Airlines need an option for very large people.

Djdjxjjd wrote:

One option that has not been mentioned is offering a discount to the squished person. That would also help.

You could even let the market decide, maybe using gentle language the desk worker could announce a $50 credit for someone willing to take a fractional seat. Offer $100 if nobody takes $50. Realistically, you are much more likely to have more children or small adults than 300lbers. My 40 pound daughter gets her own seat. Offer me $100 to have her sit next to the fat guy and everybody wins. No special seats, no reconfiguration, no humiliation.

No humiliation? Someone switching seats to avoid sitting next to a fat person is definitely fat shaming. At least that's what a fat activist would claim.

Just Another LRC Idiot wrote:

Djdjxjjd wrote:

One option that has not been mentioned is offering a discount to the squished person. That would also help.

You could even let the market decide, maybe using gentle language the desk worker could announce a $50 credit for someone willing to take a fractional seat. Offer $100 if nobody takes $50. Realistically, you are much more likely to have more children or small adults than 300lbers. My 40 pound daughter gets her own seat. Offer me $100 to have her sit next to the fat guy and everybody wins. No special seats, no reconfiguration, no humiliation.

No humiliation? Someone switching seats to avoid sitting next to a fat person is definitely fat shaming. At least that's what a fat activist would claim.

Tell them you are extremely claustrophobic and you need a new seat with a little more room. Now the problem is your mental illness, no someone else's fat.

I got on an international flight many years ago leaving from JFK and had an isle seat. The plane started to fill up and an older gentleman asked me to switch with him so that he can get up often to use the restroom without disturbing me, no problem. I was now sitting by the window and the seat between us was empty.

Sure enough in comes a humongous guy sweating apparently just to make the flight. He seemed to be north of 300 lbs. The older guy looked annoyed enough at having to get up to let him in, then the embarrassing situation began.

As the stewardess stood by and observed, the fat dude couldn’t get in the seat. I sat there tilted to give him space but he just couldn’t get in, and couldn’t stop sweating. Everyone else had already taken their seat, so all eyes were on him now to allow the plane to take off.

When he tried to elevate the arm rests to make more room, the stewardess told him he would have to be able to get into the seat with the arm rests down. We all watched him struggle but he finally got in.

Next she told him to buckle his seat belt. He took a while to find both sides and then couldn’t get the two sides to meet over his belly. He asked her for a seat belt extension. She couldn’t hear him so he had to ask louder for all to hear. She denied his request and told him the airline did not issue those for “single seat passengers” and he would have to purchase another seat to stay on the flight.

He got upset to no avail and people started to complain loudly about this delaying the flight. He finally accepted his fate and asked to purchase an extra seat. The stewardess scrambled to find passengers willing to get a refund not to fly - all seats were sold. No one wanted to and the older guy started to demand they remove him from the seat as he would be totally obstructed sitting next to him. Imagine me.

He was visibly upset and embarrassed and decided to leave the flight. He took a while to get up and remove his hand luggage and made his way to the front of the plane, slamming into every single person on the way. Right before he exited, the stewardess found someone willing to get off the flight for a refund plus complementary flight. The fat guy made his way to back of the plane again to take his new seats. The whole episode took about 45 minutes.

At one point I got up to use the restroom and see the guy sprawled across all three seats snoring loudly. The lady that was sitting next to him couldn’t take it anymore and decided to stand for several hours to avoid being squeezed. Obesity is awful.

Southwest has a "customer of size" policy where people purchase two seats, and then after travel can contact the airline for a refund of one of the seats:

https://www.southwest.com/html/customer-service/extra-seat/index-pol.html

"You may contact us for a refund of the cost of additional seating after travel."

They give the Customers of Size a little slip to leave on the adjacent seat to let the people getting on the plane know that it's taken.

Seems like it's a way for people to avoid conflict inherent to their open seating policy. They'd rather lose a few hundred bucks than to have a bad news story.

Seat Belt Extender wrote:

Seems like it's a way for people to avoid conflict inherent to their open seating policy. They'd rather lose a few hundred bucks than to have a bad news story.

This... at the end of the day the masses speak louder through social media/news... and the masses are getting fatter unfortunately. Just remember you are all subsidizing their travel costs when you buy a ticket.

They should just have a fat plane. It's only for fat people and just wide open in the back (no seats) so they can roll around. These people don't care about their health or safety so why should anyone else? Just let them roll.

Well, they have the option of buying 2 seats, or 3 to that matter.

To OP: take pictures of fat person encroaching your space and demand compensation.

Pay per lb should be mandated... Planes have a weight limit they can carry. Imagine if all seats were occupied by 300lb people? Engineers calculate things based on averages... So back when people were half that weight. Remember the R&B singer Aliyah? Died in plane crash cause it couldn't fully take off from excess weight

I can’t decide whether I feel bad or good about this thread. Bad for being overweight people, or good that someone is telling the truth.