'Person Of Size' Angry About Need For Spill-Over Ticket

Sacramento Bee via Scripps Howard ^ | June 18, 2002 | Bob Shallit

[don-o]

especailly since I don't think I have ever flown where the plane is fully booked.

It does happen.

[OC_Steve]

Yep, thems was my skinny days. ;^))

[Jorge]

Remember the story, several days ago, of the chubby woman who won her lawsuit to teach aerobics?

Yes, I saw that story on TV the other day.
What a joke.
I guess the next logical step is for hideous scanks to win the right to be super models and force top agencies to hire them.
This is PC insanity.

[RightOnTheLeftCoast]

I've been stuck next to double-wides like this more times than I care to recall.

Once there was precisely one unoccupied seat on the entire plane, and it was right next to me. The staff was about to close the door for departure, and I was feeling pretty smug with my luck, when whoops: up comes the sound of running footsteps, and onto the plane heaves... the 400 Pound Man.

I spent the next several hours pressed against the fuselage by the force of his sweaty thighs that draped over the armrests like an avalanche of moist sweaty gasping flabby flesh. I don't see how his butt was even touching the seat. And the exertion of making it onto the plane at the last microsecond sent him into a half-hour paroxysm of coughing and choking. Each wave of pertussis was like being steamrollered by warm yeast dough.

Though it was only a couple hours, it was one of the longer flights I've suffered.

[SamAdams76]

I'm pretty big myself, 6'3" and 260 but at least I can fit into an airplane seat or ballbark seat without hassling the person next to me. But there isn't much margin for error which is why I especially hate it when I have to sit next to another fat person. But I'd take sitting between two fat people anyday than to sit next to a mother with a screaming or fussing kid. If they are going to charge fat people double, they ought to charge the parents of fussy children triple!.

[savedbygrace]

I disagree with your premise that you are paying for so many cubic feet of space defined by the seat, etc. You are paying to be flown from where ever you are to where ever your destination is.

You have paid a price to go from point A to point B. The airline industry has determined that to that that, they need to seat you "safely." That's why there are seats in the plane.

You may have agreed to pay $200 to reach your destination, but the person next to you may be paying $350, because s/he didn't buy a ticket until this morning. Does that mean s/he should be able to lean over into your "space," because you didn't pay as much for your ticket?

Of course not. You agreed to pay $200 to get where you want to go, s/he agreed to pay $350. You both got what you wanted. So what's the problem?

If the other person hangs over into your space, ask him/her to move over. If s/he can't, then ask the FA to move one of you.

If that isn't possible, try suing the airline. First, try to figure out what your claim is. Answer: You don't have a legal claim. So live with it.

The truth is that the airlines have reduced the size and spacing of their seats over the years to squeeze more passengers on board. At the same time, the population is getting larger in size. An enterprising airline will use these facts to their advantage, if they can figure the financials and the marketing cleverly enough.

[meyer]

I've been discriminated against since I was in high school. My head was too big and they had to order a special helmet for me when I played high school football.

Are you Tom Daschle?
:^)

Just kidding, of course. My opinion on the whole airline seating situation is that the seats are too narrow (and I'm not all that big, 6-2 and 210#) and leg room is so cramped that my legs or feet often went numb when I flew, even on short flights. I swear, they design the seats for people 5'5" tall and 120 pounds.

In the least, I would think that they ought to divide the plane into sections based on the size of the flyers. You know, like small, medium, and large. OK, just an idea.

[ladyinred]

Ah yes, but we mustn't profile people from the middle east because that would be discrimination.

[meyer]

That man needs 3 seats.

[TrappedInLiberalHell]

I disagree with your premise that you are paying for so many cubic feet of space defined by the seat, etc.

It's not really my premise, it's an assumption I made about the airline's possible argument. As I said, you either treat people as people, equals, or as cargo, by weight or space taken up. I'm not a lawyer, so I don't know what the fine print says. But I'm just saying that an airline might attempt to use the 'space per passenger' rule as justification for their new policy.

One solution is to have a set of seats that are wider, but are ONLY to be used by those who NEED them. Otherwise, if some skinny guy gets to sit there he won't be resented by the rest of the cattle in coach. Airlines have the number-crunchers, they can figure out a min/max number of such seats on the plane.

It is not a cut-and-dry issue, I agree. If an overweight person doesn't infringe on my space, nor get any extra for free (that he doesn't NEED), I'm fine. But if you give someone who takes up SLIGHTLY more than one seat, a free seat, you are also giving him the FULL use of that seat for free, which is just plain unfair. It means he can put his possessions on it, stow things under it, etc. A solution to this would be to allow a middle seat as 'fair use' by the passenger on either side of that seat. The overweight person would use it for his extra girth, but the 'normal' weight person could put headphones, a pillow, a book, or whatever on the same seat. For free. Of course, this is a luck-of-the-draw thing, so other passengers won't all have an empty seat next to them, but that's just one of the facts of life.

Man, I never thought I had so much to say on a topic I've barely even thought of before!

[meyer]

What you say is so true. The seats have gotten less comfortable. Planes that had 2 seats on each side of the aisle now have 2 on one side and 3 on the other. Its basically an effort to cram as many into the plane as they can. More people = more money. Also true, more people = lower fares.

But the comfort issue, if not addressed by the industry will surely be addressed some day by dot-gov. Whether we like it or not.

[Cloud William]

Wow... I finally get to post THIS:

*****************************

HAIL TO THEE, FAT PERSON!

by Allan Sherman

[Recitation with the tune of "America The Beautiful" in the background]

I would like to explain how it came to pass that I got fat.

Ladies and gentlemen, I got fat as a public service. When I was a child,
my mother said to me, "Clean the plate, because children are starving
in Europe." And I might point out that that was years before the Marshall
Plan was ever heard of. So I would clean the plate, four, five, six times
a day, because somehow I felt that that would keep the children from
starving in Europe. But I was wrong. They kept starving. And I got fat.

So I would like to say to every one of you who is either skinny or in some
other way normal - when you walk out on the street, and you see a fat
person, do not scoff at that fat person. Oh no! Take off your hat. Hold
it over your heart. Lift your chin up high. And in a proud, happy voice
say to him:

"Hail to thee, fat person! You kept us out of war!"

____________________________

Copyright ca. 1963 by Curtain Call Productions, Inc.

Recorded by Allan Sherman on the LP "My Son the Nut"

[technochick99]

Many of the flights I fly on are full, oftentimes overbooked. I detest sitting next to people I don't know who end up physically touching me due to size, or even due to not knowing the etiquette of airline seating. I have no problem with their size, but can see the validity here. It's a question of paying for the space you use.

[Xenalyte]

Dude, settle down with the quotation marks, Beavis! :)

[savedbygrace]

I've often flown next to a seat that was empty. Heck, many times I've been the only person in the row. I had all that extra room to stretch out, or put my stuff in, and I'd never imagine being charged extra for using it.

So, the premise, which is not yours, that we are paying for a certain amount of room, falls flat on so many counts that logically the people on this thread who are beating up on all these fat people need to take a chill.

It might make non-fat people uncomfortable, but it doesn't create a legal claim. Mark my words: the fat people will win this one. Maybe the airlines will compromise with some variation of your wider-seats suggestion, but the fat people will win.

[Cloud William]

Boy, that picture is a real "blast from the past". I recall seeing it as part of a "Ripley's Believe It Or Not" advertisement some 25 or more years ago. That fellow tipped the scales at around 1600 pounds, IIRC. The picture triggers a memory of the quote "Buried in a piano case", too. He would've needed more than two seats, looks like.

[doc30]

From what I remember, the Canadian SUpreme Court ruled that it was unconstitutional discrimination to require someone overweight to pay for two seats. If they need the extra space for there excessive space, they are to be given it for free. Sorry I don't have the link, but it was posted on FR about a year ago.

[the]

Or a crate...

[inflorida]

The majority in this Country are overweight according to recent government studies

I don't think that the "majority" of people in this country are overweight, although there are many obese people in the U.S., and I don't support making fun of obese people but they have to realize that until they lose weight, they will have to buy two seats when flying or go first class.
The fact is that most obese people are not that way because of genetics but because they would rather have a Big Mac than get on the treadmill.

***Before I get attacked, please note that I said "most" and not "all" obese people.