“I’m normally not the type of person to complain, but …”

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.

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….

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!

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).

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.

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 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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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!

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?

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 can’t help but think Robin is not that smart. You say that they sell bigger seats in business or first class, but lets throw in a combination of lower class or middle class people who can’t afford a 3 hour flight for 1000 dollars or people who can’t afford to pay 400 bucks for two seats. Not everyone is made of money. Also, what about in people who are in my position. I don’t need the extra room, but I also decided to fly to Fl on vacation last minute. Whether I was 500 lbs or 90 lbs, I can only take what seats are left on the flight I need. When I looked at the seats available a week before my flight there were maybe 5 left and all of them in economy and most of them middle seats. Sometimes you can’t help where you get placed. Let me also point out, if you don’t like sitting next to a fat person YOU PAY for first class seating. Or buy someone who is obese a first class ticket. My brother is 6’4 250 and hes not fat at all, he’s built like a spiker for volleyball. He is uncomfortable as hell in airline seats. Not everyone has the money to waste on 1000 dollar business or first class seats.

This about it this way, as far as obese people go, when compared to the car you drive, since you brought it up, if you could afford a porsche wouldn’t you buy it regardless of whether u needed it or not? If I or any other person big or small could afford to fly first class or private jet everytime, then we would whether we needed the extra room or not. Maybe you should open up your wallet and get your fat hating friends to do the same and start an airline that flies only plus size passengers and their families.