Feeling uncomfortable after sharing a seat with a very obese passenger

I don’t judge anyone, it’s nothing to do with me. I do however want to be able to occupy the seat that I’ve paid for. If I can’t, that is an issue caused by someone else, for whatever reason and they need to address it. If they can’t fit in one seat they need to buy two or sort a bigger seat in a different class/mode of transport.

@Bayleaftree63 She probably hated herself more than you hated her. But while I do have empathy for obese people I also hate getting stuck next to one on a flight because it's suffocating and I hate having body contact with strangers. So I don't think you're unreasonable to resent being next to her but I also feel sorry for her. Obesity is an illness.

@BettyTheGreat

They aren't making fares lower out of the goodness of their hearts. They want to squeeze out as much profit as they can.

But it's not wrong to make a profit....

I'm not sure if you saw my previous about the average profit being around €8 per average pax for the likes of Ryanair....have a look at a few Low Fare Airlines financial statements and you'll see that's very much the norm, or even the high end of profits per pax across the industry.

This is all about passenger choice/the algorithms being driven almost entirely by the hunt for the cheapest fare, and the airlines trying to stay in business whilst catering for that demand.

I’m not sure body positivity is a thing since glp 1. I always thought it was strange how body positivity coexisted with obesity being classified as a disease.

I would say they don't function. They are eating to the point they don't function.

I was you @Bayleaftree63 on a bloody plane. I ended up putting my back out as I had to sit like a banana for 3.5 hours and I spent the entire holiday in bed in agony. Started to feel better on the day of the transfer back to the airport.

It's insane but ...body positivity.

I thought the carbohydrate-insulin model was controversial?

The Oxford Tube does IIRC (very frequent coach service between Oxford and London).

Can’t think of any other.

This is exactly the sort of story people don't see when they judge people for their weight. I won't even say well done for weight loss because actually, getting clean, being free and happy is about five million times more important.

My sister is a psychiatrist and the number of patients she sees with a history of sex abuse who go on to be very overweight is quite eye opening. People judging anyone for their weight can massively do one. I won't tolerate it irl either

A flight being what you referred to as "public transport"? Riiiight....

But wearing seatbelts on a flight is a non-negotiable safety requirement. If she couldn't get hers on they wouldn't have been able to to take off.

She probably was

I was 18 stone two years ago. 10 years before that, I had a traumatic head injury.

At the same time as the head injury, I went cold turkey from heroin, cocaine, crack and morphine. (I had been trafficked and an addict before the man who basically owned me beat me in the head with an iron bar because I was too old.)

I swapped those addictions for food. I knew I was fat. I knew what people thought of me- they thought I was lazy and stupid and disgusting. They didn't see the reasons for it.

Other people still look at me and see an obese woman who shouldn't be happy, because she's fat and who wants to look like me?! Don't I know what I'm doing to myself??!

I've lost three stone since 2024 and I feel great and I look better and I don't give a flying fuck that I'm still at BMI 31, because it's going down, and I'm pretty sure I'm happier than the people who look at me and think I'm stupid and lazy.

Ah sorry - I meant to say plane SEATS have shrunk!

They aren't making fares lower out of the goodness of their hearts. They want to squeeze out as much profit as they can.

Coaches

Plane sizes haven't really shrunk, and TBF the 3/3 configuration on shortfall aircraft has been common for decades, so seat width hasn't changed that much.

What has reduced is seat pitch, so legroom has gone, in an attempt to maybe squeeze one or two extra seat rows in existing airframes...

And the squeezing extra penny comments is true in a way, but it's all about being able to make a profit and still be able to offer low fares...

Exactly.

People need to use their common sense.

A friend of mine is 5'10" tall. Her husband is 6'2".

They always fly business class.

I have never been morbidly obese but I can testify how easy it is to go from size 10 to size 16 in less than 5 years... Depression, menopause, snacking, age, health issues preventing me from continue my running routine...I was not happy, developed more health issues, and now spending shit load of money on WLI - but even with them, the process of losing weight is very slow and difficult.

I would imagine if you were overweight most of your life and have underlying health/ emotional issues losing weight is very, very hard. Its not nice being obese, no one wants that.

It was a fire and run thread - designed to just elicit unkind commentary.

Or they are at school as suspected and will post again after school's out!😂

I’ve learned to get cabs everywhere instead of buses - spent too much time being squashed on public transport. 🙄

Part of the trouble is that seats are built narrower now, to squash in more people, and more people are obese.

I have a friend who is obese, she always flies business so she has a bigger seat and doesn't impact others.

Bollocks. That’s exactly what you meant to do.

Of course a flight is public transport. It transports members of the public.

Use private transport if you don't want to be exposed to the public.

But it’s really not though. If you’re so fat you can’t fit in a normal seat, you need to book two.

We're back to the almost monthly "just fit wider seats" /"make less profits" nonsense...

The shortfall outfits Europe side generally make sub €10 per average passenger over the year using existing configurations.

Putting wider seats in means reducing capacity...so who pays, because someone has to or the airline PDQ goes into the red?

I think one of the Low fare outfits in the US has this about right- oversize passengers book and pay for two adjacent seats....if on the day the flight is undersold and departs with empty seats the fee for the second seat gets refunded.