Comments on: Overweight Charged For Second Seat On Airplanes: Is “Fatism” To Blame?

By: David Harrison

David Harrison — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 20:58:49 +0000

In the past few years, airlines have planned less space per person, so seats have gotten a lot closer. Thus people bother each other more. Importantly, it is not primarily fat. Muscular people, usually men, probably including Ben (6?3?, 250 lb’s), have big arms and shoulders and these stick out far over the seat dividers. It is not belly or bottom fat, it is the big arms and shoulders that get in your way. It does not matter so much what your bottom and belly size is, as what your arm and shoulder size is! So why not measure that?

Most importantly, we must not fall for the corporate policy to divide and conquer. So long as airline passengers blame each other, the airline executives chuckle in their big offices and keep cutting down the seat size and packing in more people for higher profits. Large people are an early warning – if 250 lb people can be made to pay extra, next make seats so small that even 200 lb people will have to pay extra.
We passengers need to blame the people who pack us in to make more money.
Now what to do about it?

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By: David

David — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 21:45:22 +0000

Restricting overweight people from flying would be fatism.

Requiring them to pay for the extra amount of space they require to fit on a plane is a fair compromise.

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By: Allison

Allison — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 06:10:23 +0000

Well I’m 5′9, 115 lbs. I’m taller than most woman, but also thinner. I luckily have only had a few bad experiences in flying. but my boyfriend is 6′6, 200 lbs. He is average for his height, but still too big for coach(he fits girth wise, but not enough leg room). If we fly togthher I don’t mind him on my seat, but when he flys alone he always upgrades to business or first class. Coming from both sides of the issue, we both think this is a good idea. Not matter the cause of their weight, the fact is they are bigger. The examples of using more fabric for clothes or bigger dog cases is a good one. It’s not discrimination, its just facts. We paid the same price, we should get the same amount of space.

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By: Valen9

Valen9 — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 00:29:28 +0000

I am obese. For all I know, some of these people are complaining about sitting next to me. On most airlines, trying to sit in a seat with the armrest down means cutting off circulation to my leg. But somehow, I seem to lose weight when flying airlines other than United.

On United flights, I need to ask for a seatbelt extension. Yet on my last flight, when I got off my United flight and switched over to my US Airlines fight, I somehow did NOT need.

And somehow when I fly JetBlue, I lose so much weight that I fit entirely into my own seat. I can put down the armrests without pain. How can this possibly be?

Could it be that JetBlue’s 17.8″ wide seats are somehow more comfortable than United’s 17″ seats? Or can it be that United is too cheap to put an extra 2″ of webbing into their seatbelts? Or that JetBlue contours their armrests so they don’t have sharp edges that cut into one’s hips?

Maybe we can all start to agree that packing folks in to 17″ seats causes discomfort for even those of normal sizes. And that people who feel trapped into too-little space in a flying tin can can get pretty trapped-rat hostile. And that airlines like United have long ago decided that passengers are merely self-loading cargo and no longer care for our comfort, and will use this to turn us against each other so we don’t notice how they no longer deserve our business.

Nowadays I only fly JetBlue anyway. I used to have elite status on United and even then, could tell from their program and offers that they spent their creative power on trying to give me as little as possible benefit while making as much fuss about it as possible. If they had spent that energy trying to give me as much real value as they could afford, they might still have me as a customer. And be making a profit. I have absolutely no sympathy for United, and this policy just points out how much they see customers as mere money sources.

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By: Ben

Ben — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 23:43:32 +0000

Im 6′3″, 250 lb’s and have flown over 125,000 miles in the past 5 years. ALL COACH. I also have had to deal with sitting next to OBESE people. Whether the airline makes another buck or not, it does not change the issue, that fat people are inconveniencing those who sit around them. I sat sideways from Chicago to LA last month because a fat woman took all of her seat up and a third of mine. Make em’ buy a second seat, maybe they’ll have less money for Pop at Walmart now.

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By: Somchai

Somchai — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 02:28:22 +0000

I came to your article Christine via the link, congrats on the mention by Mr Colbert.

Perhaps a more fair fare would be for combined weight, bags and person. I certainly pay full fare for my 3 and 6 year old. But to the crux of the issue we in America have lots of overweight folks, we also work very hard for many hours and the cheapest easiest foods are bad for us. I am only too happy to assist in accomadating all physical dificulties of others in life. If someone is very tall and my seat has lots of leg room of course I’d trade. Pregnant women needing extra time to even walk, grandma struggling with the overhead, moms traveling alone with 3 kids, or fat folks needing extra room. I like all my fellow humans.

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By: Christine Garvin

Christine Garvin — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 15:40:23 +0000

That’s constructive enough, Linda! Thanks for letting us know…

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By: Linda

Linda — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 14:57:58 +0000

Not to add anything constructive to this thread, but this article was very quickly on The Colbert Report last night. I was like, “That’s Matador!”

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By: Christine Garvin

Christine Garvin — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 18:41:36 +0000

As I mentioned above, the same logic would apply to tall people. I too am small, and have had about 10 times more tall, normal-sized men all up in my space on a plane than overweight people.

Trust me, I’m not happy being in the middle of two tall people whose arms are not only taking up the arm rest, but are also falling over onto me. But should those tall people be penalized for being tall? No, and it wouldn’t happen, because people would call that discrimination.

I think this has to do more with the fact that the seats should be larger, rather than geared toward a 5′1 (me), 120 pound woman (me again).

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By: Victoria

Victoria — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 18:20:17 +0000

Yes, it’s a touchy subject. Yes, there are genetic factors. Yes, yes, yes

But … if someone is taking up more than one seat, they should pay for it. As a smaller person, I quite often feel that if someone is several inches into my seat, I should get a partial refund. I’m not using my whole seat and I feel gypped paying for a whole seat. Someone else is paying for only one seat and using more than one seat. One way can be considered discrimination against fat people, but the other way is almost discrimination against smaller ones – we’re the ones suffering when we’re seated beside someone who takes up more than their fair share. When someone is so big they can’t fit the armrest down, they are in my space – mine, I paid for it.

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