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”.
Well, I have to say that I agree with you here, too. We might agree on just about everything except where the "blame" lies.
To me it works like this: Once that passenger is actually ON the plane he has entered into a contract with the airlines just like all the other passengers and so should be accommodated just like all the other passengers. That puts the "blame" on the airlines if they don't live up to it.
The lawsuit angle is very true in this day and age and IMHO (IANAL) the airlines need to man up and charge all passengers in such a way that they actually make a profit for a change.
They need to either provide larger seating (which it sounds like they actually did in this case) or charge more or decline the passenger.Since the feds control this all the PC stuff intrudes and keeps logic and sanity from prevailing except by accident.
I still maintain, having said that I basically agree with all your points, that taking it out on the large passenger is actually a human, social failing and Conservatives should go back to respecting the privacy of people's lives EVEN IF they are inconvenienced at times. But then maybe I am a throwback to another era... my father's or grandfathers's perhaps.Or maybe we ought to try to "forgive" people for not being cookie-cutter perfect in size and shape?