Is it unreasonable for airlines not to provide wider seats for obese passengers?

[Kag13]

I have today spent a four and a half hour Jet2 flight seated next to a young man who was at least 20 stone, probably larger. I could not use the left hand armrest as his body (fat) buldged over it and into my personal space (which on a budget airline is not that large) and his leg was resting over part of my seat.
Luckily I am only 5’2” and not that big but what would happen if someone of the same size was seated next to him?
it made for a very uncomfortable flight for me. Am I being unreasonable to think this is not right?

I needed one when i was a size 32.

Easy solution is airlines should simply treat people like suitcases.

If you're cabin bag can't fit into the predetermined size it must go in the cargo hold.

If people don't fit adequately into their seats they also most go in the cargo hold. Or into a bigger seat, whichever is more humane.

Most obese people don’t want to be obese. Often it will have resulted from some struggles in life and bad things happening. Losing weight is not easy. Otherwise tell me why there are millions of people on WLI. So it isn’t.

I think airlines should book 2 seats for passengers over a certain weight or hip or waist or shoulder measurement / whatever and I think that their second seat should be free. It’s disgusting to stigmatise and charge people for their weight when they have enough to deal with. And it’s also wrong for people like the OP to be inconvenienced.

In our family we have an airline problem as we are so tall. Both DH and DS are over 6ft6inches and I am tired of having to pay £££ for extra leg room. It isn’t fair.

I wouldn’t have been able to sit next to the person the OP describes as I am 6 ft and built. I need my entire seat. Me and DH find it hard to sit together on flights as his shoulders are so broad that they encroach onto my seat. And I need my entire seat as I am tall and built.

It is on the airlines to provide seats that passengers can fit into and not to discriminate. Otherwise, why do children get cheaper seats? They are using a whole seat. So obese people ought to get 2 seats for the price of 1.

I doubt very much that anybody is paying twice the amount for a bigger seat on short haul. Especially when the seat is still located in economy.

It's a money loser for the airline.

Problem nowadays is they've nowhere left to go to get width- the ultimate constraint is the internal diameter of the fuselage barrel...so more seat width means a whole new aircraft design or reducing to a 2/3 config in economy

I know, @notimagain, and it's a reconfiguration I was thinking of rather than a redesign of the entire aircraft

You're also spot on about it coming down to money, but this isn't going to get better and if it means some having to bear the extra cost which arises from their transportation that that may be what has to happen

Nobody's suggesting (well I hope not!!) that obese people should be shamed and jeered at while checking in, and with flexibility on all sides this could be sorted, but if some passengers are determined not to do that then yes, they may regrettably have to be refused boarding

@Puzzledandpissedoff

Agreed.

TBH at the moment given there's probably a juggernaut headed the way of a lot of airlines the idea that somehow this dingle issue should be improved at no cost to the paying public seems a bit fanciful....

Well then surely this is part of the problem? I’m sure more people would book two seats if it was made easier to do so online in a straightforward way. It can feel very “othering” to expect people to make a special phone call which they might find awkward or embarrassing.

In this thread we’ve had:

At least two people who booked two seats that ended up not being next to each other.

Someone else who says their second seat actually got bumped onto another flight.

They shouldn’t have to make an extra phone call to stop this from happening.

If you want obese people to book two seats, you’ll need to come up with a practical solution as to how this can be booked normally online so as to give them the same online booking experience as other customers, without having to go through extra steps.

People are saying “just book a second seat” but it’s clear from the problems described in this thread that it isn’t always that easy to do so.

I think that it would be pretty easy to design a portable and removable seat topper that would go over either 2 seats or over 1.5 seats. No reconfiguration necessary. And again, I would make the 1.5 seat or 2 seat the price of 1 seat. The world is a horribly fat-ist place. Someone in this thread has referred to “Mr and Mrs Obese”. Just horrible. Would you say “Mr Disabled” shouldn’t have any help or an accessible seat unless he pays double? After all this takes up staff time and admin time. Horrible.

my db is obese and he doesn’t fly at all. He’s obese because he spends his life and sanity helping other people. He is sad about it. He has diabetes and is in a big hole. Just hating people and kicking them when they are down like this is fucking filthy behaviour.

@Frumpiness

Well then surely this is part of the problem? I’m sure more people would book two seats if it was made easier to do so online in a straightforward way.

So even though at least some airlines facilitate the process they get criticised becaise somehow that process isn't easy enough or is embarassing and is part of the problem.

Sorry but now we're getting into the realms of there's no pleasing some people.

ETA in case it wasn't clear if you do this you are usually just requesting an extra adjacent seat -if asked you can make up the reason why you want one.

Let's be honest the majority of obese people aren't that way because of a medical condition or some trauma in their life.The majority of obese people are capable of losing weight but chose not to. Either becuase they're happy in their skin, or there are more temptations these days with limitless streaming and delivery services.

Certainly we shouldn't be encouraging normalisation of mass obesity by increasing the carbon footprint of airtravel.

There would be no harm in having a couple of extra large seats somewhere on board.
You could sell it as an upgrade and refund if anyone needs it.
How do you make someone buy 2 seats? How does someone who has not flown know they need 2 seats?
If you need the space so get 2 seats what about the seat belt and armrest?
Surely a single seat that fits is safer than someone perched between two.

They “facilitate” an unnecessarily complicated process by making people go through extra stages and make phone calls when other people don’t have to, and even then it clearly doesn’t always work. If you really want obese people to book an extra seat, you need to make it as easy to do so as any other customer booking a seat.

I assume the vast majority of flights these days are booked online. Making a phone call to an airline is an unusual thing to do unless you have an ongoing major complaint about something that’s gone wrong.

Airlines have done it before to collect data, to be fair there was backlash. I think the way we measure weight can be changed. Supermarket can weigh a trolley of goods to check and see if it matches your self check out total. It doesn’t need to involve stepping on scales you could have a floor level pad in front of a checkout desk.

I do think there might be a bit of a push in coming years if the current ozempic wave keeps up. In the same way there is nobody quite as sanctimonious as an ex smoker, there might be no one quite as desirous of having their slender state lauded than formerly obese folk.

@intrepidpanda

There would be no harm in having a couple of extra large seats somewhere on board.

Reducing a block of 3 to 2 means the airline potentially loses out on 1x passenger's revenue on every sector that aircraft flies.....and that adds up over multiple sectors.

That's why when/where it's done it usually always means paying a business class fare.

This is why they can sell them a bit dearer. With the provision they may be removed and refunded should a clinically obese person requires it.
Some will pay for extra space even on short flight.

It is gross when a complete stranger is spilling out onto your body and overfilling your airplane seat. Sorry if you don't like that.

Yes. Pricing is very complicated. It really isn't as simple as "knock a few seats together and charge more".

If enough people get big enough, the airlines will have to make changes just as the clothing industry did... and as with clothes, once the money starts drying up they'll move fast to stop themselves folding. But it's got to reach a critical point first and whilst it does seem to be an increasing problem, I don't think we are anywhere near that point yet.

I answered YABU because I think passengers need to pay for bigger/2 seats not airline! But it's def not right that you need to suffer

Completely agree. My job requires me to frequently fly in helicopters. We are all weighed as part of check in and are allocated a seat dependant on our weight.

This needs to be adopted as part of aviation general.

No it doesn’t.

you’re weighed because of the safety requirements. Two people can carry the same weight very differently. I’m short, so I’m far and dumpy. But someone who’s five inches taller than me at my weight may look totally different.

Helicopters aren't 50 tonne plus plus plus up to 500 tonne airliners and as a result are much more sensitive to passenger/baggage weight deviations from the norm.

Going down the helicopter road of weighing everyone at somewhere like LHR or JFK at peak departure hours is a none-starter and if tried won't go down well with the on-line check-in last minute boarding cohort.

The current assumed weight method used in the airline world works fine if properly monitored and the weights used are subject to survey and sampling on an occasional basis.

wtf, why should it be free 😂

People are also sometimes just fat because they eat to much! If they can afford a holiday then they can afford WLI too! Maybe they should do that instead.

I thought the OP's tone was actually quite measured and language respectful. I don't subscribe to the fat people are gross narrative, but I've been in OPs situation and it's unpleasant to say the least. On a train or bus, a relatively short journey, fine but on a plane, even short haul flights, there is little enough space as it is without someone taking over some of yours. I don't know what the answer is, but I've been there and hated it.

People say 'they should buy two seats'

The reality is that if you pay for an empty seat, the airline will resell it to someone else. Most airlines overbook all of their flights if they can and the T&C's often say they will fill any empty seats even if you have paid for them.

Airlines cram as many people on as possible and that is why flights are cheap (by historic standards).

@ScholesPanda

People say 'they should buy two seats'
The reality is that if you pay for an empty seat, the airline will resell it to someone else.

As mentioned previously the actual reality is at some (mainly legacy) airlines at the booking stage you can buy a second, adjacent seat specifically for what is called comfort reasons and it will not be resold, even on a full flight.

Not sure if any of the popular Uk/Europe LoCos have such a scheme.