How would you like to be the unlucky person in the next seat?
Just pray you don’t end up in the seat next to them.
I will buy a ticket on Southwest Airlines when pigs fly!
OK, so was she told she was too fat to fly or was she told that if she had to use two seats she had to pay for two seats. Maybe she can get one of those “friends fly free” tickets and use the free ticket for the second seat that is required to fit her.
A “political strategist” HUMMM wonder WHAT party.
They’re just big-boned.
Sounds like the airline violated their own standards by not handling it privately.
Having sat next too a hefty or two in my flying days I can say for sure that people who spill out of their rented spaces are a hassle for other passengers.
I’m 6’-6” and in fair shape - but my hips are squeezed fitting in the cheap ass seats. It is patently unfair to single these people out.
The SW employee should have handled in private from the beginning but they would encroach on what little space you haveif you had to sit next to them so they should have to pay for a 2nd seat if it’s sold out.
I love SouthWest. Thank goodness.
TTIJFWP
This thread is just fine without pictures.
I work in aviation, and all of the seats on an airliner have to go through a series of pull tests. While the loads are different, all seats are certified for forward, side, and aft loads. And the certification is done with the arm rests in place and down.
Some people get on the plane and immediately put the arm rest up because they won't fit inside it. If I'm next to them, the flight crew is immediately faced with a problem, because I let them know I will not be onboard for landing and takeoff with that arm rest up. And if I'm asked to get off, I will go straight to the nearest FSDO and file a violation.
I'm sorry that airline seats were designed around a 170 pound person - but that's the way it is. And a large persons’ right to fly is no greater right than my right to be safe.
I suppose the line must be drawn somewhere when it comes to how much seat you take up. Next we’ll learn airlines will be making “special seats” for the obese. But even then they will have to determine who qualifies to have them.
How would you like to be the unlucky person in the next seat?
Would you want to be in a middle seat next to her?
GOOD, about damn time! I have been stuffed in next to gross obese fat slobs too damn times in my flying life. Buying a second seat or take a freight car!
Well Cindy McCain is pretty skinny, so that would eliminate her and Meghan.
It seems only fair that if you take up two seats, you pay for two seats. However, if I read this story correctly, they had already been on a flight. If they let them on the first leg of the flight, it’s not fair to kick them off and strand them somewhere.
This thread will probably be a lot of fun for people who like fat jokes, and others will seriously raise the issue of weight capacity on airplanes, but if the woman quoted above is telling the truth, then the airline involved may have a problem.
If the airline has no published weight restrictions for passengers and they are basing their decisions regarding who is 'too fat to fly' solely on the personal opinion of whomever happens to be working the boarding gate, then they might find themselves in a bit of legal trouble. Did they ask her how much she weighed when they contracted with her, via a ticket purchase, to fly her from one city to another?
I am in 100% agreement that having to sit in 'coach' next to person who is, quite literally, flowing over and around the confines of their own seat makes for a miserable time for everyone involved. I think it is in the best interest of the airlines and their passengers to develop a solution. However, if the airlines want to refuse to allow people above a certain weight to fly, or perhaps require super-heavy people to buy two tickets, then they need to adopt actual standards and then uniformly enforce it.
Not Too Fat. Too Ugly. . . . .
The airlines already treat us like freight, why not charge by the pound?