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.
But it’s not that simple. Because there’s way too many people, with lawyers, that want to yell discrimination. This guy got charged to 1 seat, yet clearly is not capable of sitting in only 1 seat. But if they charged him for 2, or said they didn’t have the extra room, they get problems like Southwest had (linked to in the story).
The airline’s aren’t doing anything wrong, they CAN’T charge the fat guy extra, they’ll get sued or at least get a ton of bad press (again look at what happened to Southwest). And since you made it an either/or question that leaves only the fat guy to blame. If you want to break it out of the either/or we can look at a society that’s so addicted to victim status that airlines fear to say “you’re too fat for one seat, pay for two”.