<p>I’m sure most of you have heard about it by now, but United is now going to start charging extra for people who ‘spill’ over into adjacent seats.</p>
<p>I have really mixed feelings about this. I’ve been the victim of almost being squeezed out of my own seat due to someone sitting next to me not fitting within their own seat. But if you’re going to start charging people by the size, then perhaps some people who are petite should ask for lower fares. And it’s not just weight… how about height; should taller people be charged more than shorter people since a taller person behind you can prevent you from reclining your seat.</p>
<p>I have mixed feelings, too, based on commuting on an express bus. What I’ll say is that I generally am fine with sitting next to a woman no matter what size but don’t care to sit next to men. Even a woman who’s pretty large will sit herself so as to be considerate, whereas a man who’s five feet nothing and 110 pounds needs to spread his legs as far as possible without snapping like a wishbone. I met one of my best friends of over 20 years when she sat next to me on the bus because I was small. She’s since lost 200 pounds and it doesn’t matter anymore (I’m so proud). I hate being so small, but it’s a blessing on public transportation because it does leave more room for someone else next to me which is generally fine. My husband is 100 pounds overweight, so I have a great deal of sympathy. I read an article about this that said that an extra charge would be assessed against passengers who can’t buckle with the extender. If anyone can’t buckle, how can that be safe?</p>
<p>My thoughts exactly. If you can squeeze into a seat with the armrests down then you should not have to pay extra or get a different seat. I have sat next to many who spilled over into my seat.</p>
<p>The problem is when people ask you to keep the armrest up, and you don’t want to hurt their feelings, but you end up squished into half a seat. Maybe they can fit technically, but not comfortably, and you often end up being the one in discomfort. I do agree weight should not be the only consideration.</p>
<p>I’m overweight so I do feel for the discomfort of heavy people flying. But on the other hand, it is not considerate to “spill over” to other people. My d. just had a very uncomfortable flight cross country. She was seated between two very heavy people–man and woman, both over 300 lbs. When she realized that they were man and wife, she offered to change seats with either of them. They refused and said they didn’t like to sit in the middle seat and purposefully booked the seats this way. She couldn’t put down armrest on either side of her and spent the whole 6 hours with these people on her lap (and talking over her and passing things over her). The plane did not have an empty seat, so she couldn’t move to another. Long, miserable flight.</p>
<p>I was once on a transatlantic flight. I was in the aisle seat of a row with four seats. There was an empty seat next to me, and then two people who were travelling together but were very, very large. In order to increase their comfort, one of them moved into the seat next to me. So I spent the entire flight spilling into the aisle. I think that’s extremely inconsiderate. Why should I have been miserable for their comfort?</p>
<p>I’m not close to skinny, but can keep myself within the bounds of an economy seat. I spent a horrible 7 hour flight recently next to a large lady who spilled “under” the armrest so that her thigh rubbed mine for the entire flight. Eeeewwww. I would have been happy to pay a surcharge to get into the “no bodily contact” section.
If you can’t buckle the extender, those in your row deserve a discount.</p>
<p>LIke Dragonlady, I’m not skinny either but fit into my aisle seat. I endured a rather bad flight recently with a large man stuck in the middle seat…He wanted to keep the armrest up…I put it down and he proceeded to use it and the one to his left. Then up and down a few times to the bathroom…I couldn’t wait to get off that flight.</p>
<p>I put on a fair amount of weight due to a lot of family health stress and almost all of that stress is behind us now. I didn’t have any problems fitting in an airline seat but started decreasing my calorie intake and am up to running four miles four or five times a week. I’m considerably thinner than a few months ago and would like to get to a 32 inch waist again (was last there 12 years ago). I started thinking about this a few years ago: hitting the late 40s and being overweight is a great way to shorten your life so I want to make this big push to get near ideal weight as a long-term strategy to minimize healthcare costs and the potential of chronic joint problems (a problem if you’re heavy).</p>
<p>As for United’s plan? Fine. Sounds great to me. Another reason out there for America to lose weight. If there are enough heavier people that are upset with this, then an airline should startup to take advantage of this specialized market. They could make larger seats standard which should be more efficient than requiring the purchase of an additional seat.</p>
<p>Thanks, Skinnies, for letting me see your side of the story. I don’t raise the armrest, but I’ll bet I do spill under the armrest. However, I always wear pants, so no bodily contact.</p>
<p>I always sit at the window and look at the scenery the whole time. Or sleep. </p>
<p>Some poor unfortunate soul next to me might bring up baseball, and I’m talking nonstop. </p>
<p>The point is, we all have to endure discomfort on a flight, from the bare knuckles to the kids pulling your hair or kicking your seat or the tall jerk who leans his seat back so that you can’t even get up to go to the bathroom if you want to. </p>
<p>But I’ll take flying over driving every day. </p>
<p>And for goodness sake, flying is expensive enough. Not surprised United is the instigator of all this. Aren’t they the ones who started charging for bags?</p>
<p>BCEagle, great job with the weight loss! I started running 2 1/2 years ago and have lost over 30 pounds. Whenever I see someone on TV talking about how much they want to lose weight, I yell, “Run! Run!” at them. But they don’t seem to hear me. I couldn’t run a quarter mile when I started. I’m as UNathletic as they come. I still am a snail, but I can run a half marathon. I tell people that if I can do it, anyone in decent health can.</p>
<p>I think it’s great to charge if someone takes up more than one seat. It’s only fair.</p>
My understanding was that the person in the middle always got both armrests since they have to endure the middle seat. Each side just gets one. I am almost always on the aisle and just take the aisle armrest.</p>
<p>As a shortie, I appreciate taller passengers. They’re very helpful putting my carry-on luggage into the overhead bin, and taking it down without braining someone in the process.</p>
<p>Airplane seats used to be roommier. The armrest issue is a fairly recent one in my experience.</p>
<p>I agree with zoosermom. The men take the armrests. </p>
<p>Sometimes when the man I am sitting next to lifts his arm to scratch his nose or whatever, I casually slip my arm onto the arm rest, just to see what happens. </p>
<p>(I think the rule should be that one person should take the area toward the front of the armrest and the other take the area toward the back. The window person and the middle person have about the same amount of room - it’s not that the window seat is roomy and the middle seat is scrunched.)</p>