[Logic n' Reason]

Au contraire, my wonderful FReeper friends.

These here folk have a singularly wonderful usefulness up in the friendly skys!!!

Here's how ya do it!

1. Profile all passengers of mid-eastern decent
2. Provide said profiled passengers with a window seat.
3. Sit our woefully, hugely obese passengers next to them.
4. Then let's see our dear proponents of the "religion of peace" try to jump out of their seats and storm the cockpit!!!

[HIDEK6]

Do they get “special consideration” license plates too?

[ConservaTexan]

Fat people should pay more. I have seen people that should be required to buy an entire row. Instead, these Jabba the Huts end up wedging themselves into the seat next to me so I have to spend an entire flight with their sweaty ham hocks encroaching into the seat I paid for. Why should I have to suffer because these people have spent their life gorging themselves while getting as little physical activity as possible? These are the same people that park in handicapped spaces, waddle to the electric carts at the grocery store then make a bee line for the ring ding aisle. They should lose some weight, buy two seats, or don't fly. Put down the twinkies and ding dongs and get some exercise.

(not that I feel strongly about the subject)

[pogo101]

Airlines are in the business of selling the transportation of volume and mass. Persons or items than exceed a necessarily-standardized volume (and/or mass, but mass is not usually the issue with passengers, as opposed to their volume) must be charged for the added volume being transported/ displaced.

I feel for folks who are bigger, and I “push it” myself (6’1” and just under 200#, I find it difficult to jam my elbows between the armrests), but there must be some upper limit “per seat.”

[runninglips]

There has to be skinny liberals that LIVE the fight against bigotry. Find two of them for each fatty, and seat them on either side. That should work out well for all concerned. I know all about the problem, I have adult children that are seriously calorically challenged. It saddens me immensly, but it you don’t fit, you don’t fit....buy two seats if you are the size of two people.

[John.Galt2012]

What would be fair is to put it all in writing. Tell everyone, “You are purchasing cargo space, albeit human cargo space, but cargo space just the same." Suitcases have to be a under a certain weight and girth, sooooo just put it out there. Your ticket gets you up to 50lbs and 109” of inanimate cargo space. You also get up to 180lbs and 17”width of human cargo space. I know that seems cold but if people know the rules up front they usually will comply with less issues.

[Sloth]

If they are going to make airline seats tiny, they should at least be staggered like this:

And the arm should be integrated (as appears to be the case above) with a solid wall between seats, not just a armrest floating in space, causing pain & not preventing 'spillover'.

[bk1000]

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!

[traditional1]

As the plane flies in continuous circles, the fat asses are asked to move from window seats to the aisle seats?

[New Jersey Realist]

About thirty years ago my wife and I were on a short commuter hop on a 30 (or so) seater between NY and Philadelphia in the dead of winter. In front of us sat a guy so big he took up the the whole seat designed for two people and they had to strap him in with two seat belt extensions after taking out the arm rest. Needless to say we were scared $hitless. I certainly hope they charged him double!

[adorno]

Overweight people already pay more when they ride in their own cars, so why not expect them to pay more when they ride on an airplane? Perhaps not twice as much, but, 1/3 or 1/4 more for that second seat?

[cableguymn]

I’d just like to thank everyone for sharing their stories of air flight.

I have not been on a plane post 9/11 nor do I plan on it. Your stories just reinforce this.

If I can’t load myself in my comfortable full size car and drive there. I am NOT going.

[bjorn14]

It really is a safety issue, if the plane crashes and the exit windows are the only way out do you want this person stuck in the exit window.

I’ve sometime jokingly suggested that they shpuld put an aircraft seat (behind a screen) in the boarding area to find out if they’re too large to fly or need to buy an extra seat.

FWIW, she could be attractive if she did lose more weight.

[Emperor Palpatine]

These two blimps have nobody to blame but themselves.

People are fat for one reason and one reason only...they eat too damn much. PERIOD.

No one holds a gun to some fatso’s head and tells them to eat.

[jesseam]

My biggest problem is the seat in front of me that reclines too far back so you can’t even read a book or enjoy your beverage and pack of peanuts. ;-(

[MissouriConservative]

I’m seriously surprised at all the comments concerning these women coming from this site. I did not realize that I was logged on to DU lite with all the veiled and not so veiled insults thrown at these women.

I’m 6’ 3” and weigh 235 pounds. While I am not in line with the government’s idea of fit (less than 190 pounds) I have trouble fitting into airline seats and I’m not out of shape. What I will say is that if any of the people on her were to make these kinds of comments to me in person or to a member of my family, they would be eating their next several meals through a straw...and that would go for the idiots at SouthWest who made a spectacle of this.