This woman seated between two obese people is awful but so are they for not buying the extra seat.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DH and I are slightly overweight and book two aisle seats. Then you can just lean into the aisle a bit. Then you just have to watch your elbow so mean flight attendants don’t hit you with the cart. I think they do it in purpose.

That's much more considerate than what the two biggies in the video did.

Thank you

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DH and I are slightly overweight and book two aisle seats. Then you can just lean into the aisle a bit. Then you just have to watch your elbow so mean flight attendants don’t hit you with the cart. I think they do it in purpose.

you are blocking the aisle, right? The cart doesn’t have that much space to go down the aisle.

I feel bad for the flight crew. Are you always looking to be offended?

FFS. Every flight I’ve been on, every adult in an aisle seat is leaning out and blocking the aisle. And I fly a lot, at least once a month

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I've posted on this topic several times before about my coworker. We travel a lot for work. She's a bigger person (definitely in the obese category). Our company pays for our tickets, of course, and she will pay out of pocket for a second seat to have a buffer zone. The only time she doesn't do this is if we're in a two seat row and I'm in the seat next to her (upon my insistence as I don't mind some spillage; I grew up with an overweight sibling and parent so I'm used to it).

We flew 8 times in December alone and out of those eight times, she bought a second buffer seat 5 times. Out of those 5 extra seats that were purchased, do you know how many times that buffer seat wasn't taken from her? One. ONE time the airline did not tell her that the seat was needed due to an overbooked flight. And guess what? She doesn't get to say no when they ask to take the seat. The first time it happened she did say no and the flight attendant told her if she persisted in being a "problem" then she would have to notify the captain and she would be deplaned. The airlines have all the power.

There have been times when her buffer seat has been taken and given to another passenger and that person has complained about my coworker. I always speak up and let them know that the only reason they're on the flight is because the extra seat she paid for was taken from her and given to that person. That usually shuts them up pretty quickly.

Does my coworker get money back for the seat she purchased? Yes. Does she often get more than what she paid for the seat? Yes, sometimes, but I can guarantee you that she'd rather have the buffer seat than the money. You know, since she purchased it to begin with and all that.

Unlike these people, your coworker is a nice and considerate person.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's un-PC to say but as a 4'11, 115lb Asian female, I always grab an aisle seat and pray that some normal weight person sits next to me instead of some plus-sized person. I don't understand how people let themselves get to such a size but yes, I also think this lady shouldn't have made a scene.

Why did you feel compelled to share that you are Asian? Do you have a weight bias against non-Asians? Fat Asians do exist, pp.

Also why is your petite size relevant? Should smaller people be rewarded for their size by not having to sit next to large people?

If the large people are impeding the "petite" person's seat, yes. I don't care why a large person is large. But I do care that they feel entitled to make another person's flight uncomfortable or to deprive that person of the full use of the seat that they paid for. End of story.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What's wrong with a premise that if you do not fit in the width of the seat provided, you need to make accommodations for that - either buy a second seat, first class, whatever. It is not shaming you or your weight to say that you do not have the right to encroach on another paying customer's seat. So just like you have the right to buy whatever seat you want (aisle, window, etc), the person next to you has a right to the entire space that they purchased.

I realize that several PPs mentioned that the airlines keep taking back these extra seats - but if we didn't have this intense fear of fat shaming, maybe they would change that practice. I'd love to believe that most people are the like the PPs coworker and dad who do pay for extra seats, but at the very least, the folks in this article did not. And I do not see why they feel that they're entitled to any space that they did not attempt to pay for.

Mic drop

The end.

[Anonymous]

Of course all of these people were from New Jersey

The middle passenger was just disgusting. We have all been in too close quarters on flights with people who are overweight, smell, look unwashed, etc. It stinks but that is part of airline travel. And it says very little for our society if we think it is acceptable to humiliate others. I am so glad that some passengers spoke out against the middle passenger.

If anyone is to blame, it is the airline industry for the incredible shrinking seats. I don’t know if the whole industry needs to subsidized like trains or what, but every year the consumers get less and less for the ticket price.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:LOL "I eat salad". What a nutcase.

I'm obese and I eat salad for lunch every day. No dressing.

But what else are you eating?

For breakfast today I had a banana and a snack pack of nuts (peanuts, cashews, almonds). Then I'll have salad for lunch. Then I'll have the mandarin I brought for a snack. Then for dinner I'm going to have leftover chinese food from last night - chicken and broccoli with brown rice.

Tomorrow for breakfast I'll have an apple and yogurt for breakfast. Salad for lunch. For dinner I'll stirfry vegetables, rice and shrimp (maybe toss in an egg?) kind of like a homemade shrimp fried rice thing.

I eat pretty well. The last time I had a sweet was last week - a colleague offered me a piece of a chocolate bar and I broke off what amounted to a big crumb.

You're leaving something out with this fantasy food diary. And you're lying to yourself too. Get up and exercise, and eat fewer calories than you burn while exercising. Then you will fit into an airplane seat.

Nope, this is really how I eat. I walk a little over a mile to and from work. I am seeing a doctor about this, because obviously something in my body is not working properly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If those two people were flying together, my money says they bought the aisle and window in hopes that the middle seat would be unused and then they get a free extra seat to spread.

I know so many people who do this and take this gamble. The other woman was super rude though, it was not the way to handle it.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:LOL "I eat salad". What a nutcase.

I'm obese and I eat salad for lunch every day. No dressing.

+1 My elderly parents are vegan, walk 5 miles a day and are still obese. They are short, and their metabolisms don't work that well because they are old. Doesn't give anyone the right to shame them.

I would not shame anyone either but will point out that vegan doesn't = healthy. Look, almost NO ONE is genetically predisposed to be 350+ pounds. (I say almost because there are extremely rare conditions that do result in that but they are extremely rare, as I said, and don't account for 75% of the population being overweight/obese). Go back 30, 40, 50 years and you don't see this level of obesity. Did our national genetics just up and change so drastically in 30 years that 75% of the population is now big and can't lose it?

[Anonymous]

No one wants to lauch Fat Air, the first airline with spacious seats in economy at a small premium?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:LOL "I eat salad". What a nutcase.

I'm obese and I eat salad for lunch every day. No dressing.

But what else are you eating?

For breakfast today I had a banana and a snack pack of nuts (peanuts, cashews, almonds). Then I'll have salad for lunch. Then I'll have the mandarin I brought for a snack. Then for dinner I'm going to have leftover chinese food from last night - chicken and broccoli with brown rice.

Tomorrow for breakfast I'll have an apple and yogurt for breakfast. Salad for lunch. For dinner I'll stirfry vegetables, rice and shrimp (maybe toss in an egg?) kind of like a homemade shrimp fried rice thing.

I eat pretty well. The last time I had a sweet was last week - a colleague offered me a piece of a chocolate bar and I broke off what amounted to a big crumb.

You're leaving something out with this fantasy food diary. And you're lying to yourself too. Get up and exercise, and eat fewer calories than you burn while exercising. Then you will fit into an airplane seat.

Nope, this is really how I eat. I walk a little over a mile to and from work. I am seeing a doctor about this, because obviously something in my body is not working properly.

NP. Yes, it would seem you should see a doctor.

Most obese people do not have a medical issue. I'm sorry you do have one. That totally sucks and I hope you sort it out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Of course all of these people were from New Jersey

The middle passenger was just disgusting. We have all been in too close quarters on flights with people who are overweight, smell, look unwashed, etc. It stinks but that is part of airline travel. And it says very little for our society if we think it is acceptable to humiliate others. I am so glad that some passengers spoke out against the middle passenger.

If anyone is to blame, it is the airline industry for the incredible shrinking seats. I don’t know if the whole industry needs to subsidized like trains or what, but every year the consumers get less and less for the ticket price.

This. Given that it's a semi-regulated industry, they should not be allowed to sell seats that don't fit the average person.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Of course all of these people were from New Jersey

The middle passenger was just disgusting. We have all been in too close quarters on flights with people who are overweight, smell, look unwashed, etc. It stinks but that is part of airline travel. And it says very little for our society if we think it is acceptable to humiliate others. I am so glad that some passengers spoke out against the middle passenger.

If anyone is to blame, it is the airline industry for the incredible shrinking seats. I don’t know if the whole industry needs to subsidized like trains or what, but every year the consumers get less and less for the ticket price.

This. Given that it's a semi-regulated industry, they should not be allowed to sell seats that don't fit the average person.

I agree.

I have seen plenty of tall, normal weight men who literally can't fit in the seats. Their legs are either pressed into the seat in front of them causing the passenger in front of them to feel their knees or they have to leg spread. I have witnessed other passengers be annoyed by this, but I think it induces less venom than the weight issues.

I am 6 feet tall and I think I'm about the top range of what fits comfortably in the allotted space without impacting other passengers in a lot of economy seats. There are a lot of normal weight humans in the world who are taller than me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Of course all of these people were from New Jersey

The middle passenger was just disgusting. We have all been in too close quarters on flights with people who are overweight, smell, look unwashed, etc. It stinks but that is part of airline travel. And it says very little for our society if we think it is acceptable to humiliate others. I am so glad that some passengers spoke out against the middle passenger.

If anyone is to blame, it is the airline industry for the incredible shrinking seats. I don’t know if the whole industry needs to subsidized like trains or what, but every year the consumers get less and less for the ticket price.

This. Given that it's a semi-regulated industry, they should not be allowed to sell seats that don't fit the average person.

Uh, it was substantially deregulated in 1979. To allow airlines to respond to markets more or less as they see fit.

Mandating wider seating would mean higher costs and fares.

And the idea of SUBSIDIZING people to pour carbon into the atmosphere is insane.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No one wants to lauch Fat Air, the first airline with spacious seats in economy at a small premium?

It wouldn't be a small premium, because of the geometry of airplane cabins.