But the plan is to charge a person extra even if they do not get an extra seat. That is pure hockey!
That's not how it works, as far as I know. The person gets two seats that he or she paid for -- except when the plane is full, which they never know until a few minutes before the plane leaves the gate, then the double-seaters get a refund for one of the seats.
When the plane is full the person sitting along side is subsidizing the obese person's fair for the "privilege" of being overly cramped. Come to think of it, the smaller person would probably be willing to pay the "per inch price" that space is worth to get it back for his own use and comfort rather than be overly uncomfortable for the duration of the flight. He may not think it's fair but his comfort is more valuable to him than the value of fairness. And he or she would probably consider the small dollar cost a small price to pay for comfort gained. From reading some of the rude comments I'd say that is the case -- comfort more important/valuable than money.
Am I the lazy ass so many talked about?
Obviously not. I shudder to think that you would take their comments personally when you know you're not. To do so would be irrational.
BTW, for what it's worth, in my #304 post I was talking to Miss. Berg in the manner I did because her comments IMO were ignorant.