who didn’t mind too much that I was squished right next to him. The last row of a plane is not a fun place to be next to an obese gentleman for five hours.
Joe F. And Lauren;
You are upset at the problem and i agree it isnt fair, but you seem to want to cast aspersions at the “overly large” instead of where they belong, the manufacturers of the seats, and the transport vehicles. The reason people are “crammed” is because the manufacturers crunched numbers and came up with an “average” and built their seats according to that average. My personal feeling is that they probably build seats according to an outdated average that allows them to have more seats in a smaller space allowing for more passengers to be “crammed” in granting them more monetary gain from each trip because of the larger number of passengers. It would be interesting to find out when the airline “standards” for seat design were done, i’d bet it was some time in the 1950’s or 60’s. And we all know that the average size of an American is significantly larger than that now(and i dont just mean that the average American is fatter, i mean we as a nation in general are bigger now than we were then because of advances in health care and diet, not saying that our weight isnt an issue). But they still use the old standards because of a purely profit driven motive. The solution to charge obese people for double seating is preposterous, if they implement that then i think smaller people should pay less than standard fare because they aren’t using the “full” seat. Do you think the airlines would agree to that? Of course they wouldn’t. And we all understand what average means, that 50% are more and 50% are less…so, the 50% who are more should pay more but the 50% who are less shouldn’t pay less? If we go one way (charging fat/larger people more for a seat) then we should balance out the scale (charge skinny/small people less). This kind of logic fails in the real world. The truth is we as a society want to hate fat people, and we want a way to penalize them and make them even more ashamed of themselves than they already are. You can hate fat people all you want, but to penalize them, “because being fat is totally a choice and has nothing at all to do with genetics or environmental factors”, is inexcusable. So, i’d say write those letters to the Airlines, write them to the organizations and the FAA and tell them, lets get our standards up to date and make larger seats, lets correct something we do have control over (the size of airline, passenger train, public transit, seats) instead of punishing soemthing we don’t have control of (the size of larger airline, passenger train, public transit, passengers).
I think everybody has it wrong.
I think that the problem here is partially [and not even the major issue] the fact tht DL allows those of girth to take part of our seat -however - you can pretty much put up with anything for 5-,8 or even 13 hours [ask me about the friend who flew from NRT-JFK with a broken seat]. Being ‘uncomfortable’ when squeezed by a heavy person is somewhat irrelevant in the modern world - just one of the problems of the modern age.
But - to spell out the obvious, my post was designed to get the woman compensated for her pants - not complain about fat people on an airplane. I was USING a complaint about fat people, directed to the local air safety inspector - as a means of generating a response from a responsible human being at Delta to fix the screw in the seat which tore the woman’s pants.
you see, if there is an exposed screw, in the winter it will tear your pants. In the summer, it may shred your skin.
Ah! go the light bulbs going on in most people right now. Asking Delta for comp cause you sat next to two-ton tubby is not going to be meaningful.
Getting them to listen to you about your pants, well, thats even harder.
However, forcing them to address an inquiry from an FAA safety inspector will definitely get their attention - and may actually get you a check as compensation - and may get that screw fixed . . . .
You would think that as fuel cost rise, airlines might consider selling tickets by weight. That would be more equitable than making everyone pay the extra fuel costs for the 400 pund summo wrestler, or other large traveler. It also would take away the judgement issue of calling someone obese. Let’s put in sliding armrests and buy the seat by linear measurement as well. I’d like 32 inches of seat for a 200 pound 6 foot traveler please. Or maybe just use a ’soze-wise’ measuring device liek the one employed for making sure your luggage will fit under your seat. Only this one will make sure you fit in your seat.
Leaving the issue of stigma or personal feelings about obese people, it’s important to look at the commodity purchased. Ashley decided to spend a given amount of money for comfortable transportation from Denver to Atlanta. She expected a reasonable temperature, a working restroom, an entertainment system that worked, an armrest to use, and a minimum of personal space. I doubt she would have given Delta hundreds of dollars if they had told her she would not be able to use the entertainment, that she would not have use of her armrest, that she would have to force her leg under the other armrest, and that she would have to be pressed against a stranger’s body for three hours.
Let’s face it - the vast majority of people fit just fine into the seats. Someone who needs double space should pay for it. When Delta does not require obese people to pay for the space they use, they are essentially saying “Ashley, we understand that you paid for a seat, however this woman needs 1 1/2 seats and you must submit half your chair to avoid her having to pay for it.”
Joe, they ignored the request about the pants because the complaint is entirely about “poor me, I’m stuck next to the fat person.” The pants are merely an afterthought. If she wanted compensation for her pants, she should have made her complaint entirely about her pants. Trust me, the pants were not helpful in drawing attention to her real complaint, and spending the bulk of a complaint on the fat person isn’t going to draw attention to her pants either.
It seems to me that there is a cause and effect here. Because of the characteristics of her neighbor she was effected by how she would fit in her seat. In turn she was pressed into an akward position that ripped her pants. Having experienced it myself (add on the crying baby and the inconsiderate person that reclines his seat with no regard crushing my laptop), patience is a virtue. If you ask to be accomodated due to a big problem next to you and they disregard you then write your letter. If you go to fly again and you actually pay to sit on that plane again shame on you. If an airline does so bad at customer serivce then stop using them. Capitalism at its finest. Enough people upset will change their ways (or uncle sam will bail them out). Either way, there is always another flight headed to the same desitnation.
Everyone sees that one person walk the aisle and wonder whether that person is going to sit next to them. Personally, fat, ugly, smelly, carries stinky McDonalds on board, crying baby, broken seat, next to the guy who is so important that you are stuck listening to their phone call, I dont care…I still want the beautiful 22 year old brunette next to me. lol
It amazes me to see Ms Bolton victimized because she “dares” complain about her plight! You can blame Delta and the airlines all you like for the small seats (I know all about it, I’m tall!!) but she should not have had to endure any less than a full seat. The overweight person beside her should have been denied boarding if there were no other seats available to give her to. By all means sue the airlines for discriminating against the obese etc etc etc, but give Ms Bolton a break. She paid for a seat, she should get one, all of one. The obese have rights, yep! So do the smaller folks.
I’m one of these obese fat persons and I travel a lot. I choose very carefully my flights making sure I will have enough space and that I will not be a major problem for the person sit next to me. I never take charter flights nor cheap fare carriers which tend to configure aircraft seating very tight even for skinny persons. Even if I’m chubby (what an ugly word…) I can’t afford to pay for 2 seats or for first class seats. We all have to be tolerant. Speaking for myself, I have often have problems with noisy kids and babies or sometimes with people who smell bad stting next to me. When I travel, I know I will have to deal with some discomfort somewhere… If not, I should stay home comfortably sit in my comfortable armchair in front of the fireplace with the dog next to me, enjoying the warmth of the fireplace and patting the dog next to me. By the way, I’m an obese person not because of food…there are other health issues involved…
By all means, always copy the FAA/DOT in on your complaint letters (especially in baggage, safety or disability related incidents). The airlines usually try to handle all complaints “in house” so that they do not escalate to a level that requires the customer to report their grievance to the Feds. Why? Numbers. Stats. Those wonderful DOT rankings that come out every month- the airlines that are usually at the top of the lists (best ratings) are the ones that avoid the escalation of their complaints to a higher level than their airport staff or customer resolution staff. Why do you think Southwest, the nation’s largest domestic carrier, has such a low complaint ratio? Because the complaint letters that would count “against” them, are handled “in house”- never even seen by the DOT. To their credit, they are pro-active in resolving the complaints before the customer has a chance to take it to a higher level. Just remember, when you get that piddly $50.00 flight voucher for your inconvenience, airline-caused delay, or torn apart baggage- and you sign your name on it- guess what? You just signed away any right to take it any further. Case closed. If the DOT saw even a quarter of the complaints that are received by the “top ranked” carriers, that monthly list would be a whole new animal.
Seriously all of you saying “lets ignore the fact that this complain is about fat people and focus on its economic component”, are either being obtuse or just don’t understand the issue. The issue is what is average? “The vast majority of people fit just fine in the seats?” What are you basing your assumption on? I won’t ask for specifics because that would just be silly, but of the respondents here all of the claimed to be impacted by the seating on airlines, from the person who is “5′10″ and well under 140 pounds has a hard time fitting her legs into the seats, don’t you think that’s a sign the airlines have gone too far?” to the obese poster the issue here is the size of the seating. My suggestion is to do something about a factor that is within our control, the size of the seats and to stop hammering away at a factor that is not within our control, the size of the passengers.
J.K. your idea has utilitarian merit…charge for what is used, but the people factor would shut that one down…how many people are willing to be measured like a commodity and charged accordingly before travelling? Please step onto the scale ma’am/sir…please submit to our measuring process…o.k. you are 25% larger than what WE have determined is the “average” and your bill will reflect that accordingly…real human dignity there, economically effective sure…but is it how you want to be treated?
Lets face it the airlines have a seat size for everybody. If you require more room, they sell bigger seats in business and first class. People just don’t want to pay for it. They would rather complain and blame the airline that they don’t fit into their tiny seats rather than open up their wallet.Well, if comfort and service is important to you. Buy a larger seat. It is simple. Price is important to me, that is way I drive a Honda Civic but I don’t complain every time that I get into it that it is not a Cadillac. Come on people don’t expect the airline to compensate for your size or girth!
I am usually upgraded to first class but when I select my seat in Coach, I select an exit row seat because most of the exit row seats on the US Airways planes (the old America West planes based in PHX) have solid enclosure between the seats; therefore, no can invade your space that you paid for.
I have been on two flights (Horizon Air) where the FAs removed really obese individuals from the exit row in the name of safety…neither individual objected.
To everyone who claims ‘health problems’ for their obesity and not simply too much food going in - I present to you the concentration and POW camps of WWII. I’m sure there were lots and lots of people with ‘health problems’ in the camps., but no one was fat. Obesity in 99% of the situations is from eating too much - and mostly carbohydrate - cookies, cakes, bread, stuff that was not readily and cheaply available in the last century and prior.
That might sound harsh, but it is the truth. If you exercised you would lose the weight. If you ate less, you would not gain anymore. You simply cannot tell me that 40% of the American public has a ‘health problem’ that makes they obese.
Finally, if you are obese, you need to voluntarily buy two coach seats. You are NOT entitled to spill over into someone else’s chair - no matter how much you think it is because the ‘airlines’ make the seats too narrow. The arrogance that attitude shows is self-indulgent and spoiled.
That is hogwash. Boeing airline cabins on narrow body aircraft have been the same width since the Boeing 707 = 727, 737, 757 - all have been the same width and have had the same WIDTH seats. The only thing that has changed is the width of the passenger sitting in it. Seat PITCH [distance from seat back to front] has changed and gotten smaller, by as much as 5′, but people have gotten wider, thats all.
You are entitled to the space you rented from the airline - no more - and certainly no less. If you cannot afford two seats, or a business class or first class seat, then how is that the problem of either the airline or your seatmate? Then the issue is your finances and perhaps, given your size, you cannot fly commercially in coach. You may not be able to do anything about your wealth level but you CAN do something about your size.
The airlines bear A LOT of responsibility in this matter, but only because they either FAIL to make policies regarding ‘passengers of size’ clear from the beginning of the reservation process, or they fail to ENFORCE written policies already in place (like requiring obese passengers to buy two seats) The airlines ALREADY OFFER LARGER SEATS IN THE FORM OR BUSINESS OR FIRST CLASS. As a passenger, I’d love to always fly up front, but I can’t afford to, so when I fly coach, I’m assuming the restrictions of a smaller space. That said, I AM entitled to ALL OF THAT SPACE. Passengers KNOW if they will fit into a SINGLE SEAT with the ARMREST DOWN. If they do not, they THEY SHOULD BE REQUIRED TO BUY TWO SEATS, PERIOD. And the airlines should require anyone taking up more than their seat to either pay for another one or GET OFF THE FLIGHT. This is not ABOUT ‘intolerance” or “hatred” of obese people. This is a SAFETY issue as well as a COURTESY issue. The reason someone is obese is NOT my business, but it IS my business when the ’size’ overflows into MY seat. I’ve been in this situation several times and the FA refused to do ANYTHING because every seat was filled. Until people demand that the airlines make WRITTEN policies regarding this problem available to everyone, and then ENFORCE them, it will continue to cause major problems. I fly Continental often and I carry their WRITTEN POLICY with me on every flight. If I encounter this problem again and the FAs refuse to remedy the situation, I’m going to use that copy. If that does not work, I will despute the charge on my credit card. The airlines want to sweep this issue under the rug, and to do so is not prudent. Remember, we are ALL responsible for purchasing sufficient ’space’ to contain ourselves, and we are ENTITLED to ALL of the space we’re willing to PAY FOR.
I have my own weight issues, but I was once on a flight, in FIRST CLASS, where the other passenger was so large he couldn’t get over the armrests into the window seat. I had to take the window (I MUCH prefer an aisle and had pre-reserved the aisle seat). I could only bear to take one bathroom break because it was so painful to watch him get in and out of the seat.
I felt a combination of anger and pity for the guy.
wow, too large for FIRST CLASS? Now THAT is ENORMOUS!
This is the reason I try very very hard not to fly because I am a plus sized woman and do not want to infringe on other peoples space. I have inquired about getting 2 seats before just for my own comfort and was told when I was purchasing the tickets don;t buy the second seat because this flight never sells out. Well I was on the one that happened to sell out there and back!
“On February 15th, 2008 GENIE said
wow, too large for FIRST CLASS? Now THAT is ENORMOUS!”
Now THAT is IGNORANT.
Shawna at least you tried to be thoughtful. I myself am really tired of being told I’m insensitive, mean spirited, etc. and so on simply because I feel I am entitled to the ENTIRE SEAT I purchased. I firmly believe that if a person cannot fit into ONE seat, then they should be REQUIRED to purchase second seat. I simply do not understand how anyone can defend taking a portion of someone else’s property because that is exactly what happens. I rent that seat, the ENTIRE SEAT, for the duration of the flight. People should have to rent the appropriate amount of space for their needs. I am not talking about tall passengers, husky passengers, etc. Seats are small and accommodations must be made for that. I’m talking about OBESE passengers who cannot put down the armrest. I feel there should be a rule on ALL airlines stating that if you cannot put down the armrest (which then means you are taking space you didn’t pay for, space that BELONGS to someone else), then you must purchase a second seat. Period. How about the obese person being considerate of ME and feeling bad for ME for a change? And not taking MY space that they didn’t pay for?
Also I fly constantly and it is my observation that the vast majority of passengers ARE able to put the armrest down. Why should this be so difficult? No armrest down, two seats. Period. No stealing space from another passenger. I really cannot understand how someone can defend the position that even if they are so large that they cannot put the armrest down and are taking someone else’s property in the form of their rented seat space it’s fine. If the armrest can be put down, I may not have the most comfortable flight if the person next to me is large, but then that falls into the category of making allowances for other passengers differences.
Oh and one other thing. I don’t consider myself IGNORANT and too large for first class is ENORMOUS. It may be sad and pitiable that the person is enormous but they still are. Facts are facts.
I had this happen to me on an American Airlines flight. It was a 5 hour flight and I was in a middle seat- with the only empty seat on the plane was next to me. The man was so large that he couldn’t get seated without raising the armrest. When I said no- it stays down, the FA told me that if I continued to be difficult she would have me removed from the flight. I was flying home because my dad was in critical condition in the hospital and could not miss the flight. So I let them raise the armrest and gee, surprisingly it wouldn’t go down when the man was seated. For the rest of the flight I was IGNORED by the FA, no eye contact, no drinks (couldn’t raise my arms anyway). The man ordered whiskey, one after another (it was a 9am flight) and took every opportunity to rub himself against my side throughout the entire flight. I was sobbing by the time I got off the plane.
I wrote letters to the airline and the FAA about the safety issue. I received 1 call from the FAA, and a letter from the airline stating they were “sorry” about my discomfort, but they had no formal policy about large passengers. Oh- and they sent me a $50 voucher for a future flight. As if I would EVER fly their airline again.
This is not an issue of fat- I want the entire seat I’ve paid for. Period.