Is it unreasonable for airlines not to provide wider seats for obese passengers?

I flew as a child in the US, and the woman next to me had booked two seats. However the flight was full, and the two seats were at opposite ends of the plane

It was awful. I was a short skinny 13 year old, but she took up more than 3/4 of the two seats (she was very very obese, not just “BMI over 30”). I was pushed into the corner, couldn’t fold the tray down to eat, could barely move. I had bruises on my chest when she eventually got off me. DM complained but the stewardesses weren’t bothered (just as they hadn’t helped the poor fat woman with her seats in the first place - American Airlines who have notoriously horrible staff).

I have wondered in hindsight why I couldn’t just have sat in her other seat, but that wasn’t presented as an option, and it didn’t occur to me as a child to ask.

You could say the same for any ‘average’ size seat - cinema, restaurants, train, bus, rollercoaster etc.

Unfortunately an airplane means you buy the specific seat space only so if you are large and will spread over one seat, I believe it is only fair that you pay for 2 seats. Otherwise how can it be fair that obese are permitted to book larger seats, but people of average size aren’t? We’d all love a larger airplane seat right?!

You can ask them to move the armrest?! Do they do this as standard on all airlines?

god this would be so much easier when flying with children in the summer.

No she has not set an unpleasant tone. Sitting next to an obese person on a flight can be extremely unpleasant and it should be up to the obese person to either buy two
seats or airlines need to be more on it and have people state their weight on booking to make sure they have the right seats available.

I aak the men that the are over my side could they move their legs back into their own space

The seats seem to be getting smaller and smaller on plane. I think if airlines produced extra wide seats just like they do extra legroom them that would help people who need more space. I guess the main issue is the extortionate price they might have to pay for it.

It should all be dealt with at check in - the staff can see perfectly well who is going to spill over a seat and it shouldn't be left for some poor sod of a passenger to just have to put up with. I'm no stick insect myself but I'd be mortified if someone had to endure my bulk going into their personal space.

My son in law did an internal flight in the US last week and was genuinely shocked at the size of a lot of the passengers, but to be fair he said most of them had booked two seats. Seems to be the done thing there.

It's called business class.

Something that the LoCos won't do because they know/suspect people simply won't pay..

Rather than those who don’t fit having to buy two seats, I think it would be.

It wouldn’t be twice as wide, maybe one and a half times?

The more I think about it, the more I think the rigid dividers idea works, so that if you do book a seat that you don’t fit in, you inconvenience only yourself, not another. They should also be removable for those who want to buy two seats for themselves, of course.

Well if they allocated specific rows to be wide seats, they could have for example 4 seats in the row instead of 6.

The four wide seats would be priced at 1.5x the cost of the normal seats.

I could imagine many people feeling like that's worth it for their comfort. It's more affordable than buying 2 seats.

Yanbu to feel uncomfortable but I'm not sure what the resolution is. I recently had a similar experience on a train & the man made no effort to keep out of my personal space which made for a pretty miserable journey.

Whatever the reason, it's certainly not fair on the OP.

The option should be available to the customer. I’m sure it is a cause of anxiety for the person travelling when they’re overweight.
You can’t really blame the person when they don’t have the choice of a large seat.

Why would it make it more affordable? Airlines would just ramp the prices!

This 👏

I'm kind of in the mentality of if you need a seatbelt extender you should probably be buying two seats. It's really inconsiderate to the person next to you. The next seat person is paying for their personal space which they then don't get.

Yes I think wider seats is a good idea. That would make flying more affordable as well for those who need them..

He should have been charged more. Nothing worse than!

My DO is 6’4” so we always book extra leg room and have to pay more! It’s just how it is - if you take up more room you pay more fare.

It's not about the extra charge.

I may have it wrong but it sounds to me that with your suggested scheme if the flight is full if a pax fails the guage check you either have to offload them due to their size or offload somebody else to free up a second seat.

The legal take on that might be interesting.

People need to buy seating to suit their needs.
I am not overweight but have pretty bad anxiety around flying and cope much better with a bit of space.

When flying with budget airlines I book a comfort seat so I don't have anyone sitting right beside me. I've done it several times with both easyJet and Ryanair in the last year. The added bonus is I get an additional underseat bag so don't need to pay to bring hand luggage on board as that is enough luggage. If travelling with DH I sometimes don't book a comfort seat as I'm happy enough beside him but often I do anyway as he's very tall so it helps to have leg room. If travelling with DC we often booked a comfort seat when they were under 2 but maybe 18 months upwards so they didn't have to be on my lap the whole time.

The issue is mine and I take financial responsibility for it. It is actually not easy to book the extra seat online which might be why some people don't do it. I realise others don't because they don't want to pay extra.

I dont think they're making seats narrower, its just that people are bigger.

That is awful op. I had a flight recently that a man was so large that his stomach was touching the seat in front and he couldn’t close his legs. He took up
a seat and half. The middle seat was free, I was at the window. I did think what would have happened if someone was in the middle seat. Where would they have fitted. I also felt trapped in the window seat. What if there was an emergency. I think if you that overweight it should be compulsory to book two seats. You can’t take space someone else paid for

😂💀

They will be delighted to pay for two seats! As Joan Rivers said, they will get 2 meals!