Posted on 12/03/2009 1:46:28 PM PST by thefactor
There's been much debate about how to handle overweight passengers on flights. While some airlines may charge for an extra seat, not all do — and now a flight attendant allegedly snapped a photo on an American Airlines flight (destination and take-off point unknown), which of course has been leaked to the press.
A Flight Global blog got a hold of the photo, which they say the attendant took to "show her manager what was happening on the aircraft and why she was unhappy about it. Seems the guy paid for only one seat and the gate staff let him board."
(Excerpt) Read more at gothamist.com ...
How are you supposed to get by him to go to the can?
No worries. Nothing wrong in posting the same article twice. Have been guilty of this ‘crime’ one too many. :-0)
Either you left of the sarcasm tag or you're not the sharpest pencil in the box.
How are you supposed to get the cocktail cart by him?! Gonna be a lot of thirsty people in coach.
The question isn’t really should the airlines be allowed to take their money. The question is how much of the neighboring seats should somebody occupy before the airline MUST declare the person a two ticket passenger and give them more than one seat.
And when a person is that big, it’s the fault of the person. Of course our current victim mentality prevents us from declaring this guy is just plane fat and needs to pay for the additional space he’ll take.
That’s what happens when Gulliver trys flying on Liliputian airlines. He looks at least 7 ft tall.
He planned to drive but he totalled his car after he couldn’t see out the windshield and wound up hitting a fire hydrant and a tree.
“The poor armrest!”
His poor wife!
It looks real to me. What do you base your comment on.
I don’t know for sure what is going on in this picture. He does indeed seem to be sitting on the armrest. Notice the two empty seats behind him? HMM? The airline attendants could seat him there, if he’s not already sitting there and just talking to the guy next to him.
The premise is still good. Just like overweight lugggage is charged, maybe overweight passengers should be charged. At my size, I’m lucky :-)
This is the only point on which I disagree. It is nobody's business how that person came to be so large in the first place. That is that person's personal business.
Genetics is a tremendous factor in the second place and it has nothing to do with a victim mentality. It is based in large part on what you inherit from *all* of your ancestors, in part on how much you eat, of course, and other factors these days such as certain medicines that cause weight gain and difficulty in losing it. Again, that's not a victim mentality it is just real life which is far from perfect especially where human beings are concerned.
If airlines need to charge based on weight and bulk then they should do so. But to "hate" the large person into not flying or otherwise participating in the public square is just wrong in my book.
OK, defend your position then, smarty. I don't take your word for it... ;0)
as you can see at the front of the pic, there are people still entering the plane. those seats are most likely about to be filled.
Right ...
It’s their personal business all the way up until their girth is impacting other people on shared transportation systems.
If this guy was 20 pounds over weight and wouldn’t fit into the airline seats, that would be the airline’s fault and they should make bigger seats. But when they’re a whole person overweight it’s legitimate to charge the guy extra. But we have this victim mentality in this country right now and whenever an airline starts talking about charging large passengers extra people start throwing around the “discrimination” word.
There’s no “hate”, it’s just a simple reality. There’s no possible way this guy can fit in a single seat designed for anybody of normal dimensions. He’s fat, maybe it’s genetics, maybe it’s too much time at the buffet line, doesn’t matter, he occupies two seats worth of space, and the airline should charge him accordingly without anybody yelling at the airline.
No one to the right of the guy next to him...the crowd still boarding is in the front of the plane, meaning they have boarded from the rear forward...doubt there will be more coming back...no one is staring...the leg is in un unnatural position...doesn’t look real...
I think I sat by that guy one time, he looks familiar.
I wonder what he did when the seatbelt light was on.
I agree. Wasn't that simple? :0)
But the predominant emotion is less flattering and I maintain that *because* you are right that large people cost more to transport and take up more space it is the AIRLINE's responsibility to either charge more or change accomodations so that all their paying customers are satisfied.
Blaming the *airlines* is appropriate, blaming the large passenger is not. But we do things backwards sometimes.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.