Quote:
Originally Posted by ggforever
Sorry, but the arm rest does divide the "space" you are renting on that particular flight with the airline. If you need two seats then you should pay for the extra space. A seat belt extension should mean you pay at least 1/2 price to purchase the seat next to you. Also, if you read my post, my husband would never feel victimized.
The gate agent knew there would be a problem with putting an obese person on a full flight. The agent passed this problem on to the flight crew to resolve, shuts the door and the nightmares begin. The agent just wants the plane off the gate on time.
Until you have experienced a long flight with another passenger spilling over into your seat, no one should be critical of this passenger. Obviously, the flight attendants sympathized with him because there is no way on God's green earth they would have allowed a passenger to be in the aisle or in their galley and working around him otherwise.
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The seat belt extender and the arm rests are two different things. It is entirely possible to sit in the seat with the armrests down and still need an extender. There are people that are wide and people that are thick (I see this all the time on CTs). Differences in body shape would make your rule unfair for people in who may not fit comfortably but fit safely in their seat. BTW, I don't disagree with you about this situation. The man complaining in this story should have politely refused to put his armrest up. If the other passenger couldn't fit at that point, then it is on the other passenger. The airlines won't address this issue so the larger man should have been given a voucher and put on another flight.
A lot of this story sounds like the man was mad to be sitting next to an obese passenger. One of Dr. Phil's links made it sound like he wouldn't, not that he couldn't buckle his seat belt. As a frequent flyer, I haven't figured out why he wouldn't be able to do so.
For everyone, I disagree with the denigration of the large passenger. No need to call him "fatty." The man was obese. Call it what it is. Anything else is rude and blaming him for a situation that the airline didn't control. The airlines have not made a policy that obese passengers must buy two tickets. They don't want to deal with the PR issue and would rather put out small fires. Then again, I don't blame them. How do you define before hand who will need to buy two tickets? This is not an issue that is confined to the obese. The same issues have occurred with people who are just big people, ie a 6'7" man can't squeeze into those little seats.