Fat Fliers: Charge Them or Accomodate Them?

I travel a lot. I have sat next to every kind of human imaginable. I have been kicked by children, elbowed by the broad shouldered, and hit upon by lecherous men. These people can be dealt with; however, there are two categories of people who no one should not have to endure as a seat companion: The odorous and the severely obese.

As for the stinky, the airlines should just turn them away until they can discover a little hygiene. The severely obese can buy an extra seat.

I truly feel for the obese as I was once there myself. It is a hard place to be; however, one of the reasons I lost the weight was the shame and discomfort I felt for not fitting in airline seats and amusement park rides.

Unfortunately, it is just not right for the person sitting next to someone to give up half their seat to the obese person sitting next to them.

I have sat next to NFL football players in coach seating and at most had to give up my arm rest to them, but not the seat itself. When the armrest is forced up and their girth is bulging into the next seat, it is time to pay for an extra seat.

I like Janice Taylor's idea of the airlines serving fresh fruit and teaming up with a gym to use frequent flyer points for membership.

United's policy seems reasonable, but so does Southwest Airlines', yet it is not. Readers of this blog must know that Southwest's Contract of Carriage DOES NOT ALLOW a passenger to proactively buy an extra seat for her/his own comfort. If the armrest goes down, you are only allowed one seat. I am obese (BMI 38) and have voluntarily purchased an extra seat for many years; I never expect nor ask for a refund. In a recent, humiliating experience, Southwest forced me to give up my extra seat when it needed it for an overbooked flight. I was told by Customer Service in Houston, "If the armrest goes down, you get one seat. If you're still cramped, well, that's just the way flying is today." So, be wary of these airline policies. You might try to do the right thing by purchasing an extra seat, then be treated like a criminal.

I wonder if a random company has a right to refuse hiring fat people for a job that requires travelling. Or perhaps firing a fat person because the additional cost of transportation.

Last time I flew on JAL the captian moved me to first class to make the flight more comfortable for everyone. This happened once before. As most airlines are goverment subsidized in the west I would suggest the airlines try and accomodate all tax paying customers.

You're missing the point. It costs them a lot more to fly fat people. Plane weight is incredible important to the overall cost of flying. And if seats were made larger then airlines could not fit as many people on planes, which costs money. Other methods of transportation do not charge extra because they don't sell their services in seats for the most part. Buses and subways are filled to capacity. Trains are booked by seats, but most trains are not to capacity like planes.

If airlines, which aren't financially well off anyway, spend a lot of money on anything, it shouldn't be making bigger seats for passenger comfort, it should be installing airbags, which are proven to save lives in plane crashes.

And, Wetzelfam, you should not have been punished for their overbooking the flight. They should have offered to bump you or other people (if you didn't want to go) to the next available flight if there wasn't space for everyone.

I say charge 'em! The argument that "people come in all sizes" is flawed, because genetics is one thing, but size due to overeating is another.

"Like we're throwing up our hands at America's obesity issue and saying, "Okay ... we give. Let's just make everything bigger."

This is the wrong approach in my opinion. Why should we as a society have to accomodate those who choose not to take care of themselves? Using the amusement park rides as an example, are they expected to make the seating on these rides bigger? To install bigger seats on planes means less seats on the planes. Next up will be the booths at fast food joints and other restaurants made bigger to accomodate the larger bellied of us, as if they aren't large enough.

The whole fat acceptance movement has it wrong. No, we shouldn't be making fun of fat people, it must not be an acceptable form of discrimination in any way, but coddling fat people and making them think its okay to be overweight is wrong too. And this is what this community does. They surround themselves with others who feel sorry for themselves and are hell bent on making the world bend to them. They need to understand that what they are doing is bad for them and costing society a lot of money. Personal responsibility must be made clear.

I understand why this is disturbing to obese people, but why should I, as a slim person, get less than I paid for (that is, a full seat)? Maybe an exchange could be worked out, where smaller people willing to give up half a seat get to fly half-price, and the larger person pays for a seat-and-a-half. I'm half-joking...

Charge. If we continue to enable the gluttony of the people, it will only worsen.

I totally agree with charging for an extra seat if the arm rest will not come down. A couple years ago my husband and I were on a 6 hour flight to Mexico and he was sitting next to a woman that was too big to put the arm rest down and it was terribly uncomfortable for him to be cramped by her taking up half of the seat HE had paid for. I don't want to be insensitive to obese people at all, but I think 'just making the seats bigger' to accommodate an unhealthy lifestyle is a slippery slope. What happens when the bigger seats become too small. Do we just keep increasing the size and continue to support an unhealthy lifestyle?

i would think the airline would have to post the seat and seat belt measurements every since all airplane seats are different. i was surprised that the person who purchased an extra seat was forced to give it up because the plane overbooked. if you paid for the seat it should be yours even if no one is using it. my grandma always purchased an extra seat for her purse and book. it was crazy but she paid for the seat because it made her more comfortable.

As hard as it is for overweight people, I think it only fair that they pay for an extra seat if they "flow over" into another seat that is occupied. It costs a lot to travel & quite honestly, as a small person, the seats are not that comfortable to me. I have asked to be moved before not only on a plane but in concert as well when I could barley enjoy it due to the person next to me flowing over. It is only fair to get what you paid for....

As someone with a MIL who is over 300 lbs (whom I adore), I feel terribly guilty saying this, but I kind of think it's fair. I know that weight is in large part determined by genetics, but there's a difference between someone who is obese and someone who is so obese that he doesn't fit into an airplane seat.

I'm not overweight, but I'm not skinny either -- and can't be unless I starve and overexercise (BTDT, got therapy). However, I don't think one gets to 300+ pounds unless eating for reasons other than hunger. Personal responsibility has to play a part in your weight.

I agree with Lynn--if you buy an extra seat, it should be yours.

Wetzelfam should have requested a refund for both seats, on principle. Not only were you doing them a favor by getting an extra seat in advance, if the seat is bought, the seat is TAKEN, whether it is by an adult, a child, purse, etc. Ever watch a televised game that is "sold out" yet you can see many empty seats? If you paid for the seat, the airline should be happy, period, since it has been paid for the seat.

I can see asking you to give up the seat in an emergency if the other party has a good reason (say family in the hospital or something verifiable--another example might be airlines trying to get back to normal after a severe weather delay), but then again, you should be given a refund, along with some other compensation (gift voucher or something).

As to land transport vs. air transport, air transport is very sensitive to weight issues, land vehicles much less so. Trains aren't often fully booked because of how unreliable they are as far as making it anywhere on time (at least in the states). It is not uncommon for the cross-country trains to be several hours late--you make better time driving. If you don't care when you get somewhere, trains are great.

But there does need to be some common sense exercised--there's a big difference between someone who is naturally tall/broad-shouldered and/or long-legged (they really can't fix that, and should be accommodated without extra charge), as opposed to someone who is severely overweight without a medical condition. Tall people with long torsos can't fit in certain cars--you can adjust the seats somewhat for people with longer or shorter legs, but you can't adjust the roof. Total load limit on a Toyota Prius is not much over 800 lbs, including luggage, from what I've read.

And, if the airlines were to widen the seats in existing planes, well, the space has to come from somewhere, as in the aisle. What about safety issues with that? Look how difficult it is to get past the beverage cart even if you're average size, or just navigating the clear aisle with your luggage when getting on or off the plane? Wheelchairs can just barely make it through the aisle as it is.

Just some things to think about.

I agree with Jody and susan--if you cannot fit in a standard airline seat, you need to purchase an extra seat. While I'm sure there are plenty of obese people that DO buy two seats because they know they'll take up more than a seat, there are probably more that are in denial about just exactly how big they are. I have been on flights where I have had to be squished next to an overweight person and I couldn't use my armrest at all. I didn't want to be rude, so I didn't say anything, but I think the policy is fair: if you can't fit in one seat comfortably, you should be required to buy two. It's just their way of making their obese patrons do what they ought to do anyway. I might add that now that I'm married, my husband and I always try to book adjacent seats on flights so we can put up the center armrest and sort of share two seats, since he's tall and big and I'm very petite. That way, whoever gets the third seat actually gets a little extra room. Maybe we'll have to start charging for the extra real estate, LOL.

Airlines should do what they want in a free society. If that means helping the obese to get their business, that's an OK choice. If that means charging them more, that's OK. In a free society, they need to be free to choose what services to offer and whom to offer them to.

Airline passengers are free to choose a competing airline. Or lose weight. Or travel by car or bus. Or pay extra. Freedom means everyone has options.

The "agreement" or "disagreement" of individuals, including people on this blog, is irrelevant. If you run an airline, your opinion matters. If you buy from an airline, your opinion matters. Otherwise, your opinion doesn't matter.

If you want your opinion to matter (despite being otherwise uninvolved), you are anti-freedom. You're setting yourself above the lowly individuals who are actually involved in the transaction to dictate to them as some sort of overlord. Because they need your wisdom to make decisions in their puny lives.

People need to learn to mind their own business and stop demanding things. The rest of us need to start saying NO to people who demand things. And we need to keep saying NO until the demanders become polite requestors. Then, if we ever decide to say YES to anything, we'll be expecting a "Thank You".

Though I respect the concerns of those disabled by this situation, I honestly think that it is fair to pay for an extra seat if you are taking up extra space. Seats cost money, as does, as previously mentioned, extra weight on an aircraft. If an airline is losing money, especially in this economy, because one person is occupying two seats for the price of one, it does not seem like such a stretch to pay for the additional space. On the contrary it seems like the logical thing to do. Additional seat=additional fee.

I think that since there are so many people that are huge, and it's not the airlines fault nor problem, nor should it be the passengers sitting next to them, maybe a compromise where they make a few rows that have 4 seats instead of 6, so if you're big enough to impose on your neighbor, you can pay 1.5 times a ticket, since MOST don't actually need two seats, and it's probably not as comfortable. Maybe they could make them big enough that people for whom their size is not their "fault" could use them too-extra leg room, etc.

there is no difference between a fruit and a cookie - both are just carbs...

Charge em. If you pay for one seat and you take up two, and the person who paid for that seat has to scrunch up and be uncomfortable, it's completely unfair. Charge em.

Studying physics, I know that weight is a HUGE factor in planes. I remember reading an article that said they account each adult ~170 lbs and each child ~60 lbs. (Don't quote me, I can't find the article I read this in, but the numbers are somewhere around there). If you have a passenger that weighs around 300 lbs, they SHOULD be required to buy an extra seat - based on the physics alone. They weigh A LOT more than the weight being accounted for. This can cause problems with the flying of the plane. I think safety more than anything should be reason enough to force obese passengers to buy an extra seat.

yes they should pay extra BUT there need to be guidelines posted. to avoid arguments there must be specific weight and dimension rules to be posted before purchasing a ticket. that way there are no misunderstandings during boarding. to state the person must be able to put down the armrest and not use a seat extender is ok if everyone knows how much space that is before boarding the plane and attempting to sit.

Charge. Anyone who has had to sit next to an obese person can feel the keening in the key strokes.

You want a horror story? When I was around 13, I got a middle seat...between TWO obese people. I seriously felt like I was suffocating. Eeeesh.

But I do agree that airlines should make an effort to provide healthier choices. I pack my own food for airline flights, but if they want to argue health, they have to truly play ball.

I think the rules ought to be clear when one buys the ticket... in other words - look at waist size or girth measurements before purchasing the ticket... that would avoid any extra cost or embarrassment on the flight.

As I believe in free enterprise I can see what airlines would want to do this but for the life of me - I cannot see how signaling out a "fat" person on the plane can add value to the airline company.

Your husband's argument that buses and subways don't charge is flawed in that, they should, too! Extra weight equals extra fuel costs, and decreased comfort for the average person who is expected to share their seat. It is particularly unfair when the extremely overweight scan the plane (as on Southwest, where you can choose your seat), find a smaller person, and sit next to them so that THEY aren't forced next to a heavier person. At times like those, I almost feel punished for my daily workouts and monitoring of my diet. Buying a second seat should be required.