But the ranter didn’t imply that all fat people stink, at all. Does ANYONE really believe that? The ranter is saying THIS fat dude stinks.
In other words: They didn’t.
I’m not for public shaming but seriously, if you’re going to make sure you’re clean and smelling good just one day out of the year it should be on the day that you’re going to be taking up three quarters of a row of seats on an airplane.
That was a joke. Sorry if I didn’t make that clearer.
And what do the people sitting in the seats next to you have to say? Back when I was a skinny 5’7" broad and traveled a fair amount, getting stuck next to guys slightly over the normal height of 5’9 or so got uncomfortable. Broad shoulders, taking up the arm rest and slightly over tended to make me have to huddle in my seat unless i wanted to snuggle right up to some stranger. Men are like ice cream cones - you can have your ass fit the seat but your shoulders overlap into my airspace.
It would be lovely if we [in general] could figure out how to pressure the airlines into actually installing a sane amount of seats sized to reflect the growing [heh] size of humans in the airplanes for both the safety of evacuation and the comfort of the passengers. I can deal with paying for drinks and snacks, or even entire meals, but I can bring my own goodies. What I can’t do is cram my ass in a smaller and smaller seat with less and less space for my legs and arms. Unless they roll us into cylinders and stack us like cigarettes how the fuck much smaller can they take the space they cram us into? They need to limit the weight of both checked and carry on luggage, make adjustments for the general increase in size and weight of the average passenger and consider not trying to squeeze out every penny for the stockholders while abusing the passengers.
Yeah, but are you going to pay for it? In general, the answer is “probably not”. People want cheap flights more than they want big seats or frills. They’re pretty rational to want that; it’s a value choice that most people make and I think they made the right one. If you’re willing to start paying double for a seat, you can probably do quite well for yourself flying.
Well, we don’t know that. All we have is the story the dickhead posted on his blog. He seemed to be OK using hyperbole reguarding the guys weight, most likely he did the same about the guys odor as well.
Perhaps the obese man had paid the extra money to get a seat with a little extra room as well and got stuck next to an intolerant dick for the duration of the flight.
Exactly. You can already pay for extra room. And even when they throw in a couple of other perks like getting on the plane first and an extra bag of peanuts, but most people still don’t take that option. I think there’s a disconnect because people don’t understand how expensive air travel actually is.
I’m surprised more rants like this aren’t published. Flying has become such a miserable PITA. Starting with the parking, the TSA screening, long waits, and then the cramped airplane seats.
I’ve reached a point that I drive if my destination is within 350 miles of my home. I rather spend that 6 hours in my car then waste it at the airport standing in lines and dealing with the TSA.
I’m not sure why you’re surprised not to see such rants published; a miserable experience flying has become the norm.
I’m old enough to remember when flying was fun. We used to take a shuttle flight from Little Rock to Dallas for a day trip of shopping, sight seeing, and eating. Hit the clubs that night and watch a show. It left very early like 6:30 AM and we got back that night about 11. It was very competitively priced and affordable.
No way would anyone do that now. I don’t think the airlines promote those day trips anymore. Flying isn’t supposed to be for fun anymore.
Excellent questions. There’s a safety issue here.
I would be willing to pay another hundred or so for longer flights but if I were willing to pay double I might as well fly business class.
Did you see the proposed ‘standing’ seating someone came up with? Talk about being crammed in like freaking sardines… for someone with impingements in both hips and erroded sockets these seats would disjoint my hips. Regular seats where I can’t shift around are torture enough.
If reading the blogger’s description of horrid hygiene leads to instant self-recognition, maybe it would be a good thing?
Well I thought it was funny. And true. Since when was being motivated to improve one’s physical condition offensive? Those :rolleyes:s are rolling right back at you.
Exactly. If he’s going to compare the guy to a young hippo, I’m going to round down his claims of smell of feces to “maybe a little sweaty.”
Are they seriously only 17" wide? I’ve got a tape measure right here, and my ass is about 18" across, so it seems I’d have a rather uncomfortable flight. FTR, I’m a 5’11", ~180 pound man. Hardly a behemoth.
I thought you were going somewhere else entirely with that metaphor, and am disappointed. I am a bad person.
But sign me up to the list of people unsurprised by the Daily Mail printing vitriolic rants about, well, anything. Large salt grains may need to be taken with regard to factual accuracy.
The narrowest can actually be LESS than 17" wide (16.8" on some regional jets, I believe). And 18" used to be the standard for economy class seats on long-haul international routes, but many airlines are now reconfiguring those planes for 17" seats in order to cram more seats in. Imagine wedging your 18" butt into a 17" seat for 10+ hours. OUCH!
A standard office chair is 20" wide. That’s a first-class seat on a plane. No wonder flying is so uncomfortable!
Plane seats ARE too small, but honestly, many people are also too large. You could give people 20 inches of seat room and some rather large percentage of Americans (and Aussies, English, etc.) would still be encroaching on the “paid for” space of the person next to them. AND many people are also far too intolerant (although the combination of large stranger who you can’t avoid touching because he is taking up some of your eighteen inches WITH poor hygiene or a lot of cologne is pretty much the definition of intolerable for me, add in a poor set of personal boundaries so that he TALKS to me in too personal a manner (e.g. “flirting”) and I generally stage an intolerant rant after exiting the plane as well. The nice thing about the new electronics available on takeoff is that you can establish from the moment you board that you are really into your combination of headphone input and Kindle, rather than having the shield go through a drop in the beginning that encourages impertinence for the duration of the flight). You never need to allocate blame, there is plenty to go around.
Many women who fly a lot fly with a large scarf. It can be used for warmth, draped over the head for sleep and can be used to shield - both privacy and smells when wrapped around the face.
Man, I just flew on Spirit fucking Airlines, the preferred air carrier of Hell, and the seats were not too narrow. Jesus Christ. Legroom, though, was some serious, *serious *bullshit. Holy fuck, my knees touched the seat in front of me the entire time.