Too fat to fly

[loobielousplaits]

Is anyone/has anyone watched this?

It's a documentary about massively obese people being interviewed about being taken off flights/too fat to flight.

While I absolutely agree it's a 'fat shaming' programme - I can't agree with some of the comments from the interviewees that have complained they had to leave the plane due to an armrest not being able to go down - a woman wasn't able to visit the toilet, another who couldn't understand why someone would be offended that half their seat was taken up by overspill - a 32 st man was offended that he was asked to leave the aircraft because he couldn't safely fit in the seat and should have paid for two - pilot decided he wasn't safe to fly.

I'm torn - I absolutely understand weight is a huge issue (I was anorexic in my teens) and it is not easy to control your weight but come on - seriously? You cannot expect to be OK to fly if your weight affects health and safety and you can't fit safely in a seat

I can't believe that somebody on this thread suggested a disabled person should pay for an extra comfort seat just in case an obese person sits next to them and encroaches on their space

I have a disability. I find flights uncomfortable and painful enough as it is and know if I were to be squished in by somebody else's body, I'd have serious issues the other end. I, or anyone else in my situation shouldn't have to pay more for the selfishness of somebody else! I have no choice over my disability, most obese people do have a choice.

I said that i would want a disabled person to have the seat. You should be able to claim comfort seats if you have a disability. Comfort should not be a pc way of saying 'seat for fat person'.

I think a person buys a plane seat, from A to B. But I also think that (in this era of ever increasing waistlines) there should be a banded statement of personal weight. I have to state whether I am travelling with hand or hold baggage, so a total max weight allocation for passenger and luggage entered at time of booking. I weigh 63kg and am hand luggage only. My DH weighs 90% more, and is 6'5" but is also travelling with hand luggage. There's no shaming, but it allows the airline system to calculate safe payloads. In aviation, such things are relevant and matter. Outside wide normalised parameters, you might be asked to pay a top up, like arriving with excess/overweight bags.

I can imagine how badly that would go down
People get so cross about paying for luggage as it is forgetting that the flight is so very cheap

My sister had a bad experience when we went to a funfair last year and she was told that she was too fat to go on the ride and to make it worse they even came to help her fasten her seatbelt!!! When she was sooo embarrassed and couldn’t take no more they then told her she didn’t have to wear one so she went on the ride with no safety at all , I was so annoyed but felt her shame as she’s always been so ashamed when it comes to weight ( even though she is so much better looking than me and I think she’s beautiful)

She should have got off.

A fairground ride with no seatbelt! WTF!

Did they think she was wedged so tightly she wouldn’t fall out?

she was sooo embarrassed and couldn’t take no more that should have been your sisters wake up call right there. People who are obese really should know their size impacts activities. Personally I wouldn't have been party to my sister being on a ride who clearly didn't adhere to safety procedures, I'd have encouraged her to get off.

I'm agog at how some obese people view the world due to this thread tbh.

When she was sooo embarrassed and couldn’t take no more they then told her she didn’t have to wear one so she went on the ride with no safety at all

Jesus Christ, what sort of ride was it? I'm assuming it was either fast or high (or both) for seat belts to have been included?

My sister had a bad experience when we went to a funfair last year and she was told that she was too fat to go on the ride and to make it worse they even came to help her fasten her seatbelt!!! When she was sooo embarrassed and couldn’t take no more they then told her she didn’t have to wear one so she went on the ride with no safety at all , I was so annoyed but felt her shame as she’s always been so ashamed when it comes to weight ( even though she is so much better looking than me and I think she’s beautiful)

Umm she should have got off and the ride should have refused to start with her on it. That simple. Both her and the ride operator did the wrong thing
Depending on the ride she could have seriously injured herself and others. Or worse killed herself or someone else if she came off
By her logic I should be able to get on rides that have a height limit I don't meet yeah? Don't matter that's height regulation is there for safety.

Her pride or whatever isn't above others safety.

The ride operator should be investigated at their next set up for not running said ride properly

The seats need to be made bigger regardless. Im obese, but my husband is just a well built, tall man; neither of us fit in aeroplane seats. Noone would dream of complaining if he was "spilling" into someone else's seat, but i'm fair game apparently.

Ha, I'd complain about you both. I paid for my space, I'm entitled to use it all without ANYONE encroaching on it.
Its not up to anyone else to accommodate your size. It's on you both to keep within your paid for seat. If that means you need to buy and extra seat, too bad, so sad, buy an extra seat.

@XingMing couldn't agree with your more!

You have to pay for excess baggage because of weight, it's also a safety regulation due to not overloading the aircraft.

How on earth does an obese person fit into the aircraft toilet?

If it were me, and I'm not obese, just plain old fat, according to my BMI, it's not the fact you have to buy an extra seat, or that the arm rests won't go down, therefore you have to leave the aircraft because of it. It's the fact that you're completely humiliated in front of everyone else, and the attitudes on this thread go to show that attitude is in full force. Of course you don't have the right to encroach on someone else's space, or if it's not safe, not allowed to fly. But I'd get defensive too if faced in person with some of the sheer nastiness displayed here. Especially as there's little or no guidelines from airlines about this - I haven't flown for around 8 years, I'm afraid I don't remember the dimensions of the seats in perfect detail. The fact is we have a lot more overweight people than we used to, and some people who want/need to fly are overweight. You can argue the finer points of why all you like, it's a problem, now. As a service, airlines should be addressing this - for the comfort and safety of all passengers. If that happened, no space being encroached, no being asked to leave an aircraft because the arm rest won't go down, no-one cramped for a long flight, no safety concerns. It'd help all passengers.
We shouldn't normalise obesity, because it needs focus, and research and mechanisms to help people who struggle and eventually stop it happening.
What's absolutely not needed is the demonisation, ritual embarrassment and nastiness towards anyone, at all.
As a pp has already said there's actually a human being there, a real person and it's saddened me that just one thing about that whole person seems to give anyone who wants to the opportunity to belittle and humiliate someone.

In the interests of research, I spent last night on an aeroplane for you all.
I, as a slightly above average height, overweight, female, fitted fine in the seat, and could get my fists down each side (just!). Only overspil was my 8 yr old, who had his head in my seat, feet in his brothers.
My hip (and arse) measurement would become a problem way before my waist!

The price of a ticket absolutely should be based on weight of person + baggage, , it's only a matter of time before this happens.

Brilliantidiot it doesn’t have to be a humiliation. People just need to book two seats.

And if you want airlines to address it by providing these wider seats they do - it’s PE or BC or two seats

They could have a mock up seat in the terminal that you could check you fit it, just like the ones they have to check the size of hand luggage!!

Disclaimer: I am an overweight person and I would actually prefer this to not being sure if I will fit and not finding out til I’m on the plane!

I’d like a seat mock up in travel agents so I could be confident I’m not going to ruin anyone else’s journey

People are well aware of what size they are, Brilliantidiot. Not fitting into your seat isn’t a humiliating lightbulb moment for anyone, how could it be?
If the humiliation relates to actually being called on it rather than having it politely ignored and any inconvenience sucked up by your neighbour; tough shit, tbh

There are so many airlines each with slightly different sized standards and some with different sized seat options within their range, that having a range of demo seats in high st travel agencies would be impossible! You’d need an aircraft hangar to accommodate them all

www.airlinequality.com/info/seat-pitch-guide/

www.seatguru.com/charts/shorthaul_economy.php

As a service, airlines should be addressing this - for the comfort and safety of all passengers

But the are addressing it - practically every airline's website I've looked at urges the purchase of 2 seats if folk don't fit in one. Many of them even offer a refund if it turns out the aircraft isn't fully booked, and that's apart from all the options of extra legroom seats, premium economy, business class and all the rest

Short of completely refitting aircraft with much wider seats - which isn't going to happen - it's hard to see how they can be fairer, especially when all the relevant info is there at the click of a button, meaning it's hardly a surprise when someone can't fit a seat