# Should airlines be required to offer obese passengers another seat or two at no extra charge? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 13, 2023, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-airlines-be-required-to-offer-obese-passengers-another-seat-or-two-at-no-extra-charge/985445 "2023-06-13T19:17:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 8
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2023, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-airlines-be-required-to-offer-obese-passengers-another-seat-or-two-at-no-extra-charge/985445/141 "2023-06-17T19:45:20Z")
It’s not like it makes much difference if airlines serve pretzels instead, given that they come in ten gram pouches. Maybe airlines could turn all the seats into couches with moveable armrests and so charge less for smaller people (which is extremely likely to happen). ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2023, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-airlines-be-required-to-offer-obese-passengers-another-seat-or-two-at-no-extra-charge/985445/142 "2023-06-17T19:50:37Z")
Should obese passengers who buy an extra seat get two packets of peanuts? ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2023, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-airlines-be-required-to-offer-obese-passengers-another-seat-or-two-at-no-extra-charge/985445/143 "2023-06-17T20:02:28Z")
I find the flight attendants are generally decent. I often ask for extra snacks and “the full can” of diet soda and they generally accommodate if supplies permit. The difference between ten and twenty grams of snacks is usually under sixty calories. ---
**Author:** ![Mallard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Mallard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mallard)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2023, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-airlines-be-required-to-offer-obese-passengers-another-seat-or-two-at-no-extra-charge/985445/144 "2023-06-17T22:07:28Z")
Not a chance in he\*l would I support such a ridiculous idea. ---
**Author:** ![carnut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnut/32/3531_2.png) [@carnut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnut)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2023, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-airlines-be-required-to-offer-obese-passengers-another-seat-or-two-at-no-extra-charge/985445/145 "2023-06-17T23:52:22Z")
But of course. ---
**Author:** ![songsoflovetrouble](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@songsoflovetrouble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/songsoflovetrouble)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2023, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-airlines-be-required-to-offer-obese-passengers-another-seat-or-two-at-no-extra-charge/985445/146 "2023-06-18T16:08:24Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > On the other hand, such bans were not done to punish or deprive people but rather to increase safety and avoid inconvenience. Those are not terrible goals and I can’t fault the airlines for removing peanuts as a snack option in the context of the time and events. > [@puzzlegal](#): > > Airlines didn’t remove peanuts for shits and giggles. They did it because they thought it was in their interest to remove peanuts. The point being responded to was not whether airlines should be “faulted for removing snack options” or what their motives for doing so were. The point was a scolding about how people who object to blanket bans on anyone eating peanuts on an airplane are “whining” and risking the “major inconvenience” of a flight being diverted due to “someone going into allergic shock mid-flight.” And I am noting that they are doing no such thing, because, since there is no such thing in reality as “being allergic to someone else near you eating peanuts,” there cannot and will not ever be a medical emergency caused by such behavior resulting in a flight being diverted. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2023, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-airlines-be-required-to-offer-obese-passengers-another-seat-or-two-at-no-extra-charge/985445/147 "2023-06-18T16:11:46Z")
If you are right about that issue (i don’t know. Honestly, given how sensitive the immune system can be, it sounds implausible to me) and if the people complaining about peanut free facilities know that, then okay. ETA: Here’s a very recent study that partially supports your assertion: [Peanuts in the air - clinical and experimental studies - PubMed](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33548082/#:~:text=Conclusions%20and%20clinical%20relevance%3A%20Allergic,trigger%20moderate%2Fsevere%20allergic%20reactions). It put allergic people near a bowl of peanuts. None of them had a dangerous reaction. " Two children (2%) had mild rhino-conjunctivitis which required no treatment." They didn’t test having the peanuts being jostled around or chewed up by nearby people, either of which might release more dust than a bowl just sitting there. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2023, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-airlines-be-required-to-offer-obese-passengers-another-seat-or-two-at-no-extra-charge/985445/148 "2023-06-18T18:12:05Z")
> [@songsoflovetrouble](#): > > And I am noting that they are doing no such thing, because, since there is no such thing in reality as “being allergic to someone else near you eating peanuts,” there cannot and will not ever be a medical emergency caused by such behavior resulting in a flight being diverted. While we think that is the case NOW at the time the airlines did NOT know that for sure as _the research had not been done yet._ You are basically faulting the airlines for lacking precognition. There have been instances of people going into allergic shock during an airplane flight, it is a medical emergency, and it does cause a flight diversion. This is why the TSA allows people to carry their epi-pens on their person during a flight. There are between 150-200 deaths in the US every year from food allergies. People have died from anaphylactic shock on airplanes. Natasha Ednan-Laperouse died in 2016 during an airline flight (not peanuts, to keep to the facts, and not because of what she was served by the airlines - it was sesame seeds on something she’d bought before boarding the plane at Heathrow). Fatal reactions do occur, some have occurred on airplanes, and airlines have some interest in keeping their customers safe. So airlines being concerned and taking steps to avoid such emergencies is not the wild over-reaction you seem to think it is, even if it turns out that peanuts (after more years of research, _which did not exist yet_ when the ban was put in place) did not have to be entirely banned. Personally, I find a lot more to be outraged against in the security theater that has sprung up since 9/11 but hey, you do you. ---
**Author:** ![Common\_Tater](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/common_tater/32/13846_2.png) [@Common\_Tater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Common_Tater)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2023, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-airlines-be-required-to-offer-obese-passengers-another-seat-or-two-at-no-extra-charge/985445/149 "2023-06-25T17:00:54Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > Personally, I find a lot more to be outraged against in the security theater that has sprung up since 9/11 but hey, you do you. It all adds up, it’s kind of a cumulative thing. Show up 3 hours early, security theater, want to crawl up grandma’s ass with a microscope. And no fucking peanuts. LOL ---
**Author:** ![robardin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/43a26b/32.png) [@robardin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robardin)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2023, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-airlines-be-required-to-offer-obese-passengers-another-seat-or-two-at-no-extra-charge/985445/150 "2023-06-30T15:26:00Z")
You know what I hate? When some honking huge pickup truck or SUV parks in two spaces in a parking lot. If there are plenty of parking spots, nobody’s going to care too much - if anything, people are grateful for these trucks park in such a way as not to door ding their neighbors. But in any smaller lot, it’s annoying AF to see 1/4 of the spaces used as “door room” for vehicles significantly wider, taller, and heavier than the average car. Sometimes these drivers will retort that the spaces are too small - that the lots were created/drawn up when the most common car was a mid-size or compact sedan, and now the most popular vehicles are pickup trucks and SUVs, so why shouldn’t the parking arrangements be rearranged to accommodate the new plurality (if not majority)? But then the cost of parking will go up, either in dollar terms or (in a free lot) in terms of scarcity. The lot is only so big and that’s not changing. Meanwhile, multi-level parking garages with few spaces and tight load capacity requirements (like in Manhattan, or on ferries) already charge extra for “oversize” vehicles, by height, weight, or vehicle class (pickup/large SUV versus car/CUV versus motorcycle). It’s the same thing here with larger people fitting into “standard” airline seats. The total space and weight limit of the airplane is what it is. If that seating space standard needs updating for US domestic air travel to account for the average flyer having gotten significantly larger and heavier in the past 25 years, then things will get more expensive in a way that burdens everybody. Or, if these people are still a minority, like people driving a Toyota Tundra onto a ferry, they should be made to shoulder a proportionally higher cost. It’d be nice if airline seats could be slid around or rearranged like Lego blocks, eh? Some clever engineer ought to get on that. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2023, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-airlines-be-required-to-offer-obese-passengers-another-seat-or-two-at-no-extra-charge/985445/151 "2023-06-30T17:31:00Z")
You missed the chance to tie the two rants together. Very few airports have enough car parking. The lots are almost always at capacity. Many have been restriped to squeeze in more spaces labeled “compact” that are filled, of course, with pickups, vans, & SUVs that are too big for the old spaces, much less the new ones. Which often results in more wasted space, not less. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2023, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-airlines-be-required-to-offer-obese-passengers-another-seat-or-two-at-no-extra-charge/985445/152 "2023-07-03T03:23:51Z")
Even at that, they’re not bans on what _you_ can bring with you; the airlines have just chosen not to **serve** them as the common in-flight snack anymore. Which makes sense; they avoid liability and they’re able to serve nearly everyone a snack. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2023, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-airlines-be-required-to-offer-obese-passengers-another-seat-or-two-at-no-extra-charge/985445/153 "2023-07-03T03:27:15Z")
Honestly, I’ll be happy if they bring back nuts. That was always my favorite airline snack. ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2023, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-airlines-be-required-to-offer-obese-passengers-another-seat-or-two-at-no-extra-charge/985445/154 "2023-07-03T16:52:46Z")
Me, too. I hate pretzels. Nasty salty dog treats. ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2023, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-airlines-be-required-to-offer-obese-passengers-another-seat-or-two-at-no-extra-charge/985445/155 "2023-07-03T19:04:11Z")
Won’t happen soon. I suspect the airline industry sees most snacks as equivalent, even optional, and wants to do so cheaply while avoiding expensive problems like rerouting or litigation, regardless of any research involving allergies. I bring my own snacks. ---
**Author:** ![jadielyn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jadielyn/32/8808_2.png) [@jadielyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jadielyn)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2023, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-airlines-be-required-to-offer-obese-passengers-another-seat-or-two-at-no-extra-charge/985445/156 "2023-07-03T21:35:54Z")
honestly, as a person of size, i feel there has been a fairly clear lack of empathy in this thread. yes, flying is a privilege. yes, there are practical weight and size restrictions as the airlines want to stay in business and profit. However, everyone who’s opinion boils down to “I don’t have that problem so sucks to be you that does, IDGAF”, well, I hope you wind up stuck in the middle seat between two people of size on every flight you ever take in the future. But rant aside I mainly replied because of this popping up in the popular feed of Reddit recently and well, these folks might need more than just an extra seat. [https://www.reddit.com/r/facepalm/comments/14orskx/do\_they\_have\_a\_way\_of\_deflating\_those\_once\_they/?utm\_source=share&utm\_medium=web2x&context=3](https://www.reddit.com/r/facepalm/comments/14orskx/do_they_have_a_way_of_deflating_those_once_they/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3) ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2023, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-airlines-be-required-to-offer-obese-passengers-another-seat-or-two-at-no-extra-charge/985445/157 "2023-07-04T22:19:55Z")
Goodness Gracious Sakes Alive! Whole lotta jigglin’ goin’ on! The other day I had a pilot riding on the cockpit jumpseat. He worked for a minor league airline, was ~50yo, and he was morbidly obese. Not tall, just enormously fat. His paperwork said 325# and I didn’t believe that. The 737 I work is well known for a cozy (read “cramped”) cockpit for the two working crew, and pretty utilitarian accommodations for a third hitchhiker. He was so thick fore and aft that with his back pushed against the seat back his thickness shoved his knees well forward into the fixed structure of the airplane. He was miserable in what is actually spacious, albeit spartan, accomodations for scrawny but much taller me. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2023, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-airlines-be-required-to-offer-obese-passengers-another-seat-or-two-at-no-extra-charge/985445/158 "2023-07-04T22:40:46Z")
He was “jiggling”? My travel companion is very large and puts up with a lot of discomfort, but no one has mocked her for jiggling. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2023, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-airlines-be-required-to-offer-obese-passengers-another-seat-or-two-at-no-extra-charge/985445/159 "2023-07-04T23:53:38Z")
> [@needscoffee](#): > > He was “jiggling”? I was referring to the folks in the reddit vid who were very obviously jiggling. But my jumpseater was pretty jiggly too. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2023, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-airlines-be-required-to-offer-obese-passengers-another-seat-or-two-at-no-extra-charge/985445/160 "2023-07-05T00:19:36Z")
> [@jadielyn](#): > > honestly, as a person of size, i feel there has been a fairly clear lack of empathy in this thread. The last time I flew, I weighed about 265 pounds. I admit I still fit into the seat, but it was still a little tight with the armrest down. (I like the armrest down.) Last time I checked, I was 210 pounds. I’ve struggled with my weight since I was in elementary school and had to wear Sears ‘Husky’ clothes. I do understand the struggle, but… > [@jadielyn](#): > > I hope you wind up stuck in the middle seat between two people of size on every flight you ever take in the future. How is this even fair? I pay for my seat. Why shouldn’t I be able to use all of my seat? Obesity is a medical problem, but it is incumbent upon the person with the condition to make arrangements for their condition, and not force fellow passengers to accommodate them. It’s between the other person and the airline; not the other person and me. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-airlines-be-required-to-offer-obese-passengers-another-seat-or-two-at-no-extra-charge/985445.md?page=7) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-airlines-be-required-to-offer-obese-passengers-another-seat-or-two-at-no-extra-charge/985445.md?page=9)