<p>No sympathy. Instead of thinking of herself and being “embarrassed,” she should be thinking of other passengers who might be seated next to her–they have paid for their seats and deserve a safe and comfortable flight. I think it is inconsiderate of fat people to impose themselves (literally) on others, and act like this is the fault of the airline.
If you can’t fit in a seat, pay for another or don’t fly.
You have to pay extra for overweight baggage, don’t you? I like the idea of “pay by the pound!”</p>
<p>I wonder if it would be a viable business model for airlines to charge their passengers according to the weight they put on the plane. </p>
<ol>
<li>reserve your seat(s) in advance</li>
<li>check-in & weigh-in at the airport (passenger + luggage)</li>
<li>pay a rate per pound at the airport ticket counter. The rate could vary according fluctuations in fuel costs, peak travel dates, last minute bargains for unsold seats, etc.</li>
</ol>
<p>Hypothetically, if the going rate is $1.00/lb, a 200 lb man + 40 lb bag would pay $240. A 50 lb child + 25 lb bag would pay $75. </p>
<p>Big people, or anybody for that matter, could accomodate their space needs by reserving a spare seat at extra cost. But they wouldn’t be subject to a steeper “per pound” price. </p>
<p>Imagine how easy it would be for the consumer to comparison shop. “Look honey, we can fly into Miami for $1.10 per pound, or Ft. Lauderdale for $0.98. Which do you prefer?” Or, “Houston to Memphis is $1.89 on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. But, if we go on Tuesday, we’d only pay $1.50. Can you get an extra day off work?” </p>
<p>:cool: :p</p>
<p>Some very small commuter type planes do weigh you and your carry on luggage and assign seating to balance both sides of the aircraft. </p>
<p>A weight limit takes the discretion away from the gate agent and therefore takes away any ‘embarrassment’ at last minute gate decisions that the fat person can’t fly. You know your weight when you buy your ticket. People who don’t fly much may not know whether they’ll fit into the seat or not.</p>
<p>Why didn’t the woman buy 2 seats for herself at the time of booking?
For her own comfort and fear of embarrassment, she could have avoided all of this mess by simply purchasing the second seat at the time of booking.</p>
<p>I’m sorry that she is overweight. However, I don’t think it’s fair for someone else to have to share their seat with her spillage. If I pay for a seat, I’m entitled to every square inch of my seat. If she can’t fit in one seat, she needs to purchase a second seat for the rest of her body. </p>
<p><a href=“https://www.southwest.com/html/customer-service/faqs.html?topic=extra_seat_policy[/url]”>Customer of Size Information | Southwest Airlines;
^The policy is clearly stated on the SW website. I think she either wanted to try to save the money, chance that no one would notice, or wanted to make a scene so she could sue the airline for money.</p>
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<p>Yeah, you just have to look for the marathon runners.</p>
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<p>Every small woman who flies Southwest on a regular basis lives in fear of this.</p>
<p>“I don’t understand why airlines cannot make a few of the three seat across rows into two seats.”</p>
<p>Because there isn’t a predictable number of large people on a given flight, and if you’re a budget airline like Southwest, small people will often be unwilling to pay 150% for a wider seat. So the upshot is that the seats will go unsold at the higher price, and if sold at the regular rate it’s pure loss to the airline.</p>
<p>In defense of larger women, it’s been my experience commuting on an express bus for 25 years that women will contort themselves to make sure they fit in the seat, whereas even skinny men will spread their legs as wide as they can without splitting down the middle to take up as much space as possible.</p>
<p>True. Women almost always cross their legs while men will spraddle out wide as if they need to air out their private parts.</p>
<p>Well, there are larger men too. I guess that idad will have to worry about being targeted too. I guess that I should consider this when my daughter and wife fly as they’re both quite thin. I don’t think that we’ve ever flown Southwest before. Do they allow you to purchase assigned seats?</p>
<p>For small/thin women on Southwest, couldn’t you get together before the flight and agree to sit next to each other (or make a similar agreement with thin men)?</p>
<p>I have sort of seen both sides of this. My DS is a big guy, not a lot of body fat but a weightlifter so large shoulders, etc. Width of shoulders barely fits in his space. I can imagine that when people see him coming down the aisle they start praying “not next to me” unless its a girl his age as he is kind of cute 
He tries not to take up too much space and usually sits on an aisle so he can somewhat lean out or shift his shoulders toward the aisle when the cart isn’t coming through…
DH and I took a flight once where the person seated next to him was absolutely too big. Had to put his arm around DH’s head and his left hand on DH’s knee the entire flight. Talk about awkward. The flight attendants purposely tried to ignore the whole thing and run to another section of the plane. DH was good natured about it and the guy was a pretty interesting businessman so they chatted a bit and DH suffered through till we got to our destination. Really changed my mind about the two seats thing. This man should definitely have been in two seats and if he doesn’t pay for them then what? If you travel with an infant who you want in a car seat you pay for that seat. What’s the difference?</p>
<p>While I do have some sympathy for these large passengers I find it beyond irksome that I can be charged $50 for an overweight bag when my bag and I together only weigh half what some passengers do.</p>
<p>The airlines need to have a clear policy about this. If a person cannot fit into a seat with the handles up, then s/he needs to book two seats. It should be well publicized. How many people do they have to humiliate and feature on national news before they address the issue outright? I don’t know if the policy would hold up but by having it, it can be tested in court. What they are doing is cruel, not just to the person who becomes the object of being denied his/her seat but to any seatmates if such a person is allowed to be seated, which is what happens more time than not. There is no consistent policy on the situation.</p>
<p>I am one of those rare people who can sit completely (and even somewhat comfortably) in an airplane seat. But since I paid for my entire seat, I don’t want to have to share it with anyone. And I should not be forced to. Of course, I’ve had this experience and it is far from pleasant. </p>
<p>I along with almost everyone else on this board wishes that the airlines had a clear and well defined policy on this.</p>
<p>I can address the issue of why she didn’t purchase two seats. She has lost 120 pounds in the last year and she didn’t realize that she still needed to purchase two seats when she traveled. Her problem is not with the policy, it is with how the Southwest attendant treated her and there is an audio tape of what the Southwest attendant said.</p>
<p>It took some guts for this woman to speak out. As a society we aren’t very nice to overweight people and she knew she would be subject to some derision.</p>
<p>I don’t see how a person so large that they can’t fit into a single seat could not realize and even expect that they might need to pay for 2 seats. I can understand that in an effort to save money they might try to get away with trying to pay for a single seat and chance being on a flight where there are empty seats and therefore might be permitted to take 2 for the price of 1, but it’s common sense that if they can’t fit into a single seat and especially if there are no empty seats on the plane they should pay for a second. </p>
<p>If I had a physical condition that I knew would force me to take up 2 or 3 seats I’d check with the airline first to see what the policy and possibilites would be. </p>
<p>Despite the fact I think it’s common sense that the passenger who knows full well they’re much larger than average should proactively check on this point, I think the airlines should also be more up front on their policies and importantly, should clearly state what the size of the seat is on the particular plane. As the airlines continue to cut costs some of them are making the seats more and more narrow so someone who might have been able to squeeze into a seat 5 years ago might not be able to now even if they’re the same size. One can usually figure out the seat size by poking around enough on the airline’s website but if this is more and more of an issue then they should make it easier for the passenger to find the info.</p>
<p>If the passenger knows it up front they can plan for it, including finding alternatives with roomier seats if possible, save themselves some potential embarrassment, and save the airline the hassle and cost they have to go through as well when the person shows up and doesn’t fit.</p>
<p>Regardless, the airline personnel should always address the situation courteously and with the feelings of the customer in mind.</p>
<p>It seems they could address the problem by redesigning the armrests to make them into more of a higher, solid divider between seats. The oozing-over material would then be self-contained, and it would also solve the annoying habit some people (esp. men, I have noticed), have of hogging the armrest while sticking their elbow out into my seat space.</p>
<p>Yes, the airlines should come up with a uniform policy. How much should the second seat cost? Part of the cost of an airline ticket includes airport taxes and security costs – should the fat person have to pay 2X for non-airplane cost? Also, if the obese person can purchase 2 seats, why can’t H and I buy the middle-seat of 3 across seating? Two people having the space afforded by 3 seats. The extra price of the 3rd seat maybe worth it on long flights and still a lot cheaper than 2 first class seats. Or for that matter why should the purchase of an extra seat be limited to just obese people?</p>
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<p>Certain rows of seats on certain planes of a certain airline are exactly as you described. :)</p>
<p>I think they should just make a no ******* rule. </p>
<p>Surcharges: </p>
<p>$20 for not turning off your portable devices’ speakers while on the plane. Was that a Mac chime I just heard?! $20 please!
$50 for rudely reclining into someone’s lap. $100 if they have something on the tray and it ends up in their face
$50 for being fat. I’m fat because my butt is wider than a southwest airlines seat cushion. ACK! I hate my big butt.
$500 for getting drunk on the plane</p>