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?

How does someone who has not flown know they need 2 seats?
Well if their fat hangs over in a car seat and its a squeeze then its common sense that they are not going to fit in the seat on an airplane 🙄

I expect the day will come when as well as trying to get your carry on case to fit the little cage there will be mock up seats in check in to ensure that passengers also fit the space available.

Why should a woman have to 'get over' a fat man touching her for x amount of hours? Or a fat woman infringing on her personal space?

Ew, gross.🤢

Why should fat people feel judged just for existing?

I wonder what the actual safety rules are. Surely there are weight limits for emergency evacuation equipment, a size range for life jackets etc.

the safety aspect of being stuck next to someone who is morbidly obese and has limited mobility worries me as much as the comfort aspect of being able to get up for the loo/ use my whole seat/ not be touching strangers etc

So much about airlines' lack of comfort, rules, exclusions, fees etc is not right. Yet we pay and they'e allowed to continue.

So you don't judge fat or smelly people, but you most likely judge people for other things. People who will equally have a sob story as to why they're that way. So you're no better than anyone else.

Nothing wrong with society trying to strive for better standards.

Unfortunately if airlines addressed all the discomfort issues prices for everyone would be a lot higher.

I’m not.

I fly a lot. I don’t judge other people cos I’m not an unpleasant person.
yes I have had larger people sat next to me, one couple a while back, she had mobility issues and needed assistance on & off the plane. She was encroaching on my seat a little and hubby was in the aisle a bit, could tell both were uncomfortable and she was so uneedingly apologetic that I couldn’t get off till she had assistance ( I wasn’t bothered)

lovely lady we had chatted a bit about our travels here and there

neither were ‘dripping in sweat’. Nor was there ‘ fat’ everywhere, mostly cos they were dressed like normal people

nothing wrong with having compassion for our fellow humans. Judging others and describing people in the way people are on this thread reeks of the those peoples insecurities not the people they are judging

I made one post on the thread not multiple till replying to you. I hope your day & mood get better

I totally agree. I've had it a few times now, had to move my legs to the other side for four hours. The persons fat sat on my hip, arm, shoulder and seat.
I don't care what anyone says. It is a gross situation.

If you don’t fit, you don’t fly.

Good luck.

Id like to do this but with my own standards. Anyone who looks like a raging bitch doesn’t get to fly

What about men with very broad shoulders? Should they buy two seats too? I’d love an extra seat between me and DH when we fly Ryanair.

Why should we have to get over it?
I've paid to have the whole of my seat and it isn't fair that I don't get to use it
I couldn't even use my tray table as the obese person next to me used it because she was unable to get hers down due to her size.
None of that was my fault.

Good point. I thought the same.

My husband buys two seats, as he should, but it is not actually all that easy to book an extra seat and airlines have differing requirements on what name the extra seat can be booked under. It is not always possible to buy two seats under the same name. I can imagine that someone trying to do so might easily give up.

Well some airlines changed from 3 3 3 seating to 3 4 3 seating. And dreamkiners were designed for 2 4 2 wide and many are now 3 3 3.

So that is more seats in each row

If say half the plane had 2 wider seat instead of 3 but charged 1.5 the amount of regular seats they'd still get the same money. And save on meals, luggage allowance and cabin crew.

If you care to read my original post about it, I did say that it was done on the B777 and B787 which are both widebodies.

But the OP was talking about Jet2, which is an all narrowbody fleet with most of its capacity provided by the 737. These seats simply have not got any narrower since 1968. People are fatter.

Airlines should not provide wider seats; they should, and some do, require them to book and pay for two seats

Perhaps this could be solved by having partitions that can be raised between the seats. It would prevent their fat encroaching upon the neighbouring seats. If they couldn't fit into their seat with both the neighbouring partitions raised, they could be booted off the plane or made to pay for a bigger seat.
It could work like a human version of the thing they use to measure the size of hand luggage.

To not want something that encroaches on your comfort is not fat shaming. To dislike the size of someone boarding an aircraft and having no impact on you is fat shaming.

I think it is about time people expected more. As customers. Not to be squeezed in with minimal space like a herd of cattle. With little to no leg room.

A lot of the thread is about how horrid larger people are.

Whether people are larger due to being fat, being tall, being big built but not fat is by the by.

We are as Europeans getting taller, bigger built and yes, many are fat. But many are larger and are not.

About time the airlines caught up with our growing height and sizes and treated customers better. Bigger seats please. And it is for them to work out the how.

When are people who've never run a business in their lives going to realise that this isn't about denting the airline's profits a little bit, it's about every other passenger on every plane paying more for their tickets?

It's not rocket science, @Imdunfer, but I expect some feel better if they feel they're sticking it to the "nasty bastard airlines" who "don't deserve all that money" rather than their fellow passengers (who they probably don't care much about either)

Hence comments like "get over it" ...

OP was very respectful actually

I sat on a flight and not only could I not have any access to my arm rest, the persons upper arm were impeding the back of my seat so had to curl my shoulder in and keep my arm in front if me at all times as well as part of their thigh on my seat under the arm rest.

Not only was around 20% of my own seat THAT I PAID FOR unavailable to me. I was stuck in a rigid position all flight not able to move.

That is hardly fair is it?