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

So much about airlines' lack of comfort, rules, exclusions, fees etc is not right. Yet we pay and they'e allowed to continue.

I wonder what the actual safety rules are. Surely there are weight limits for emergency evacuation equipment, a size range for life jackets etc.

the safety aspect of being stuck next to someone who is morbidly obese and has limited mobility worries me as much as the comfort aspect of being able to get up for the loo/ use my whole seat/ not be touching strangers etc

Why should fat people feel judged just for existing?

Why should a woman have to 'get over' a fat man touching her for x amount of hours? Or a fat woman infringing on her personal space?

Ew, gross.🤢

I expect the day will come when as well as trying to get your carry on case to fit the little cage there will be mock up seats in check in to ensure that passengers also fit the space available.

How does someone who has not flown know they need 2 seats?
Well if their fat hangs over in a car seat and its a squeeze then its common sense that they are not going to fit in the seat on an airplane 🙄

It's not an airline's job to police people's health and it's an unworkable idea for all the reasons I listed above plus the fact that pricing is incredibly complicated even as things are now, and this will not make it simpler.

I actually think tickets should be x amount, and then you should be charged an additional amount for the weight you take onto the plane. So, massive scales where both the person and their luggage are weighed at the same time (so there's no way of anyone actually knowing YOUR weight), then the additional charge is added.

Not only would this be a much fairer way of doing things, as you would be directly paying for the amount of fuel YOU are using, but it would also undoubtedly encourage people to lose weight before they fly, which can only be a good thing for their health.

They don’t have to, actually.

In that case I want double the hand luggage allowance.

where is the cut off?

I'm sorry @ObliviousCoalmine but I fully agree with @Kag13 : and (politely) I think you're the one being unreasonable here.

Airlines have made seats smaller and smaller to get more people in, people are getting bigger, for a multitude of reasons (very few people are bigger because they chose that option).

Very true (all 3 points).

You’re not going to get airlines making seats bigger,

Well why not? Seats not being big enough is a widespread complaint. If enough people complain to the airline about it seat size might just become a selling point and airlines might compete on that basis.

And in principle, airlines could provide a small number of wider seats for genuinely obese people to book (then of course we get into an argument about whether they should be more expensive or not - of course they should) Many people who are uncomfortable in a standard seat would be happy to pay extra to book a wider one (not just obese people, but a mother with a baby, perhaps), just as tall people will pay for extra legroom.

Over weight passengers are supposed to pay for 2 seats it should be mandatory and if they dont pay they dont get through boarding

This

It's not judgemental not to want someone to sit crammed up to you visibly running sweat.

It's not judgemental to know that in a crash you're going to be last off the plane even if you deliberately bought seats near an emergency exit because the person beside you is literally wedged into their seat front to back and side to side.

Are you morbidly obese yourself, it would explain your very defensive/attacking posts on this issue? This is a question, not a judgement.

They aren’t 3x2 they are 3x3. If that’s what you thought then maybe that explains the shrinkflation.

Why should anyone have to get over it? It's absolutely vile. I have to fly again next week and am thinking about taking a hardboard clipboard to wedge between the seats, as long as the armrest stays down it might work!

I don’t really have an answer to this but this is something that really annoys me. Thankfully we are a family of 3 so the majority of planes have 3 seats and we book in advance. But similar happens in theatres and arenas. Tickets for these things aren’t cheap and it’s annoys me when I can’t sit in my seat comfortably because someone is encroaching into my space. I’m not thin by any stretch of the imagination but I fit into a regular seat, if I didn’t I would be doing something about it.

surely that wouldn’t dent profits too much, and would allow at least a bit of moving the most squashed in passengers or the largest.

I see this said about NMW, about business taxes, about shoplifting, fraudulent insurance claims, and on and on.

When are people who've never run a business in their lives going to realise that this isn't about denting the airline's profits a little bit, it's about every other passenger on every plane paying more for their tickets?

I agree with you OP. I really resent paying for a seat to then be squashed in by the person in the seat next to me. I think they should have to buy an extra seat if they don’t fit into the standard seat and airlines should enforce this (and also, make it clear that if you haven’t bought a second seat, but should have done, you either pay at the airport if there’s space and if not, can’t fly. I imagine there are very few obese people who don’t know they are obese. Budget airlines are really quick to notice when hand luggage is too big and are happy to charge extra for this, this is similar.

similar situation, I recently went to a sports match and ended up sat between dh and another man who were both bigger, although neither obese (both over 6ft and broad shoulders/larger frame). It was a really uncomfortable 90 minutes! If I’d been a similar size, I’m not sure how I’d have sat down!

Think how uncomfortable he felt in the first place.

then consider how unfortunate he was to have to sit next to a judgemental and seemingly unpleasant person. One who then felt the need to run to mumsnet and try and fat shame him further.

I’m not sure what you being 5’2 has to do with anything either

Why should l get over someone squashed against me for almost 14 hours?

No exaggeration...

Fat people do spill into your seat and who the hell wants to touch someone's sweaty body pressed against theirs for hours? Grim.

Too unpopular with passengers, too discriminatory (taller and older people will overall weigh more than shorter and younger ones etc) and doesn't solve the issue of seat space, because mass isn't the same thing as weight. Some heavier people will fit in the seat fine while some people lighter than they are won't.

Honestly, if that were viable they'd have done it by now. Weighing people for light aircraft (where everyone still pays the same, they just balance the weight) is different isn't the same as standard commercial planes.

Ha can you imagine!

There was a bit like this in a comedy show years ago, suggesting that rather than everyone buying a seat and paying for e.g. 25kg luggage we should all turn up to the airport with our bags and stand on a big scale and be charged for the total kg we add to the plane. Not the craziest of ideas!

Get over it, honestly.