Posted on 05/12/2011 11:55:20 AM PDT by rightwingintelligentsia
After losing 120lbs flying has become less of a big issue for one woman.
But Kenlie Tiggeman, from Galliano, Louisiana, was cruelly reminded of her battle to lose weight this Easter when Southwest airlines said she and her mother were 'too fat to fly.'
Miss Tiggeman, a political strategist, and her mother Joan Charpentier, were on a stop-over in Dallas when they were singled out by an official in front of some 100 other passengers because of their size.
Another larger lady due on the same flight had also been targeted
'I asked him what the weight restrictions were and he said that he didn't know, just that we were too heavy to fly. Too fat to fly,' Miss Tiggeman told WDSU News.
The airline's 'customers of size' policy states passengers have to purchase a second seat if they cannot fit between the armrests, which are 17-inches across. However customers may be able to claim the money back if the flight isn't sold out.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Well, Responsibility2nd DID forget to ping Laz on the first post.
BTTT!
And I LOVE Southwest, only airplane I flew for years. Never late, always polite, and at 6’1” (height-weight proportionate), was typically able to get the rows with more leg room. (Now I won’t fly because of TSA jackboots, but that’s another story.)
My brother recently had to fly in after his Marine mission, overseas to the US, squeezed in by a Jabba on a United flight. He had to spend much of his time standing and talking to the flight attendants, because otherwise, he would have had to sit crooked (and into the aisle) the whole time!! They felt sorry for him and apologized, and only made him sit when required. But how ridiculous.
And besides. She is relevant to this thread.
From the article...
Although ‘Itsy and Bitsy’, as she calls them, have made her a comfortable living as an exotic dancer and porn star, she explained they can make daily life difficult.
She revealed she had trouble eating, she has to sleep on her back and she struggles to fit into aeroplane toilets.
_________________________________________
See? This should be the standard for flying. If you (and your boobs) can fit in an aeroplane toilet, then you may be allowed to fly.
Otherwise - haul all your poundage off the plane.
I also liked how the Mother refused to sit by the daughter as was offered by SWA.
Said she bought an open seating ticket and didn’t want to.
so the tub full of chit mother didn’t even want to sit by the slightly less tub of chit daughter
nice family
She spilled over and under the arm into my seat anyway. Miserable flight.
I feel bad for the oversized passengers, I could stand to lose a couple of pounds myself but I still fit into the seat and no one would be uncomfortable sitting next to me.
The airlines have really made cramped quarters for us but it is what it is, and if a big person has to buy 2 seats they just have to do it. It is not right for them to make others miserable because they don't fit in the space they have purchased.
That’s what I am talking about. You have to really need or want to be someplace to put up with all the garbage in getting there.
Put the in the weak bladder section.
WHAT A GREAT IDEA!!!!!
Seriously....know those little boxes near the ticket counter with the sign..."If your carry on bag will not fit in this, you must check it."???
So....how about we build a model of a typical (but reinforced) airplane seat - and put it out in the middle of the area where everyone could observe - with a sign that says, "If you can't fit your sorry fat a$$ into this seat easily, you'll have to go find an alternate mode of transportation, cuz you ain't flyin' on our plane."
Think that would do it??
>>I was stuck between a couple 350+ lb unbathed German men on a flight from Covington (Cincinnati) to Frankfurt (am Main) Germany. Gross.
Smelly. Uncomfortable. Nine stinking hours. It was my first flight on a
747. Not a good memory.<<
Didn’t it occur to you to ask the flight attendant for another seat. Maybe I’m just different but I would have and had I been told one was not available, I would have got off the plane.
Just get one of those metal racks that determine if your carry-on bag will fit. Have them back into it. If they don’t fit, they buy a second seat. Seriously, a ‘seat’ is not what they need to sell. They sell lots of 17 inches. If you need more than one, buy more than one!
I guess she can't see her plate when she eats, and don't see how she could sleep on her tummy - it would never hit the mattress.
That was also the case, but not nearly as bas as if the arm were up. The jerk also kept falling asleep and falling over on me. Still not as bad as the scraming child that I was stuck next to from Atl to St Louis. Little sh!t did's stop screaming from the time the planq started moving until it stop at the gate. His mammy just smirked at me the whole time.
Don’t give up flying just fly first class, the seats are bigger, more leg room, more service. But don’t expect a stranger to be OK with you “pressing flesh” with them for hours and hours.
That was also the case, but not nearly as bas as if the arm were up. The jerk also kept falling asleep and falling over on me. Still not as bad as the screaming child that I was stuck next to from Atl to St Louis. Little sh!t did's stop screaming at the top of his volume from the time the plane started moving until it stopped at the gate in St Louis. His mammy just smirked at me the whole time.
I don’t care who you are, that’s just funny ...
I rarely fly and have yet to do so since 9/11. What I have previously observed in those few time was a 'Test' box near the counters to see if your carry-on will fit in the overhead bin.
I see the solution as a 'Test' seat mock-up at the ticket counters to see if you'll fit before check in. The seat would also have to have side binders to be sure that one cannot overflow the armrest.
While I'm certain that there are many large people, who, through no fault of their own, would never be able to sit between the seat arm rests, it IS illegal for that arm rest to be up during take offs and landings.
I've been forced to sit between or next to folk, who, as you state, immediately jerk up that arm rest, even to get into their seat!
One recent time, a young black woman sat in the aisle seat next to me (the middle seat), jerked up the arm to get in and proceeded to attempt to get on her seat belt. As I attempted to lower the arm rest she sharply stated, "We don't need that 'thing' down there, and I don't like it anyway."
When I flagged down the next FA, I asked her to see to it that my seat mate lower the arm rest or move.
The FA happened to be of the same race as my seat mate and proceeded to tell me that the arm rest could stay up.
I asked for the attendant in charge (unfortunately, the same race as the others and no- I'm not making a point here but only to state that all of these ladies seemed to agree upon violating the FAA rules for some reason), said that she also had no problem, whereupon I demanded a seat in First Class because I didn't intend to pay for a "full seat" and only be granted half one on the basis of the large size of the flyer next to me.
The FA in charge told me there were NO seats in First Class left and that I'd just have to move to another seat, "if I didn't like it."
The result was that my seat mate had a much smaller sister and mom in another row. The smaller sister traded places with her much larger sister so that she became mom's problem (along with another passenger, I assume.)
I'm sick and tired of FAs who refuse to follow federal safety mandates, rather than do her/his job. I know that they are protected by their unions so I don't expect anything will take care of their rude, obnoxious behavior but it's a real shame, especially those with "an attitude."
The airlines could solve this one by doing what they do for carry on bags at the gate now, having a seat so that there are no questions and no dominating FAs telling others that even though you paid for a "full sized seat" in which you fit, you must also share it with over-sized people.
What informed your expectation?
The only informed expectation I see in any documentation is that you will be flown from Point A to Point B in a seat.
You do realize that airlines have made the seats narrower and shallower, and moved them closer together in the past 10 to 30 years, don’t you? Why do you suppose they’ve done that?
If the obese person next to you DID buy two seats, you’d just want to park your magazine, newspaper, pillow and blankie on part of their second seat. And you’d want to put your drink on his second tray table. You know you would.
Many injuries severe in ways that confine a person to a wheelchair are also going to reduce or eliminate entirely the ability to take proper cardiovascular exercise.
Of course they are fat. Many struggle to breathe or sit.
You played hookey during third grade biology, didn't you?
Do you think that is just a German thing. We have had two German exchange students and after about a week I had to speak to them about bathing. The girls were very sweet but just did not get it. But after nearly a year they Americanized and I swear I also most had to drag them kicking and screaming from the shower. They got used to bathing every day very quickly.
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