AIBU to think airline seats no longer fit average-sized adults?

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Do any airlines have adult-sized seats? Not obese adults, just regular adults?

We've just flown with Jet2 and my back is still in agony from the trip there. I was in the middle seat between my friend, who is slightly overweight but also short, so proportionately, she is not much wider than an average height, average weight woman, and a man who was maybe bordering on obese, his ass fit in his own seat, but his shoulders took a good three/four inches of my seat. My friend's shoulders took maybe a cm or 2 of my seat.

I'm not on the small side myself; I'm not overweight, but I am not what you'd describe as skinny. I needed all my shoulder space to myself. I was unable to sit back the entire flight because I literally didn't fit. I had to hunch forward with my shoulders rolled in.

On the way back, I was sitting between my friend, a short, slim lady. I could sit back, but I was touching both people on either side of me, and there was no elbow space or wriggle room.

For next year, I need either my shoulders shaved down and a few ribs removed or actual, people-sized seats. Do such seats exist?

I don't want cheap air fares if it means I cannot physically fit in my seat but the budget airlines seem to be the only options for shorthaul/package holidays.

I'd happily pay a few hundred more if it meant I could fit in the seat comfortably.

18" width seats do not fit in a 737 cabin. It's always had 17" seats.

The seat configuration has been changed. The seats are thinner and less padded. The design is more cramped. Also nutrition during childhood has made our frames larger (not fat, stronger bones) and as I said earlier, air travel has opened up to all races and many are bigger framed.

Business Class or Premium Economy?

The most comfortable economy seat I’ve booked more recently was Delta comfort plus. It is still economy but had 3 inches more leg room and better pitch. That tiny amount made so much difference. I felt I could properly relax in the seat. It helped it was two seat config on windows rather than three. It was a 12 hr long haul flight. Although more expensive than economy it’s about £100 more not several hundred like upgrading to premium. Worth it on a long flight.

Short haul flights are very cramped these days.

Airline seats are one of the very few advantages of being very short. Im 4'10 and usually sit with teen DC (DD 5'1 and DS 5'7) but i can imagine its pretty uncomfortable if youre average height

Not over weight but tall (for a women) at 5ft 10 and I hate flying jet2/easyjet/ryanair because there is no space!! My husband 6ft same so together we are cramped

As someone who is 5.8ft my knees are squished against the seat in front and it's incredibly uncomfortable, causing hip and back pain. I don't know how people who are taller manage!

I fit just fine but I make sure to take up every inch of my seat, including my arm rest and leg room so another person cannot encroach into my space.

I can accept it on budget airlines as you get what you pay for. But I resent being cramped in on legacy airlines given the cost you pay.

People are on average taller now, which means their bones are also bigger and their frames are broader, regardless of whether or not they are overweight.

^This
65% of adults are overweight or obese in the UK. They’ve done a study on perceptions and when you have the majority of adults being fat, then overweight starts to look normal and a healthy weight starts to look skinny.

It could be worse, it’s 73% of adults are overweight or obese in the US.

People are getting fatter and fatter.

Taller compared to 100 years ago, but shorter compared to 1980 in the US, UK and Europe.

Something needs to be done about all the obesity. And airlines should charge obese people more to fly.

Again, no one in the seating row was obese.

I just fit the top half of the seat, with not a cm to spare and no space to move for comfort. I pay more attention to body fat %, I cannot remember my weight exactly, but I believe it is roughly 11 stone. My body fat % jumps between 23% and 27% depending on how dedicated I am to training and eating clean. If it starts creeping higher than 27%, I know I am overdoing the pasta and burgers and have a few weeks of clean eating.

Obesity was not the issue.

I feel sorry for those who have the misfortune of sitting next to you.

Maybe airlines could charge passengers by the lb or kg?

So they could advertise for instance, a flight to Lanzarote at £1.20 a lb or something similar.

How would that help with seat sizing? NO ONE WAS OBESE. FFS.

It would encourage people to slim down to get cheaper flights, which would mean more room for passengers in the existing seats.

How much slimmer do you think people should be if a BMI of 22 and body fat % of 27% max is not slim enough to fit comfortably?

Maybe we should ban tall people from flying? That's probably the biggest issue I face. I am tall, therefore my skeleton is wider.

Perhaps we should also ban swimmers? That's how my shoulders got so muscular. My thighs are quite muscular too, that's probably from ice-skating, they fit the seat OK, but someone with slightly bigger muscles wouldn't fit, so maybe we just ban all sports people from flying?

Seat sizes haven’t changed much, if they have it’s in pitch, not width.

I’ve just flew with easyJet and Jet2 and had no issues with the seat size or leg room. My dh is a bigger guy (rugby player though not overly tall) and he has no issue. The problem is oversized adults.

Broad shoulders, weight aside, even on slim fit adults often don’t fit. You are not being unreasonable. Due to improving nutrition every generation is getting slightly bigger (torso and height, I don’t mean fatter) and so even if nobody was obese they would be too small.

The minimum size needs to be increased.

If one airline makes the seats bigger and charges more to accommodate this, people will just book with the cheaper airline that has the smaller seats. And then probably moan about how small the seats are and how the airline should make them bigger.

I’m tall (5ft 9) but have a small frame & find Ryanair etc a bit of a squash.