Time to start implementing $1/lb airline tickets! Being well underweight, I'd be thrilled!

It's funny how you can't do anything about that except get to the seat first, and make sure the arm rest is down before you take a chance on who is sitting next to you.

Being a frequent traveler, I have also found that flying united economy, business or first class (even for personal business) seems to yield disproportionately less problems such as this…

ugh, these chubby people are taking over the world. I'm glad she was able to get a $250 voucher, but I have to imagine the torture of that plane ride was not worth $250.

Being in the same situation as her once, I can understand. They placed me next to a man who was so large, he oozed all into my seat. There wasn't enough room for both of us.

Luckily, he was flying with his young daughter who, somehow, had a far different seating arrangement. (Was he an employee flying standby?) I was able to swap with her, and everyone was happy.

But I was NOT happy that American would allow such a situation to happen. As much as I want to say, "don't tax the guy because he's fat", hey, the airlines need to step up. Either they need to charge these people for a second seat, or they need to give them that second seat for free. Just don't charge a passenger for a seat that isn't there.

Well, at least the attendant was sensitive to the possibility that Julie might want to find a cute girl instead of a cute boy on whose lap she might sit. Huzzah tolerance! (Fat people get no slack though. They're evil, pure and simple.)

Fat I can deal with, it is the pungent perfume that sends me into a tailspin. Airlines ought to institute a NO PUNGE POLICY; if you smell, you should be encapsulated in a plastic bag for the convenience of the other passengers

oh great, here comes all the personal stories of every other Consumerist poster that has ever sat next to Fatty McGee on a plane.

i am a very small person: 5'1" and 112 lbs. and even i find the standard coach seat to be unduly restrictive. how a normal sized adult can stand a cross country flight in coach is beyond me. i think the airlines need to be more realistic with their seating.

This is getting more and more common, on planes, trains, and buses. Is there any way they could outfit planes with a few extra-huge seats to accommodate these people (or is there a super-obvious reason that I'm missing for why this isn't feasible)?

The attendant was unduly dismissive, which is a problem, but its also a problem that fat people are forced to choose between a significant charge and proper accommodation. That's a situation which will never resolve itself and one made worse by tighter seats that aren't very comfortable for normal size people. The impression people have is that this must be someone huge, but the reality is he could well be a size that would be surprisingly small. He, himself, may not have realized the potential problem when booking, so what do you do then? Airlines should have smart policies to treat all of their their passengers with respect. Not pile on fees, charges, and blame to people unpopular enough for them to get away with it.

I've been there too - caught in a middle seat actually. It was sort of funny, the plane was full, but we had an empty seat in the middle, just before the cabin door closed. Then big guy gets on the plane and squeezes down the aisle. The guy next to me and I both look at him, look at the empty seat, then at each other, and back at him... The big guy used took the window seat and half of my seat, as the smallest, I took the middle, and I was about 1/4 of the way into the aisle seat, the aisle seat guy took the rest. We had all the armrests up. I had a few good hours to think about this question.

My conclusion was this: Either charge per pound which is fair to everyone, or the airline should give people who can't fit into one seat the extra seat (for free) so that they can fly safetly. If you end up bumping a passenger there's always someone who will take a voucher or who would move to first class. I think that charging the obese for an extra seat could be legally risky - I'd expect a challenge under the ADA... Giving them the seat treats the obese with some amount of dignity. They know they're overweight, and they want to be squeezed into that seat about as much as we all want to be squeezed in next to them.

As a larger than average male and a frequent flyer (Gold Elite on Continental), I can definitely emphasize with the situation. I've got your average business traveler belly AND broad shoulders. My bottom fits in the seat just fine but my shoulder width spread outside of my allotted seat often. If you get two of me in the same row, its an uncomfortable flight for everyone.

The problem really isn't the size of the passengers. The problem is that the airlines have made seats narrower in order to squeeze more bodies on the flight and, therefore, make more money.

Nobody would frequent a restaurant that had such narrow seating. Nobody would by a car that squeezed the passengers and driver together. Why do we accept it from the airline?

Advice to avoid this next time? If you're on a small commuter jet, get an "A" seat- its both a window and a aisle. If you're on a wide body or plane that doesn't offer a "1 and 2" seating configuration, get a seat further back in the plane. Passengers tend to sit in the front. The back is most likely to be empty.

^ They have a place to put luggage to see if it will fit properly into the carry-on bins. They should have a chair (with a wall on each side) that someone could use to see if they will fit properly into a seat. (Regardless of if the airline pays for the extra seat, or the individual, they should find out if someone will take beyond their own seat.)

@kittenfoo: I'm 6'1" and my upper leg bones are longer than the space between seats if the person in front of me tries to put their seat back. In that case I literally cannot sit normally and must put my legs sideways or bend them towards my chest. Very uncomfortable. And it's not like I'm ridiculously tall or anything. I can't even image what flying is like for people who are 6'9" or something.

Well, with the number of overweight people rising, there is only one solution. In addition to first, business and economy class, Airlines need to have an overweight class as well. More space for overweight people and cheaper than buying 2 seats.

@BStu: We're supposed to feel bad for obese people who might have to purchase a second fare? It's not that I'm (entirely) unsympathetic to the plight of the girthy, but it's not my fault that they're fat. Maybe we can charge the fatties 1.5 times as much, and I can pay half-fare since I'm only using half of my seat when I'm stuck next to jumbo.

@MDSasquatch: I hate that! I was on a cross country flight once - a red eye, mind you, and a lady decided she HAD to put perfume on in the TINY jet at 5am.

The stench was very overpowering, and lingered for most of the flight. :(

@sotally tober: Money. The airlines want to cram as many people as possible onto one plane because it makes them more profitable to utilize their planes more fully and sell more tickets. And since a lot of their profit comes from first and business class seats, they have an incentive to actually make coach uncomfortable so that people who can afford it will want to upgrade. Having a few huge seats for fat people would cost the airline revenue even when no fat person was there.

I flew from CDG to ATL next to an older lady who was quite large, and snored most of the flight. Her elbow and arm where in my area the entire flight. I wish I would have thought to ask for a refund.

@johnva: Haha, I forget sometimes, they don't have any actual incentive to make people even a little comfortable on a flight, provided that they're paying.

I remember the hullaballoo Southwest caused when they made that policy change. A lot of people were upset. I suspect that the vast majority of people were quietly cheering to themselves--the silent majority.

@johnva: Same problem here. The fact is, airline seats are too small for probably half the population.

@BStu: smart policies, like charging the person who takes up 1.5 seats more? Why should the woman who paid full fare be punished w/ 1/2 a seat?

@johnva: yep, I have the same problem. And now you can't even get the exit row seats on most airlines unless you are a frequent flier.

It's a matter of economics... most planes were built in the early 80's, when the average size of a person was much smaller than today. According to this wiki entry: [en.wikipedia.org] The width of seats is about 17", which if doubled would be a waist size of 34". Considering that most Americans are overweight, this is a very constricting seat, and someone with a waist of 38" would probably be "pouring over" the sides.

6'8" here, not wide just tall. I should have the right to murder anyone who is under 6'2" and sitting in bulkhead or the emergency isles.

I hate it when I have to fly instead of taking amtrak.

@sotally tober: And it would also raise ticket prices for everyone else. Bigger seats mean fewer seats, which means a higher price per seat. If one airline did as you suggest, and charged even marginally higher prices, a lot of customers would switch to other airlines. With Orbitz, Expedia, etc., airlines tickets are pretty much a commodity, at least on major routes. Most people flying from LA to NYC, just pick whatever's cheapest; do you expect them to think, "hmm, well, that airline segregates obese people, so it's worth the extra $50..."? I know I usually just go for whatever's cheapest.

Another problem: what if I (who am not overweight) decided that I'd like more room so I book an extra-large seat. Are they going to kick me out of it? Isn't that discriminatory?

I would have demanded that the fat guy be reseated. That is why it is best to get on the plane as early as possible. Claim your space first so the morbidly obese can push you around.

Wow. I have to admit that I'm impressed by the majority of responses here. Yes, overweight people have a significant share of the responsibility, but the airlines need to give a middle-of-the-road option so that people can purchase a larger seat without the cost (or horrid shame) that comes with buying two tickets.

I don't squawk when I have to pay a premium for plus-sized clothing. I would grouse if I was told I had to pay double for a pair of pants. Same thing for a seat.

@johnva: What airlines should do (but probably won't), is redesign the cabin by sections and sell seats depending on your dimensions. Smaller, thinner seats in the front and wider, taller seats towards the back. Seats designed to accommodate the majority of sizes.

The exact same thing happened to me when I flew Delta. A guy that must have weighed over 300 sat next to me and couldn't get the arm rest down. It should have been obvious to the flight attendant because he asked for a seat belt extension.

I only got a crappy 100 dollar voucher that can only be used through an agent not online.

I think that they should add bench seating and charge by the width of you butt!

Look . . . since airliners are finite in size, space is a commodity. On smaller, 'puddle jumper' airlines, weight is also at a premium. If you've ever flown one between small islands in the Caribbean or South Pacific you've had to get on a scale when you check in.

If I want to ship something large and/or heavy I pay more than I'd pay to ship a small package.

I see no logical or sensible reason why airlines shouldn't aggressively pursue charging people more money for a second seat if they cannot fit into the space provided by a single seat.

If you take up more than the alloted space, you should pay more.

Also, I have to wonder about the safety issues involved in having large people wedged into small, singe seats. Surely they are not going to be as able to extricate themselves in case of an emergency. You cannot have bulky carry-on bags in your lap during flight, why should you be allowed to have your 'spare tire' clogging up the path to an exit?

Looks like Delta's stewardess was playing the ditzy "I'm just a dumb girl serving drinks" quite well. I wonder if she giggled as she told the lady to go find a boy to sit on?

Is Delta still using DC-10's to go along with their retro mile-high sky girls?

I've also been in this situation once before. The "gentleman" next to me (in a window seat) was simply enormous. It was somewhat comical that his stomach pushed against the tray table latches as he forced himself into his seat and the tray tables fell in the aisle and middle seats as he made his way across. For the icing on the cake, he had absolutely horrible body odor.

The flight was completely full and all other flights that evening were book due to bad weather forcing cancellations earlier in the day. My Delta flight attendant was much more helpful, telling me that she couldn't do anything for takeoff and landing, but as soon as the "fasten seatbelt sign" was turned off, that I could come up to the first class galley and sit in the flight attendant's jump seat. She also treated me to a few free drinks during the flight, and gave me Delta's customer support number.

She filled also out an incident report and filed it and told me to wait five business days before calling to complain, and gave me the incident report number to reference on the call. When I called Delta, they gave me 500 bonus skymiles and $50 in "Delta Dollars" in my account. All things considered, I felt that the flight attendant, and Delta customer service, handled the situation very well.

I was also told that the reason Delta will not charge extra for obese passengers is that they are (basically) afraid of litigation from organizations such as the ACLU. You can't discriminate against the obese, ya know.

@inelegy: Two quick things...

"If you take up more than the alloted space, you should pay more."

Alright. If you take up less than the alloted space, do you pay less? Be careful with that one.

For the last paragraph, some of us fatties can move. Some of us can move faster than skinny folks. We're not going to clog the emergency exits... FFS we'll be trying to save our lives as much as you will be. ;)

@Asvetic: I've been on brand-new aircraft and the seating is no better. The age of the planes has nothing to do with it as even the newest ones are being fitted with seats designed far too long ago.

That said, people shouldn't be ripped off just because they're "fat" -- this is yet another example of discrimination in one of the last ways it's still considered acceptable to discriminate against people, which I will continue to call total BS. Charge everyone a little more if that's what it takes to fix the seat size problem. Split over 250+ people, it wouldn't be much more per person.

What I want to know is, why didn't the airline reseat her in a different seat in the class she was already in? On every flight I've been on, for instance, they'll say that if you don't want to have the responsibility of sitting in an exit row, but are sitting in one, just ask and you'll be reseated. So why not just request a reseating given that you can't fit in the seat you reserved?

@Galls: ah, thank god at 6'2" I'm eligible to complain! It's bad enough when just sitting in the regular seats, let alone when the person in front puts their seat back.

@witeowl: They do. Its called first class. And as far as paying a premium for plus sized clothing, if you go into just about any store in your mall, you will notice that the price for a XXS t-shirt is the same as the XXL t-shirt. Clearly the XXS t-shirt takes a lot less fabric. So I am not squaking that I subsidize larger sizes. The same goes for jeans--a 00 is the same price as a 20. So if I am one of the smaller sizes, then I have to pay for the additional fabric to go into a size 20. Fair? I think not.

@Asvetic: But that too has problems. One problem is that if the larger seats aren't WAY more expensive, "normal" people would want to upgrade, too, to escape the sardine-can experience. So they would end up selling out first and that would defeat the purpose of having them in the first place. Worse, for the airline, some first-class passengers might downgrade to one of those large cheaper seats. The airline would then lost out on a lot of profit. The only real solutions I can see to this problem that work economically for the airlines would be a) for the government to regulate the number of seats so they can't make them quite so small (maybe they could do it on the basis of safety, since it can't be that safe to have morbidly obese people blocking the aisles and seating rows) or b) for the airlines to just force morbidly obese people to buy two seats. The latter seems like a much more likely solution. If the airlines are afraid of litigation (this seems like a stupid excuse, given that Southwest does this already) then they should send their lobbyists to Washington and get some new rules written clarifying the legality of charging the obese for more space.

@Buran: Why should everyone else pay more because some people are obese? I do agree that airline seats are too small for most people, not just the morbidly obese, but I don't think normal people should pay more to accommodate everyone who's fat. Where should they draw the line? Should the airlines have to make all the seats big enough to accommodate 500 pound people? 800 pounds? That gets really unreasonable for the airlines, and there ARE people who are that big.

Look, it's not "discrimination". They aren't charging people more to punish them or something. It's really just a matter of fairness. They are charging them more for the space they use. Since space can only be sold in fixed-size blocks, unfortunately they are going to have to charge people who exceed the space in one seat for two.

I sure miss the days when the middle seat would be empty. I think the last time that happened was in 1991. Since then everything is a sardine can. That's one reason I don't fly anymore these days. I wonder how many other people avoid flying too, and how much revenue the airlines are losing from opportunity costs.

Many of you seem to forget that 99.9% of passengers buy their seast online or over the phone - NOT infront of an agent who can size them up and decide they need 2 seats... Unless it's their first time flying, most passengers of size (as we like to call you/them) should KNOW they are too large to fit in one seat and should be responsible enough to buy a second seat... Needless to say, they don't. I for one, like Soutwest's policy; buy an extra seat. If it's not full, you get the money back. Sounds reasonable enough to me...

Whatever you do, quit blaming the airline for what the passenger should know to do himself.

@Buran: I don't mean to sound like an ass, but for the most part people can do something about their weight, regular sized people shouldn't have to pay more to accommodate them. I'm tall, and there's nothing I could do about that, and I get screwed over by the size of the seats.

airlines should NOT made seats for fatties. that's just band aiding the problem. treating the symptom and not the cause. plus it will raise the cost for everyone else, as the fat seats will result in lower profits for airlines. don't socialize the cost of being fat by making me pay more for their issue.

the cause = people are too fat. those people should have to PAY MORE if they can't fit in the standard seat. then maybe they will think twice about eating so much if they have to pay for 2 seats. maybe not. but at least it puts the burden where it belongs.

this isn't discrimination. people that say otherwise are politically correct nazis.

@timmus: Or how about the days when the middle row didn't exist, and the seats were wider (and had more pitch, for that matter.) And how about the days when UAL used to run half-full 747's between Chicago and SFO and you could practically lie flat across the seats if you wanted to.

Sadly, all gone, but on the other hand, so are the fares we paid back then.

@ManicPanic:

Clothes pricing is generally equal within size ranges -- i.e., Misses sizes 2-20 all carry equal prices. But in most *good* quality clothing, the next size range, "Women's" or "Plus" size clothing (14w-28w, or 1x-4x), does cost more than Petites or Misses. Check online catalogs and you'll see. Lands End, Talbots, Eddie Bauer...

Just wanted to point out this discrepancy with what you're claiming.

And as someone else mentioned above, be careful when you advocate sliding price scales for clothing that uses varying amounts of cloth based on size. I doubt that clothiers are going to start discounting prices for sizes 0-4; why should it work the other way-- i.e., additional charges for larger sizes? The pricing should be based on the average size, not the extremes.

There are no doubt organizations that would protest a Pigovian tax on the fat. But, I've never seen anything to indicate that the ACLU would go after airlines for something like this. With secret prisons, official torture and electronic eavesdropping on American citizens, their plate is rather full at the moment. No pun intended.

@Asvetic: Point well taken, but don't forget we are three dimensional. You need to add several inches for that. Speaking as a 38" person. There is still a little room left on each side.

My biggest gripe is the filth of the plans. If you ever want to get a little freaked out. hit the seat next to you sometimes. You wouldn't believe the dust cloud.