I’m 5’10", around 180/190 lbs, and over the past couple years, I’ve been on a lot of flights. I always fly coach, and you know what? I always have room to cross my legs so I can read and feel more comfortable. Sure, I sometimes have to hold my arms in a bit, but there’s enough room for me to fit, and apparently, I’m close to the “average.”
The seats are a bit uncomfortable, but you know what? It’s public transport, it doesn’t have to be calm and relaxing, it has to be efficient and workable. The seats are padded, they’re made to standardized specifications to help supply “the average” person with adaquate support and comfort for the flight, but no matter what, it’s not going to please everybody. Being uncomfortable is just a little bit of the price you pay for being able to travel several thousand miles in a matter of hours. Don’t like it? Try driving your next vacation and see how “comfortable” you feel in your nice spacious car seat with it’s leg room and reclineable seats after eight hours? I’ve driven that trip many a time as well. My back hurts more, my knees kill me, so yeah, I would prefer the slight discomfort of flying, but I like the option of saving money by driving, and the drive is a bit more relaxing for me.
Which one is more appealing though to people who have a short period of time to spend traveling and to enjoy their vacation? Getting to the destination fast is what matters most, yes? Well, sorry to say, but when an agency deals with transporting thousands, sometimes millions of people a day, they can’t afford to have specialized flights or seating for everyone. They take a measure of their basic clientel, come up with a standard for what they are, and design their vehicles to accomodate for that. If you don’t fit it, I’m sorry, but you know what, the seats aren’t all that comfortable for the “norms” either. I feel for those very tall individuals who have the leg room problems, I’ve spent many a flight myself with me knees squished by the seat in front of me.
but if you’re too tall for the standard seat, or too obese, make this knowledge known when ordering your ticket. Specify that you need a specific seat for a specific reason, and I’m sure that the airline people will do their best to accomodate. If they’re out of those seats (emergency exits and blukheads were mentioned), then unfortunately, you’ve got limited options (upgrade, suffer, or get a new flight). Sucks, but hey, like I said, it’s mass transport meant to treat a variety of people, but not specified for anyone. Until they develope entire sections of the plane for fat/skinny/tall/short/pregnant/flat/shinny people, it’s not going to change.
** Denise**,
You should look into online booking. I usually fly Delta, and can select my seat when I book the flight. While it wouldn't help Mr. V's width, you can select bulkhead seats or the emergency exit aisles, which almost invariably have more leg roon (to facilitate plane evacs). Gives you room to stretch your legs.
Note: you sign an affadavit when you sit in an exit aisle saying you are fit and could help evac the plane, remove the door, etc.
I have seen people removed form the aisle for not appearing to be capable of this, having young children, etc. It won’t help everyone.
I haven’t booked a flight for us online yet, so I’ll look into that, thanks! Most of the flights we’ve been on have been with other people and they’ve usually booked them; sometimes they remember to ask for bulkheads/emergency exit rows for him, sometimes not. We’ve called in about the seating situation afterwards and of course can understand then if the airline can’t accomodate us. We have sat in emergency exit rows and are both physically able to assist with exiting the plane.
His width is more an issue only in the shoulders except on the narrowest airline seats, where I wager many people would be uncomfortable anyway. I always hope for a pair of seats then so if anyone has to end up being cuddled into him for the length of a flight, it’s just me. 
There was one flight I can remember where we were told absolutely there were no bulkheads or exit rows available. It was a rather large plane, but once the plane started filling up we realized exactly why there wasn’t any room - some (not pro, I don’t think) basketball or other athletic team was on the flight with us, and most of these guys were rather tall!
Why not? The options given for overweight people seem to be given as a) Don’t fly. b) Pay for first class seats or two seats. I think this is pretty unreasonable.
We have wheelchair ramps at businesses. They cost those businesses money, just as making allocations for very overweight passengers would cost the airlines. I say that if we are going to make businesses have facilities for people who can’t walk, we should have those for people who are obese as well. Is there a reason why one disability is more important to you than the other? Or, is it that airlines are somehow less important than getting into the mall? Should wheelchair uses be charged outlandish fees (twice as much, or more, as has been suggested for overweight passengers) in order to fly?
The callousness present in this thread seems to imply that being overweight somehow qualifies a person to receive substandard treatment and insults.
We do not rent a particular space or purchase a weight on airplanes. I think allocations could be made, or at least more suggestions considered than simply asking anyone who is overweight to stay at home. I think this is just as morally corrupt as saying that people who are wheelchair-bound should have other people do their shopping for them because we have no financial reason to help them with wheelchair ramps.
I resent the implication that I need to subsidize someone else’s obesity/ condition of being overweight through the cost of my airplane ticket.
Air travel is a privilege (and an expensive one, at that), and not a right. No one needs to fly to live, whereas everyone needs food (with the possible exception of Calista Flockhart) to live. Therefore, the ramps at grocery stores are necessary.
Like it or not, there are alternatives to air travel.
Bullshit. I’m 5’5", and airline seats are perfectly comfortable. Yeah, I would love to have more room, but considering that I flew from L.A. to San Francisco last weekend for $29 each way, I’m willing to make the sacrifice. If you’re 6’9" and built like a linebacker, then buy a first-class seat (and don’t fly Southwest; they don’t have 'em; or get 2 seats - it’s still a bargain). For Pete’s sake, don’t get the discount seat and then bitch about it. I consider Coach class as a discount for short people.
You want more room? Pay for it! I’m not interested in subsidizing you.
fluiddruid. What do you expect? Although it’s a generalisation, if you point out to someone that they have to pay extra because of disabled people, then they are going to be shamed into it. If you point out that they have to pay more for people who they believe (possibly incorrectly) to be responsible for their condition, then they are likely to be less sympathetic.
Just because I was born/became lazier and more stupid than you, should I be paid the same? Whether that’s the case or not, I do get a sort of claustrophobic/hayfever reaction on airplanes. I put up with it because I’m not willing to pay for 1st class, but I don’t irritate/harm my neighbour because of it.
As to the purchasing travel from A to B rather than renting a space, airlines have to run a business. If most people want cheap tickets, that’s what the airline turns out (with the resulting small seats).
hh odd that you ignored the rest of my post. the airline sells a seat to a passenger. not x amount of cubic space. The person who is 6’3" gets a seat. as does the person who is 3’3".
You aren’t suggesting (it seems) that a diminumtive person should pay less for their seat than the average person, since they’d ‘take up less space’. However, you are demanding that a person who is larger should pay more.
and, it also seems that you aren’t grousing about the person who is way taller than average, broader shouldered etc., who also will ‘crowd’ the person next to them. the complaint is for just one characteristic of being ‘larger’.
Anthracite pointed out the larger, but not obese person claiming the armrest, crowding her space. the last time my dad flew (and it will be the last time he flies), he was seated next to a large (not fat) man, who had insufficient space and crowded him.
I agree w/the sentiment that the seats on the airline are not designed to seat an ‘average’ flyer comfortably. They’ve opted to give up our comfort in favor of their profits. Direct your outrage to them.
The size of the seats was determined by the airline, not by the passengers.
This is one of my major issues with flying. I’m not very tall (5’10"), and not excessively overweight (my waist is about 37"), but I have fairly broad shoulders, and there’s just no way that I can fit in the standard airplane seat without. I certainly try to keep to myself, but it’s a challenge. So while some of the people who drape their arm in your seat may well be assholes, some of us just don’t have a lot of control over the situation.
Whoa, whoa.
First and foremost, I have yet to meet anyone that is in a wheelchair by choice. Secondly, I have yet to meet anyone that if they had the ability to escape the confines wheelchair, they wouldn’t.
I have a very, very hard time accepting that people who are so grossly overweight they physically can’t fit in a chair and if they do, they can injure people next to them can’t do anything about their weight, whatsoever. Sure, maybe “genitically” they are inclined to be overweight, but come on.
From the second link on the OP:
Bolding mine.
However, I feel it may indeed be a disability to some people, but it is one that for the vast majority it can be controlled.
Blanx said a large part of the way I feel:
Trust Guin… whatever the thread topic, she can hijack it to:
(1) Russian Royalty
(2) Glenn Miller
or
(3) Carter and Luka from ER
your post read
"question. - when you are flying with two small children, do you expect the airline to allow them both to sit together and fly as one person?
Calista Flockhart could get by with 1/4 of a seat."
I thought I addressed it.
Yes, and that seat is 17.2" wide, and includes exclusive use of that 17.2" from cabin floor to bottom of overhead bin.
If you fit in 1 17.2" slot, buy 1 such slot. If you require 2 such slots, buy 2.
No, fractional slots are not available.
If you can fit in 1 slot, buy one slot - a tall person may be hunched over, a broad-shouldered person may need to twist a bit (I do), but they can remain within the 1 slot. Persons 35" in diameter cannnot fit in 17.2", but can come close enough to fitting in 2 adjoining slots. Assuming the armrest can be removed.
OR -
how about this - all new planes come with 40" aisles running between bench seats - the check-in involves a bunch of check blocks - the narrowest ones you can easily pass through determines your ticket - who knows, maybe somebody could come up with armrests-cum-dividers to mark the spaces.
this block left intentionally ignored
Tread carefully, bernse – statements like this will put you on some very thin ice with some dopers. Good luck, my friend…
the Calista was a throw away line, you ignored the main point the first time around.
my point is that the airline sells a ticket for a seat to a passenger. your claim is apparently that only the obese need to pay for additional space should they so need, since you don’t seem to be concerned about the broad shouldered person who takes up more than ‘their’ seat in the shoulder or armrest area, or the small child who takes up less. The tall, who lean their seats back, infringing on the ‘space’ alloted to the person behind them also escape your wrath and indignation.
Nope, as far as I’m concerned the airline is selling a ticket for a ‘seat’ on the plane, not a specified amount of cubic inches of room. and they need to make reasonable accomodations for persons of varying sizes, as much as possible.
so, one-price, no matter how much you consume, right?
“reasonable accomodation” does not include:
a) Oh, you’re obese? OK, we’ll hold the plane while we rip out the interior and rearrange it so you can fit- we just love to have the planes (which are already losing $1000’s of dollars a day) sitting idle so you don’t have to pay $60 instead of $30.
b) Oh, you’re obese? OK, we will reserve 2 seats for you, but only charge you for one.
If I could pull 30% out of my ass, those seats would be a lot more comfortable.
Fortunately, the Atkins diet is helping.
Well now, setting aside everything else that has been said in this thread, the thing is…the woman couldn’t fit down the aisle, right? So, even if she COULD have fit into the seat, she couldn’t GET there…and the plane wasn’t going to take off without everyone strapped in.
Seems pretty simple to me.
And now I am going to hijack this thread (quaking in fear of retribution) by saying that the other day I was saying to a friend (Poopah Chalupa) that if Lou Pinella went to the Mets from Seattle I was going to be upset with him…I thought he had more class and loyalty than to quit (my beloved) Mariners to be with his family, only to go to the Mets, who aren’t in his hometown either. “What difference does a few hours less on an airplane make?” I said.
Well, my friend said, “That is because you have never sat on a trans-continental flight by someone who took up half your seat as well as all of their own. In those circumstances, every hour is a day.” Heh.
I now return you to your regularly scheduled rant. My apologies.
Since when are airplace tickets $30? Even in the overhead compartments.
But if you can find one for $30, I need to get from Pittsburgh to Boston and back over the weened of Dec 6-8. Thanks.
Perhaps you might like to read the thread before posting a snarky bit of crap?
The woman in this case, however, came out severely injured and recquired hospitalization!
Look, I feel for those who have weight problems, and cannot control it. I honestly honestly do.
HOWEVER, in this case, the other woman ended up with pinched nerves, sciatica, and has to use a cane. I think she’s entitled to be upset!
Hey, it’s a gift!