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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To dread flying because of my size?

457 replies

annauk1 · 12/02/2014 19:57

I am going on holiday in a few days. I should be really happy but the flight is really making me not want to go.

I flew last year and needed a belt extension which was fine, wasn't much of a problem, but the thing that petrifies me most is that DP and I won't be able to sit together and if I end up sitting next to a nasty person who is ' a fat-phobe' and huffs and puffs at me the whole 3 hours for taking up more than my (tiny) seat space. I am flying with Monarch who are notorius for their tiny seats. I am a size 26 btw.

OP posts:
ifyourehoppyandyouknowit · 13/02/2014 16:55

But as someone has just said, you aren't paying for a seat. You are paying for them to transport you from A to B. So unless you physically cannot squeeze yourself into the seat (even if that involves spilling over somewhat), you only need to book and pay for one seat.

ifyourehoppyandyouknowit · 13/02/2014 16:56

No, because the obese passenger should not have been allowed to put the armrest up.

Kendodd · 13/02/2014 17:00

But are you saying it is acceptable to spill over into somebody else's seat? And the other person should just 'get over it'?

Kendodd · 13/02/2014 17:00

So should the obese person have been asked to leave the flight then if they couldn't put the armrest down?

Chippingnortonset123 · 13/02/2014 17:01

Anyone over size fourteen should lose wait before they get near this sort of dilemma in the first place.

bobbywash · 13/02/2014 17:03

Isn't part of the problem with obesity the fact that we as a society are discouraged from saying anyone is fat and therefore unhealthy. I respect the rights of people to look how they want to look in terms of their physical appearance..... just don't tell me that being overweight or morbidly obeses is normal, it isn't.

I believe that a size 16 is now the average size for women in the UK, and for most women (not all) that is putting your health at risk, regardless of whether you can "get away with it" because of your height.

Similarly men with huge beer guts are unhealthy, and being morbidly obese is in the vast majority of cases, choice and not genetics.

If the OP dreads having a fat phobe next to them, then there as many hoping that the person next to them only takes up one seat, and doesn't spill over into their seat as well as their own.

TBH being that size is not normal and is not healthy, if it is medical you have my sympathy and understanding, if it isn't well I'm sorry you don't.

Forago · 13/02/2014 17:03

You do have to physically be able to sit down and buckle a seatbelt tho because CAA regulations say nobody I allowed to be standing up or not buckled in during take off and landing, the airline would be finished if they let this happen

ifyourehoppyandyouknowit · 13/02/2014 17:05

Yes, I would say that if you are physically to overweight to sit in the seat with the armrest down, then you need more room that is provided by that seat. If you can fit but there's bits of you hanging over, then that's fine. It's not comfortable for anyone, obviously, but the vitriol towards overweight people, and the ridiculous 'oh just fly business class or lose some weight fatty' comments are foul. I would really rather not have someone's skin touching mine, it makes me feel all clammy and sick. But, when I travel on public transport I accept that other people do to.

Floggingmolly · 13/02/2014 17:05

I would have thought so, Kendodd. Their size appears to have been actually hazardous for someone else when squeezed into a seat which couldn't contain them. Our right to do as we please has to be curtailed at the point where we infringe on other people's rights.

ItsAllGoingToBeFine · 13/02/2014 17:09

So should the obese person have been asked to leave the flight then if they couldn't put the armrest down

Yes. Isn't armrest down, seat backs and trays up part of the standard take off landing thing? I don't think standard safety procedures should be waived so that a fat person isn't made to feel uncomfortable.

VegetariansTasteLikeChicken · 13/02/2014 17:09

Yes that's the problem bodywash....fat people just arent told often enough that they are dangerously fat...

god the world is full of stupid

WorraLiberty · 13/02/2014 17:12

Yes, I would say that if you are physically to overweight to sit in the seat with the armrest down, then you need more room that is provided by that seat. If you can fit but there's bits of you hanging over, then that's fine.

No it isn't fine and I have no idea why anyone would think it is.

Many people don't want that physical contact from a complete stranger. I'm not particularly squeamish but the thought of someone else's body pressed up against me for 3 hours, would make me recoil in horror.

If I paid for half a seat and chose to travel that way then that would be fine.

But someone taking half of my seat from me and touching my body throughout that journey, most certainly isn't fine.

Chippingnortonset123 · 13/02/2014 17:13

I have only flown first class twice but both times I chatted with overweight people who were travelling there for their size. Not sure how mainstream this is but the armrests were very thick to avoid spillage.

ifyourehoppyandyouknowit · 13/02/2014 17:13

And the fact that she won such a massive payout might be linked to the fact that they didn't do the armrest down, chairs up business with this passenger. But if you can sit in a seat, with the armrest up, and the seat belt (with extender) done up, then you should be able to fly.

ifyourehoppyandyouknowit · 13/02/2014 17:14

You are not paying for a seat. You are paying to get to your destination.

Chippingnortonset123 · 13/02/2014 17:16

I would love to help fat people, preferAbly before they get beyond size fourteen but the bald fact is that they die prematurely. We have only two service users over 65.

Owllady · 13/02/2014 17:17

Pls Google wait it means something else

ItsAllGoingToBeFine · 13/02/2014 17:20

But if you can sit in a seat, with the armrest up, and the seat belt (with extender) done up, then you should be able to fly

No. If you can sit in a seat with the armrest down , and seatbelt on, then you can fly.

ifyourehoppyandyouknowit · 13/02/2014 17:21

Sorry, meant down.

StumbledintoMayhem · 13/02/2014 17:21

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Floggingmolly · 13/02/2014 17:22

The airline have a duty to their passengers to get them to their destination safely, Hop.

The safest way for the woman in the link to have travelled would have been for her to give her extra large neighbour both seats and then sit in her lap.
But they wouldn't allow you to do that because it wouldn't have been safe! and instead allowed her to be crushed half to death instead.
Why do you think that should have been allowed?

brokenhearted55a · 13/02/2014 17:22

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

WorraLiberty · 13/02/2014 17:23

You are not paying for a seat. You are paying to get to your destination

That's merely a technicality to enable the airlines to overbook.

The fact is you can't fly without a seat

Knowing you cannot fit into your seat and that you'll have to encroach on the person next to you, is selfish and rather self entitled.

Minifingers · 13/02/2014 17:23

"People come in all shapes and sizes-get over it".

Yes - people do come in all shapes and sizes, and in the UK at the moment more and more people are coming in 'size very, very large'. Which would be fine and nobody else's business if we didn't have a publicly funded health service.

At the moment £1 in every £10 spent in the NHS is spent on diabetes related care. If obesity continues to increase at current rates diabetes will eat up 17% of the entire NHS budget by 2035, just as many of us on this site are needing care as elderly people. In other words, obesity will bankrupt the NHS in my lifetime. Sad

Fat-shaming is wrong, but ALL of us who are overweight (I include myself here) need to see obesity as a public health crises, and start to think about our contribution to it. I don't really care a jot about people being squashed in their airline seat. I care about me and my family getting cancer or having a stroke and not being able to access care because health service resources have been depleted by providing medical treatments for diseases caused by obesity, which is largely preventable.

ComposHat · 13/02/2014 17:24

Amen broken