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?

Nope..the emergency exits, especially the overwing ones are usually described as "self help "exits and on some aircraft e.g.on some 737s, they are quite small.

You want passengers in them that can respond both mentally and physically reasonably quickly, and get out of the way PDQ so as to leave a clear path for those behind.

I didn't want to get into an additional debate. I was with child, who absolutely would not move!

The only rude people were the couple who didn’t book an extra seat, but purposely booked two aisle seats knowing they could just encroach onto the middle passenger. They didn’t book seats next to each other because they knew they would both need the extra space of the middle seats… so they just took it from you and the person on the other side as well. They’re rude. It is not rude to complain about it, to talk to the flight crew or to even tell them to move their damn feet out of your space.

I’m so sick of assertiveness in a situation when you are the one being mistreated being mislabelled as rude.

I know you think that you were very polite and empathetic but that’s not how I would describe it.

I didn't want to disturb people sleeping by asking if a swap/move was possible.

who on earth would you have asked to swap with you?!

Yes, in different circumstances, not a night flight, not on my own with child, I probably would have.

Exactly, the flight was full. No point as it wasn't going to happen and I wouldn't leave my child and get passengers moving around while others were sleeping. Lights were off too

My point is…. Do you think anyone would have looked at who you were seated next to and said “sure I’ll swap”?

So this was a long haul flight?! How long?

so basically the airlines are acknowledging its a risk. So for me, id be at risk

Surely the staff at check in must see the size of someone and be able to advise them accordingly. It's obvious that someone morbidly obese isn't going to fit into one seat. And I say this as someone who is a size 16/18.

no, which is part of the reason I didn't bother. im agreeing with you

(From Google)

EASA Regulation (EU) No 965/2012 governs air operations and includes requirements for seating passengers in emergency exit rows.

• It mandates that passengers in these seats must be:

- Physically capable of operating the exit. - Free from any condition or equipment that could hinder evacuation.

Why Extenders Are a Problem:-

• A seat belt extender can:

- Delay evacuation due to extra time needed to unbuckle. - Create a tripping hazard for others following behind. - Indicate limited mobility, which may disqualify someone from exit row seating under EASA’s criteria.

Yes they did lack consideration. I was on an overnight flight recently where one passenger had 3 seats to himself. I assumed he’d booked extra seats because there did not appear to be any extra seats that I could see. It’s very very bad to expect people to suffer.

They dont and this is what i feel should happen. The response i had is it would be discrimination.
It is an airline issue, they should be more inclusive.

I've sat next to a morbidly obese person on a flight before. Yes, they took up "my" space, but for god's sake, think about how hard it is to be them, and how shitty and humiliated they must already feel in that situation. Obese people deserve respect and kindness too, are you such a princess that you're unable to withstand even a modicum of discomfort if it makes someone else feel better? Honestly, sometimes I feel society has become so individualistic it's doomed to fail.

You should always ask. Maybe there was space in BC/FC.

You effectively let the airline off the hook.

They consider it's a risk they have to take into account when it comes to assigning seats in self help exit rows,.possibly not elsewhere.

In your shoes I'd certainly have been considering options in (the unlikely event etc) an evacuation, such as going over the seat in front if the large individual blocking access to the aisle wasn't moving.

Has anyone been on a flight where the air stewards have moved someone because of their size?

It must have been uncomfortable for him, maybe he couldn't afford two seats and maybe he booked an aisle to be as considerate as he could. In future it might be a good idea to book an aisle seat though as it would feel less claustrophobic.

Why do you feel sorry for them? They should have bought two seats. They knew they were going to fuck up someone else's flight, they were selfish in the extreme

It’s not OP’s job to make him comfortable. Where’s the sympathy for OP?

I'm a hardass on this issue - IMO if they couldn't fit in a seat safely without blocking the aisle or encroaching on another passenger and they hadn't booked an extra seat for themselves they should have been deplaned.

I did, if you read the full threat 😃

I had this once on an 11 hour flight. Me and my friend on a bank on 3 seats with a woman who couldn’t move the tray table down, seatbelt didn’t fit and she was sat three quarters on my friend’s middle seat. The crew ended up letting us sit in the jump seats and said the pilot had debated not letting her on. It was awful and she didn’t move for the whole flight.

What really annoyed me was that her husband was also on the flight and was also very large. There were some seats in pairs so I didn’t understand why they didn’t make them sit together instead of encroaching on everyone else.

Given how anal budget airlines are about bag size/weight, buying an extra seat should be mandatory if you're too fat to fit in one.