Posted on 04/15/2009 9:53:17 AM PDT by Steelfish
United gets strict on ‘seatmates of size’ Policy requires large passengers to purchase extra ticket or stay behind
By Harriet Baskas
Effective today, United Airlines has a new official policy that affects “seatmates of size” and those passengers seated near them.
The airline’s posted policy states that if a passenger cannot fit into a single seat, buckle their seatbelt with an additional seatbelt extension, or put the seat’s armrest down, the airline will ask that passenger to pay for an extra seat or stay behind.
Spokesperson Robin Urbanski Janikowski said the airline will first attempt to take measures to avoid the extra charge. “If there is another seat on the airplane that is next to an empty seat, we will re-accommodate our guest in that seat and there is no charge,” she wrote in an e-mail message.
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
Now if they could do something about “seatmates of odor”, and “seatmates of can’t shut the hell up”, and “seatmates of need to carry on everything including the kitchen sink”.
Can anorexics get a discount?
I fixed that problem several years. I don’t fly anymore. If I can’t drive, I don’t go. I got sick of the same $#!+ on every flight. What really pissed me off was TSA and the harassment that the fed gov calls security screening.......red
“Can anorexics get a discount?”
Only if you seat two in a “single person of size rated” seat.
Amen. I pay for my entire seat, through half of the arm-rest, and don’t you put your blubber into my space!
Sigh. Too many wonderful places I want to travel to give it up. Really too bad because I used to LOVE the flying part of any trip. Now it’s a trial to be endured.
It’s about time. If they do this, I’ll fly United exclusively.
I know I posted this on the earlier thread on this subject, but I felt a need to share it again.
I had a last-minute flight change once and found myself rushing to board for the last available seat on the airplane — the middle seat between a couple (a good 800 pounds between them), already seated in the window and aisle seats with both armrests up. It wasn’t a case of being able politely to ask them to lower the armrests. It simply would not have been possible.
What made matters worse was that each of them was wearing shorts and a tank top and was sweating profusely and I was wearing a mid-grey suit (can’t ever remember if that’s Oxford or Cambridge grey) and was headed to make a presentation at a hotel conference center just minutes away from the destination airport.
By the time we landed two hours later, I was soaked on each side from knee to shoulder with my seatmates’ sweat. You literally could have wrung water from my suit.
I had rushed so much that as I sat down I hadn’t removed my suit coat so that I was striped. Pants that were mid-grey in the front and back and dark, wet grey on the sides, a suit coat that was mid-grey in the front and back and dark, wet grey on the sleeves and shoulders and sides.
I was still wet when I made my presentation.
I thought I would be able to make some very quick comment about it, but I entered the presentation room to find that the #2 honcho of the several to whom I was presenting was a 400-pounder himself, who wheezed when he breathed just like the couple had been wheezing in stereo on either side of me throughout the flight.
And did I mention that I had little crumbs of stuff stuck to me because the couple had brought enough in-flight junk food to keep a family of five fed for a week? This wasn’t a glandular problem.
I still shudder at the memory.
The worst part was the flight home, because by that time I had started to dry out and my suit smelled like a locker room. Now, I was the offender on the airplane and I realized it.
Even after that suit was dry-cleaned, it was probably a year before I could wear it without walking gingerly in it, the memory of three gallons of stranger sweat making me want to gag.
Great plan - - - except for those circumfrentially disabled.
>>Policy requires large passengers to purchase extra ticket
Southwest made news years ago with the same policy. The Capitol Steps spoofed it by singing, to the melody of
the Eagles “Lyin’ Eyes”, “You can’t fly/ With giant thighs...”
Other than that, how was the flight?
So do the rotund ones get two seats or does United still sell that other seat to some poor schmuck?
Oh my God, that would have be bad. How long was the flight?
I’ve been next to someone of “size” on a crowded plane and it is not fun! Hey, I’m no lightweight myself (6-1, 220lb), but I don’t protrude over the seat borders. It makes for an uncomfortable time for everyone, including the person of size.
I wonder if that couple could have purchased just three seats then.
“Can anorexics get a discount?
Only if two can fit in one seat and weigh no more than 160 lbs. combined.
About as much fun as a performance of My American Cousin, and thanks for asking!
LOL! Excellent reply.
I agree with you 110%.
I used to fly to Newport News form Philadelphia on occasion, between having to be at the airport 2 hours early plus the 1 hour drive plus the arrogant TSA people plus the price of the ticket plus the 1 hour flight, if it leaves on time, plus the narrow seat it adds up to about a 4 1/2 hour ordeal one way.
I now drive, save money and arrive in about 5 1/2 hours and can leave for the return trip when my business is finished without have to worry about a flight schedule.
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