uncomfirtable journey

[planejourney]

Interested in people's opinions.
I had a recent journey from hell when an obese/morbidly obese person sat next to me on a flight for 6 hours.
He and his partner both booked aisle seats next to each other and both were morbidly obese. I was in a middle seat and another passenger in the window seat.
He struggled to get into the seat and had to rearrange himself and move bits around in order to get the armrest down. Once in place, the armrest disappeared. He basically overflowed into my seat and had to cross his arms for me to have any room. His right leg was in my space and his left leg was in the aisle. He was unable to get the table down in front of him.
Unfortunately I had to spend the full journey with body contact with this person. This not only invaded my personal space but was also really hot! It was a night flight and the flight was full, so I didn't want to disturb people sleeping by asking if a swap/move was possible. This person proceded to fall asleep and snore very loudly to a point where people were turning around. The trolley or people could not get past his leg in the aisle so he had to keep moving it. To make matters worse, the person in front reclined their seat right back. I felt trapped!
I had a few looks of pity and the staff could clearly see how uncomfortable it was.
AIBU to think he should have bought a second seat? Airlines should make it clear and consider the comfort and safety of all passengers. I paid for a seat and got half a one. Did this person lack consideration for others?

This person's right to travel by air does NOT trump another person's right to not have another human being's flesh rubbed against them.

Not really. He crossed his arms on top of the arm rest. The weight of his middle would have transferred under the arm rest on to OP. I’ve seen it happen.

@SaltAirAndTheRust I said it was normal to have close contact with other people as airlines cram you in. That's certainly my normal. I have never had lots of room when a person has reclined in front of me in economy. Where is it normal for you to have loads of space?

There is a very big difference between “not a lot of space” and having a very large man using half your seat, plus most of your footwell.

As I’ve said, no because I was morbidly obese. But I didn’t make it anyone else’s problem!

There are 9 characteristics protected under the discrimination act and being overweight isn't one of them so you should go back to TUI and demand a better response.

There is a very big difference between “not a lot of space” and having a very large man using half your seat, plus most of your footwell.

I didn't say otherwise?

As I’ve said, no because I was morbidly obese. But I didn’t make it anyone else’s problem!

Why would you being morbidly obese be anything other than your problem? 😆

Did the flight really take off with your seatbelt unbuckled and the stewards were cool with that?

Why did you not ask for a seatbelt extender?

have you read the OP? 😵‍💫

Yep. They didn’t even say anything. I was horrified and too embarrassed to mention it by that point. Tui do not check things like that.

Yes and it says nothing about a seatbelt extender which is odd

That very much would have been the problem if anyone sitting near you if that aircraft encounters bad turbulence or the plane dropped or anything unusual because your body could not be restrained and would go crashing around the cabin. Seatbelts on planes are actually needed sometimes to prevent people being ejected from their seats and crashing into other seats and passengers.

Why would you have done something so selfish when you could have bought a seatbelt extender or just asked for one?

That poster would have been provided with one free of charge by TUI

they could not have taken off without her seat buckled but apparently the stewards 🤷‍♀️ and were cool with it 🤔

I’d imagine that it’s very rare for that to be enforced in practice.

I’m assuming Tui have assumed that at that weight, the other passenger would be disabled and thus fall under the equalities act.

Yep. They didn’t even say anything. I

So you did in fact endanger other people and make your obesity their problem! can't make it up, utterly stupid.

TUI DO check all seatbelts are buckle and will stand and watch you do it if it’s unbuckled

i don't believe this thread is in good faith tbh

Well they didn’t in my experience.

And this is why I pick my seat on the aeroplane carefully (and upgrade for long haul).
One thing to consider though... a morbidly obese person who hasn't flown before or hasn't flown in a long time quite possibly doesn't realise how much they're going to overflow their seat until it's too late. Not saying it's OK for them to do so but what can you do?

And you just thought “oh well, if we hit bad turbulence then the person in front of my can just get crushed because I’m not embarrassed to ask for a seat belt extender.”

I don’t justify what I did - but I’m saying TUI don’t give a damn about stuff like that. In my experience many of the budget airline staff don’t care because they’re not paid enough to. They’re not about to risk losing their slot to get someone off the flight because they’re too fat for their seat.

How long ago?