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?

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

you gave the impression that it was because people were sleeping that you didn’t ask them

Rather than fact no one would ever agree to swap with you given the person seated next to you!!

How long was the flight op? Must have been long haul if they lowered the lights

What a shitty attitude you have. Someone else should accept being physically touched all flight, crushed into a small space leading to discomfort as she can't stretch herself properly and the emotional discomfort of being so close to a complete stranger because why, #bekind? Fuck that. People who can't fit in one seat need to buy two. That's the end of it. If they don't, they don't deserve sympathy for inconveniencing others!

Yes, it’s incredibly annoying and at a certain weight/size people should have to get two seats. I had it once (luckily on a fairly short flight) and it was incredibly uncomfortable. The annoying thing was I had done a good deed by switching seats to allow friends to sit together, and then a few minutes later this man sat down and I thought, darn, no good deed goes unpunished eh. I didn’t want to be rude and say anything but I probably would have had to if the flight were going to be longer.

I had this on our flight back from the US last weekend
dd (15) was sitting next to the ‘spreading’ person
I was in the aisle
After putting a brave face on for a few hours she turned to me burst into tears and said I’m so claustrophobic so we swapped.
The flight was full.
My 3 other dc was sitting together across from us. The lady next to us was sitting next to an equivalently fat person who was travelling with her

Yes, it’s incredibly annoying and at a certain weight/size people should have to get two seats. I had it once (luckily on a fairly short flight) and it was incredibly uncomfortable. The annoying thing was I had done a good deed by switching seats to allow friends to sit together, and then a few minutes later this man sat down and I thought, darn, no good deed goes unpunished eh. I didn’t want to be rude and say anything but I probably would have had to if the flight were going to be longer.

airlines have policies for this. He could have booked two and called them after to ensure they were both allocated to him.

Did I say I wasnt sympathetic to the OP, she asked for opinions, calm down

Oh how I hate the middle seat! My husband books window and I get the middle. If we’re very lucky, no one joins us to sit in the aisle seat and I can then move to the aisle. I find being stuck in the middle rather uncomfortable especially if trying to sleep. This is being stuck next to a normal sized person, never mind a larger person.

I am fortunate to have done some amazing holidays recently and one of the interesting things is that on small plane flights we have actually been weighed for them (Costa Rica) and literally stood on the scales. Just booked Botswana and had to declare we were under 90k on booking and warned if we were more we had to buy 2 seats. If weight increases before flight we will not be able to fly if no extra space. In other countries and for small plane flights it is normal to establish if someone is obese.

Wow! there you go. Maybe this will catch on

That sounds very unfair on you. Why can’t your husband go in the middle half the time?

Was the spreading person at all apologetic?

You can get away with insisitng on weighing everyone if there's a genuine need to do so for aircraft performance reasons..specifically the need for accurate weight & balance calculations on small aircraft - that will overide consideration about pretty much everything else, including sensitivities over hinting some people might be obese.

It's hard to use the same logic for the sort of aircraft and the means of establishing weight and balance TUI use....

From a commercial POV do you think any major western airline wants to be the first one to announce "everyone over xxx kgs or size yy must pay and book two seats?...

Personally I think that might not be an unreasonable thing to do, the present situation can be a mess, but I don't run an airline.

It does sound like you had a terrible time. Always book an aisle seat. Saying that you always get a bit of contact with average size people.

I’m all for a total weight allowance - person and bag- and then pay extra for each kg over!

We booked three seats for two people flying back from NYC several years ago - they were short of seats, so upgraded us in order to get the three seats for other passengers.

True. It would be good if there was a blanket rule for all airlines. It's a tricky one for sure

Im fat but able bodied.. Fat people arent weak, pathetic things that have no energy and cant move you know

I wonder what the weight restriction is on a standard airline seatbelt.

Those 9 characteristics are just the ones protected under the Equality Act. There are plenty of other forms of discrimination, they're just not unlawful. For example, having ginger hair isn't a protected characteristic but people would take a dim view of a company that discriminated against gingers. So it's not entirely unreasonable for Tui to use the word "discrimination" in their response.

He’s 6 ft 3 and I’m 5 ft 2, so I get the middle by default. 😗

Woman up next time and book yourself a seat where you want to sit fgs rather than the middle because your thoughtless husband demands the window

Since you asked, the UK specs are here;

https://www.caa.co.uk/our-work/publications/documents/content/caa-specification-01/

True, but they failed to acknowledge the importance of the comfort of all passengers and safety. The air hostess/people using the toilet had to ask each time for him to move his leg. His arm fell on me when he was asleep etc etc but in an evacuation id have no chance. He was unhappy I asked him to get up for me to use the toilet