I actually wrote a very detailed report last night (for economics class) on how this woman could bring down the economy. It was altogether rather disturbing, but funny just the same.
If Calista’s hips are 4 1/2" wide, I suggest Calista be somewhere other than an airline seat.
p.s. - if you want to pay for the seat to be modified to have 2 seatbelts, contact the airline - I’m sure they need a giggle, given their losses.
My mother suffers from sciatica. It’s extremely painful. The last Russian Empress also suffered from this and towards the end of her life she was confined to a wheelchair.
I definitely think she was in the right here.
I mean, I feel for the obese woman, but this isn’t right.
Hey Guin - I too suffer sciatica (AND I"M NOT EVEN 30)!!) and it sux in a big, big way. You can’t sleep, your leg/foot goes numb, shooting pain. Just a picnic alround.
I must say, if I was sitting beside (or under, as it appears was the case here) a fellow passenger on a plane, and my sciatica started acting up, I would be really pissed.
Too bad she couldn’t have sat on the other gal’s lap…
Hey Guin - I too suffer sciatica (AND I"M NOT EVEN #)!!) and it sux in a big, big way. You can’t sleep, your leg/foot goes numb, shooting pain. Just a picnic alround.
I must say, if I was sitting beside (or under, as it appears was the case here) a fellow passenger on a plane, and my sciatica started acting up, I would be really pissed.
Too bad she couldn’t have sat on the other gal’s lap…
Every American, Delta, and … whatever the hell that one that United uses out of Denver - turboprop I’ve been on has moveable rests, and seats that recline.
But they are terribly small.
Many long years ago I was sitting in a Dash on the tarmac in Sioux City, when suddenly the entire plane leaned to the left slightly, and a heavily panting woman of about…I hate to say this, but perhaps 450 pounds was trying to get on the plane.
She did not, in fact, fit down the aisle. The flight attendents tried as best as they could to force her body down between the seats, but she just would not go. Finally, they told her that she could not fly.
She refused to leave. She stood there in the little area just behind the pilot and co-pilot and started to bellow how she had to be on this flight so she could see her sister, this was discrimination, she was going to sue, etc, etc.
She did not leave until the pilot told her, very calmly, that he could not and would not take off with a passenger standing up. Then the woman tried once more to force her way into the aisle, failed, and then left the plane, screaming and cursing every step.
With every breath out, screaming about how she was “gonna sue”.
I’m quite thankful that I’ve been lucky with airlines. But, then again, I generally fly international with KLM, who is very accomodating, or when NO ONE is on the plane, so it’s easy for me to have two seats.
In the end though, it’s cheaper to just buy two seats coach then it is to buy one First Class, but I’ve never had to do that. WHEEE!!!
I’d never seen anybody who added an error when they double-posted…
The seats are designed for an “average” man - 5’10" tall and a 34" inch waist. Basically this means that the ride sucks for everyone who is not an average sized man. I’m 5’5" and the back of my head hits the point of the chair where a 5’10" man’s neck would be. So while he would get a nicely contoured seat to cushion his neck, I am stuck in a position where my head is forced forward by the contour of the chair.
Face it, the seats should be redesigned. And when they do it, they really ought to reconsider what an “average” person is today. We come in all sorts of sizes and shapes. You say a 300 pound person should be forced to sit in discomfort because she is a product of her own making. Okay, fine. What about a 5’2" woman? Why should she be forced to sit in discomfort the entire trip. She can’t help that she isn’t 5’10". The same goes with a 6’4" male.
The movie industry is redesigning their movie theatres to offer wider, more comfortable seats. The airline industry really needs to move forward in this regard and become more responsive to their entire customer base.
PunditLisa, I’m 5’5" and half, and only 120 pounds, and I was on almost 100 flights this year alone. I have not at all experienced what you talk about (although half of those flights were First and Business class…the other half were coach). Do you mean that the seat does not provide enough specific back support for you?
I typically have no problem with seat comfort. I typically have no problem sitting by overweight people. My problem is when anyone touches me. And typically, this is not a 300-pound person, but rather one of those 6’4" hairy behemoths that seem to almost breed on business trips (remember - to be successful in business, you have to be tall, pretty, and male :rolleyes: ), who drape their arm over into my seat. That alone ruins an entire trip - is it too much to ask that people not fucking touch me?
So I end up huddling away from them in the seat, and ending up stressed and cramped. Since a lot of the time IRL nowadays I no longer have my temper. The Old Angry Travelling Una is dying quickly, to be replaced by the New Despairing and Sullen Una.
And if two people the same height and size disagree on the comfort of the seat, that might show that perhaps very intelligent seat design is needed. Or else we have very different seating problems.
I just returned from a business trip, one leg of which I had to fly in one of those Delta turbo-prop horrors.
I have never seen a more cramped cabin in my entire life. The overhead storage bins were at the level of my mid-torso when I was standing in the aisle (and I’m not overly tall – around 6’1"). The seats were extremely small (and, again, I’m not overly heavy – around 210 lbs.). It wouldn’t have been a terribly comfortable flight, regardless, although I can usually get by for a couple of hours with a book and not worry about it.
The problem was my seatmate. He was a large man. I had the window seat; he had the aisle. He probably weighed in the neighborhood of 300 lbs. He wasn’t impolite, or prone to making huge, sweeping gestures with his arms, or anything like that. It just wasn’t possible for either of us to be comfortable given the situation. I endured the two-hour flight with my left shoulder pulled forward the entire time, and he tried to splay himself out into the aisle on his left. Of course, the entire plane was jam-packed with people, so there was nowhere else to go.
It was not a pleasant experience.
Fair enough, but they are not that bad. I’m going to go out on a limb and suggest that I am larger than you (I am taller). I would like more legroom, but I can live with it. I would like the seats to be a couple inches wider, but I can live with it, too. I do not expect the equivalent of a Lazy-Boy for a seat… and once again, if you do, pay to go first class. Its not “the best,” but they are better.
And you’ve seen what has happened to movie theater ticket prices in these new googleplexes that offer lazy-boy style seating and huge screens?
No thanks. I can handle a slight bit of discomfort if it means my ticket prices could go up 30%, if not more.
[sub]Disclaimer: 30% is a figure I pulled out of my ass, but I suspect it is on the conservative side[/sub]
I’m 6’3" and weigh about 190. A bit tall, but not overweight at all. I flew on Northwest this past weekend and shared a row with a businessman who was also not overweight. Best of both worlds, correct?
Except that I was mashed up against the window, and he was spilling out into the aisle. I tried to work a crossword puzzle, but didn’t have enough room to manuever my arm to write. In fact, it turned out there was damn little I could do other than curl myself up and wait for the flight to end.
That’s ridiculous. For two non-overweight people to be so cramped is ludicrous. I don’t believe that thinking it’s too cramped means I want a Lazy Boy recliner - I want a seat where I can move my arms. And I don’t think you should have to pay for first class to get that.
I don’t know why the airlines don’t just tranquilize everyone and stick them on little narrow shelves for the flight. It would solve their safety issues, mean they could cram more cattle on the plane, and they wouldn’t have to feed anyone. It’s already hard to fly anywhere and not feel like a veal calf, so why not go ahead and complete the process?
Airline seats are cramped, and I don’t think the solution is to either tell everyone to fly First Class (not even an option on most short flights) or to declare that they obviously want their own sofa for the flight. All we want is seats that are scaled for a real human being.
Um, wasn’t this link in the OP too…
Well don’t I feel like the fucking asshole?
Since there was only 2 seats in your example, I am betting that you were on a small commuter aircraft. And I agree with you (although I think you are embellishing a wee-bit. I am a bit overweight and sat next to other men that were larger than me, and haven’t been as cramped as you described). I fly on a Dash8-100 about twice a month and they are tight. But, since commuter airline flights (at least the ones that I am on) last less than 2 hours, I can live with it. I can read a book, have my drink and thats about it. Yes, whipping out a newspaper is going to spill over into my neighbors space, so I don’t. There is a finite amount of room in those cabins and short of removing seats there isn’t a whole lot that can be done about it… and personally, I would rather they don’t remove the seats because I have no urge to pay much more for my ticket.
However, I don’t demand another seat 'cause it aint “roomy” enough for me.
Would I like larger seats? Sure! Who wouldn’t! Do I want to pay for retrofitting aircraft so they can hold those of us that on the larger side of the average a little more comfortably? No fucking way, so I live with it.
So help me, the only thing I can think of when I get on a transatlantic flight, coach class is the term “tight pack”.
I am 6’6", weight about 385 pounds. Yeah, I could stand to lose ten or hundred pounds or so, but even when I wasnt so overweight (275 is actually a pretty healthy weight for me), Flying on an airplane was hell. It is physically painfull for me to sit in an airplane seat. The bones in my hips are pressed against the sides of the seats, And I cannot physically fit into a seat that is not a bulkhead seat on most airplanes. I dont mean its uncomfortable, I mean it would defy the laws of physics. My legs are just too long.
Oh, and the wheelchair analogy that was made is not so far off. Some people are obese because of a physical condition that they have no control over, just like someone who is wheelchair bound. Its a disablity.