Too fat to fly

He IS Too fat to fly for a single coach seat.

Airline seats are not one size fits all...


He needed to get the additional seat to fit his size... :rockon:


Good...

I HATE having Johnney/Joannie heffalump take up part of MY small space on a flight.

 

They weigh more too. Us skinny people should be able to take extra baggage to make up the difference. :heh:

Tom

 

Well, if they're going to charge for the weight of extra baggage...shouldn't ticket prices be based on combined weight of passenger and bags?

 

When I pay for a seat, I have a right to the WHOLE seat! Someone who spills over into my seat is STEALING my space.

Now if we weren't such a f***ed-up society, here's what would happen:

You'd pay on an airline according to the total weight of yourself and all baggage, including carry-on, and there would be a reasonable number of over-size seats for fat people, who'd be paying for their weight and therefore deserve a large enough seat for their bulk. My sister, who is grossly fat, refuses to fly in puddle-jumpers because their seats are too small for her, and has to fly first class in jets to get a big enough seat. It happens she likes the luxury of first class, but fat people should be able to get seats large enough for their bulk without having to pay for the service in first class if they don't want it. But they should have to pay for their weight. Just as everyone should have to pay for the weight of their luggage, and people who fly with less luggage should pay less.

And they are not "customers of size." Everyone is of some size or other. They are fat.

 

First off I'd recommend watching the TV show Airline Season 1 - it is available on Netflix and you can stream it online. Decent show about the day to day grind of Southwest. The oversize issue is one that is covered a few times in the show. Not a bad show - I'd give it a solid B.

One big thing to note is that the policy that Southwest has is similar to other airlines in that larger passengers with one big exception - they will refund the cost of the second seat if the plane is not full - not perfect but pretty darned fair.

A couple of earlier posts mention that Southwest does not care if the folks on ether side of the larger person mind. I actually think the fact that the airline makes the decision is better - the last thing that you want is to be made the feel like a jerk just because you objected to being squished while flying across the country.

So, to me the policy is fair. The biggest issue though is that Southwest applies policies inconsistently and this is a problem that I have run into on more than one occasion. The first time I was on a Florida vacation and brought my golf clubs - no issue going down, but on the way back I was told that I needed to sign a damage waiver for my clubs as I was using a soft cover. I had no choice to comply as I needed to get home so had my clubs been damaged I would have been out of luck. My beef was that I should have been told on my flight down when I could have chosen to leave my clubs in my car - on the flight back I was stuck. This happens on all sorts of issues - the other that comes to mind with young kids - under 2 and they do not need a ticket. Sometimes they ask for a birth certificate, many times they do not. The large passenger policy is handled the same way.

I'm all for companies empowering their staff to make decisions and help passengers on the fly - much really great service is given this way. However decisions that can mess with a customer really need to be handled consistently - these policies should never come as a surprise to the people that they impact. Large passengers should always be told that there is a chance that they will need a second seat - make sure that they are never pulled off a plane like this guy - how degrading. In my opinion the policy gets an A but the way that they implement it gets an F.

 

That this issue has become common enough to warrant a policy in the first place is indicative of a much bigger problem than the occasional obese person who wants to travel.
When the majority of our population was not obese, this was in infrequent enough problem that airline crews could just modify on a case by case basis.

I'm more concerned with the underlying causal factors creating the need for a policy than how to solve the intrusion of the symptoms into my life and comfort zone.

 

Well he did admit once that he was so big, he broke his toilet.

 

Well I'm a fat bugger and I always fly on the cheapest ticket I can get. I don't care that my flight is subsidised by skinny people. Some skinny people I have sat next to encroach on my space. I always sit down the back of the plane where it is more likely I will have a vacant seat beside me, because I like the space so I can put my laptop on the tray table of the seat along side me to allow a more comfortable viewing distance of my movies.

I do on line check in as late as I can to try and secure a window seat with no one next to me.

 

With obesity being an epidemic in this country now (and spreading to others as well), perhaps the industry should think about having a 'test seat' available prior to boarding, perhaps in conjunction with the security check. Just like you have to make sure your bag fits in a certain box, maybe people of size should pass a 'fit' test. It could be done discreetly, just like when the security thing beeps because it detects my metal implants, it could beep when it detects a height/weight ratio above a certain amount, and the individual could be pulled aside with the other hip replacement folks who are getting wanded (except they'd have to go through a different exercise).

 

I still think that charging by total weight of passenger plus all luggage, including carry-on, and then providing wider seats in coach for people who require them, makes sense.

Here's something that makes no sense at all: You have a weight limit for your checked baggage but not for your carry-on.

 

At our local theme park, one ride has such a seat so you can see if you fit before you join the 1 hour queue..

 

Some airlines in europe have a carry on weight limit and can weigh your carry on luggage (and check it for size) so maybe it will be coming to an airline near you soon?

 

That will be good, since all I carry on is my knapsack, and if I'm not one of the first on board, the overhead bins will be full from everyone else bringing two big bags (one masquerading as a "personal item" though clearly a suitcase). I've even had people shove their suitcase on top of my knapsack. They say if you have two items, put one under the seat, but they never enforce that.

They should give each passenger a volume allocation in the overhead racks. If you don't need your allotted volume, you could auction it. If you have too much stuff and are unwilling to bid enough to buy more space, you'd have to check your extra bag.

I've been on island-hoppers where they weigh your carry-on along with your checked luggage, and charge a bundle for over-weight. And since I'm likely to have my scuba gear, I'm always over weight. But it makes sense that people with more weight pay extra. Only, that should be based on the total weight you take on the plane, which includes yourself.

When I take the helicopter into one of the wilderness hiking lodges I visit, they do weigh the passengers with all their luggage. They have this scale big enough for 4 or 5 people with all their luggage. It's a safety matter. But they don't charge extra. People make an effort not to have too much stuff, and then they juggle people from one flight to another, mixing heavier passenger-luggage combos with lighter to keep the weight within what the helicopter can handle.

 

It could have been worse. He could have been carrying Arabic flash cards.

My favorite part:

When I've traveled to Europe, I've been known to carry a German phrasebook. I'm glad the TSA never stopped me ("Do you know who spoke German? HITLER!"). No wonder I never travel anymore.

 

lol maybe there should be a 100kg international person limit, after which you pay a premium and are obliged to purchase two seats. I suppose it is amusing unless you are a, the fat person or b, the person sitting next to the fat person.

Crushed by ‘obese’ passenger -Times Online

 

I refuse to let the bastards keep me from traveling to cool places. I'll be polite to them and smile and jump through whatever hoops they demand, but I won't let them intimidate me into staying home. Seasickness is another matter. That might keep me home. But the security bastards won't.

 

"police were suspicious that the student's hair was shorter that day than it was in his Pennsylvania driver's license photo. "That," Lt. Louis Liberati said, is "an indication sometimes that somebody may have gone through a radicalization.".

ROFPML

 

Yeah, that's utterly insane. What, you're not allowed to get a haircut? Of course, if his hair had been longer than in the photo they'd have said that was evidence of radicalization.

It would probably help if they hired somebody other than high-school drop-outs for TSA.