I’m a big guy and I fly probably half a dozen times a year. (I fit in a coach seat, but it’s a pretty tight fit.) I go to a lot of trouble to make sure I can get an aisle seat, but I flew in a middle last weekend and it wasn’t so bad.
I’d be happy to pay a bit extra for a seat that was a few inches wider. I don’t want to buy two seats because I don’t need two seats.
Flying sucks for a lot of reasons. I’m not sure where this falls on the list.
I don’t fly that much and generally don’t see that many people on flights that I would describe as Obese.
I’m 191cm (I think that’s about 6’3") and 100kg so when I do fly I pay extra where I can to get an exit row seat otherwise I spend the whole flight with my knees massaging the person in front of mes kidneys.
I also try to always get an aisle seat so I can “spill out” into the aisle as far as shoulders go. Worst possible experience I has was being jammed in between two other people so I was crunched from 3 sides. (I’m tipping they didn’t enjoy it much either, I had to sit with my elbows attached to my hips and only move my forearms so I didn’t jolt them every time I moved)
People are generally getting bigger and airlines really should provide more room. But bigger seats means less paying passengers so I guess it’s economics that they squeeze as many in as they can.
They were discussing this article on my local talk radio program, and suggesting that fares should be based on the passengers’ weight. As they went on, one of the hosts made the point that some people are heavy, but very muscular. They are people who work out everyday, “…someone like Arnold Schwarzeneggar, and someone like that shouldn’t be penalized. So maybe fares should be based on their BMI index…”
And they were talking seriously!
Now think, this wasn’t about it being more expensive in fuel costs to transport heavier people. This was plain discrimination. This was just wanting to punish fat people. The heavy muscular body builder shouldn’t pay more, but the guy who’s just fat should pay extra.
Fat folks and pedophiles are the last groups of people that it is okay to hate.
Okay, maybe smokers too.
I’m fairly small so unless the person next to me is a stranger and wants to raise the armrest (not gonna happen) it doesn’t really affect me.
The only time it could have affected me (or kind of did) I was on a flight where a large woman next to me was insisting I raise the armrest so she could be more comfortable and I said no. She was absolutely furious and made a ruckus to the point of embarrassment but it was an 8 hour flight and if I had let her she would have probably taken up 30% of my seat. I honestly felt bad about it but I’m not a big fan of flying and I had no desire to spend that long with her pressed against me.
I’ve had this problem once, I only fly a few times a year. The only time it was a problem was in the States where obese people seem to be more okay with their extra pounds than Europe. (Just my observation, not claiming it to be a fact!) She was really in my face about it too, her whole attitude was like “yeah I’m huge and partially on your lap, deal with it”. I felt bad for me, for her and for the entire world by the end of the flight.
In the summer of 2002, there was a flight, a twin turbo prop, departing Charlotte for a city in SC. If I recall, a connecting flight was late, so at the last minute, they had many fewer passengers. The female captain repositioned the on board passengers, to restablish a balanced weight load, based on the planes center of gravity. She followed FAA rules to a T, which assumed an average passengers weight was XXX pounds. This was accurate data from decades ago. However, due to the crisis of obesity of late, a true average was now much more than XXX. So when she moved Y number of passengers from the front to the rear, the error was doubled. She set the control edges and trim correctly, then took off. The planne went straight up and did a ferris wheel ride, crashing right back into airport. All killed.
So in fact, over weight passengers can kill you.
The FAA has now recalculated the avg passengers weight.
When I fly with my gf we try to buy our tickets far ahead enough to pick ideal seats. What bothers me more are people who wanna chat. I take my hearing aid out for flights, plus I’m not a chatter to begin with. So I carry a dead tree book, wear earphones with the lead ending in my pocket, and pretend I’m unaware of those around me.
Cite from Wiki
Although the pilots had totaled up the take-off weight of the aircraft before the flight and determined it to be within limits, the plane was actually overloaded and out of balance, due to the use of incorrect, but Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)-approved, passenger weight estimates. When checked, the National Transportation Safety Board found that the estimates were over 20 pounds (9kg) lighter than the actual weight of an average passenger. After checking the actual weight of baggage retrieved from the crash site, and passengers (based on information from next-of-kin and the medical examiner), it was found that the aircraft was actually 580 pounds (264kg) above its maximum allowable take-off weight, with its center of gravity 5% to the rear of the allowable limit.
It was determined that neither problem alone would have caused the loss of control, which explains why it departed Huntington, West Virginia safely.
[edit]Aftermath
As a result of the weight issues discovered, the FAA planned to investigate and potentially revise estimated weight values, something that had not been done since 1936. Air Midwest used an average weight of 200 pounds (90.7kg) per passenger after the accident, but the NTSB suggests that airlines use actual weights instead of average. 70% of small air carriers still use average.[5] Air Midwest publicly apologized for the incident after the family of crash victim Christiana Grace Shepherd pressured the airline to do so. Air Midwest ceased operations in 2008.[5][9][10]
[edit]
I travel a lot for work, but flight frequency varies. Sometimes I don’t take a plane for half a year, sometimes I take two every week for six months. I’ve had the problem of having a next-seat neighbor who took up an inordinate amount of space once, and it was about 10 years ago: Sao Paulo to Newark, first-class seats of the kind where each seat is an individual pod with its own TV screen, game controller etc., and he still managed to overflow into my space. But it wasn’t so much because of his size as because of how it affected his sleep: he snored very loudly and kept falling asleep with his arms outside the seat and semi-waking up with a start and a flailing of hands. That was not a good trip.
There have been other times the person beside me was too large for the seat (or the seat too tiny for them - I think Ryanair actually shrinks the planes) but since they knew how to move without winging and didn’t flail about, it wasn’t a problem.
When I worked in Costa Rica, the line from San Jose to Liberia was serviced by a small plane (I think it seated 8 counting the pilots). Fare included a certain total weight: you got weighted, and the amount of baggage you could take was “total weight minus your own”. If the total weight of everybody plus all luggage was under the total weight the plane could carry, you were allowed to pay extra and bring more stuff; if the total was above the allowable total, you had to courier part of your stuff. Given the amount of Stuff one of my coworkers brought over and the plane’s size, everybody except the guy in question thought it was pretty reasonable.
Actually, in some cases you are.
[QUOTE=Delta]
Whether you want extra legroom or just want to add to your vacation experience, consider upgrading to an Economy Comfort seat. Enjoy even more comfort with 3-4 inches of additional legroom and Priority Boarding when you upgrade. Prices start as low as $9 and seats are available on all two-class cabin aircraft worldwide.
[/QUOTE]
That’s all fine and dandy until someone comes along and won’t let you pick one unless you say tall, grande, or venti.
The average seat width in coach class is 17 to 18 inches. The preferred seat width for an ergonomic office chair is 20 inches.
If you design seats for the average ass width, then you’re making it too small for 50% of the occupants.
The airlines have to do something soon. Leon’s getting LARGER.
Really, a terrible part of getting seated next to a behemoth is the labored breathing. I know you didn’t just sprint here, I saw you waiting to board for an hour. Scotch and any device that plays mp3s save my sanity in the skies.
How can you find space lacking, at 5’2" and 105 you barely even exist.
If I’m going to be squished up against somebody, I would 1000x times prefer that person to be muscular than…egghh…squishy. Also, while a muscular person might have wide shoulders, their love handles and ass won’t be encroaching on my space.
They have been occasions when the flight was so full that the middle seat was occupied and we all got well acquainted for the duration of the flight. I am average size ( 6’1" / 200lbs ) and it was uncomfortable and a bit annoying, but I blame the airline and not my seatmates. I suppose that is why they called the planes “Airbus.”
Fortunately for me, business travel allows me to fly business class so I get to avoid this problem.
Heavier people on aircraft was a contributing factor on at least one crash.
From 1995 to 2003, most airlines have assumed a weight of 180 pounds for each adult passenger in summer and 185 pounds in winter; checked bags are assumed to weigh 25 pounds each.
Since 2003 the assumed weight has increased 10 lbs for people; each bag increased another 5 lbs; and unchecked baggage, like laptops, adds another 10 lbs. So some airlines are just going with 240 lbs per passenger average.
You’re right. It should be illegal for a fat person to fly. Not a muscular person who weighs just as much. Just fat people.
I thought this thread was going to be about the various legal cases involving overweight airline customers being kicked off of or denied flights, or being asked to pay for two seats. Should have known better.
Personally, I am so narrow that I’ve never felt crowded by a large person in any sort of seat. Which is a good thing because I always fly standbyvand have to squeeze onto crowded flights. However I really wish planes had more leg room! I am average height but long limbed.
Yeah, because that’s what I said.
I’ll dumb it down a bit: Being squashed up against a fat person is gross. Being squashed against a muscular person is a couple orders of magnitude less gross.
Similarly, sitting next to a heavy smoker or someone with strong halitosis is gross.
I don’t generally like to touch any person more than I can help; but if I had to choose a stranger to rub up against, I’d choose a soft one rather than a hard one. Don’t get your mindset at all. Perhaps because I’ve loved, and not been disgusted by, and liked to hug, several very fat people.
I DO hate being forced into proximity with smelly people, but I haven’t found fat people to be any more likely to be guilty of this.
However in terms of weight restrictions, muscular people take up much less space than fat ones of the same height and weight… furthermore, men and women of approximately he same size usually have very different proportions. So if we want to solve seat crowding, BMI isn’t going to help us much.
Honestly, they should just measure everyone with a hula hoop of reasonable diameter. Step in the hoop. Raise it over your head. If it gets stuck, you pay for two seats. It’s not like securuty isn’t already degrading.