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?

So she shouldn’t fly if shes unhappy being seated next to a 20 stone obese person? This is not the Ops problem. The airline decides the size of the seat. If you can’t fit in one seat buy two or don’t fly.

I had this once with someone well over 20 stone and I'm only 5'2 and weigh 8 stone. They also had horrendous body odor. I got up and asked to be moved seat as it was absolutely horrendous. It shouldn't be allowed at all. It's not fair on other passengers and there should be a seat checker to ensure people can fit in their seats

They'll end up putting more of them in if there is a proven market for them.

To encourage larger people to book the wider seats (and make sure they aren’t snapped up by slim people who just want more space), couldn’t the airlines have the info at the booking stage?

eg. If your body is wider than x inches in a seated position, you will need to book one of our wider seats. These seats are not available for booking by people smaller than this size. Check-in staff reserve the right to refuse boarding if you have booked the wrong sized seat. (Then if they don’t manage to sell all the wider seats they can offer them as upgrades to regular-sized passengers).

I can see that there would still be issues with such a policy as folks would argue: ‘Well my shoulders are wider than x but my arse isn’t’ Etc. But I would think it could possibly be done if they could get the wording right.

Skinny police would have to turf them out.

Another issue though would be people gaining or losing weight in between booking and flying 😂

Most seats would have been allocated by that time surely so thar wouldn't be a viable option.

It's so true. Even on trains.
Body shaming isn't good but we could have budget airlines weighing people as well as their luggage (tongue in cheek but I wouldn't put it past the unmentionable budget flights).
There's nothing worse for littlies than being squashed in a very costly seat. It's really unpleasant.

He should have booked on a Jumbo Jet

Lol. If you are 20 stone and have bmi 25 ie not overweight, you’d need to be 7ft 5. The current tallest man in the uk is 7 ft 7. Only a handful of people in the uk are this tall. You must know all of them.

January 8, 2003, an Air Midwest flight stalled and crashed just after take off. The investigation found that the cause was the excessive weight of the passengers and the uneven distribution of weight. Distribution and amount of weight on planes has always been a safety issue, but the investigation found that the protocol hadn't been updated to account for the increased average weight of passengers.
I took a flight on a 4 seater commuter aircraft in USA back in the 80s - I and my luggage had to be weighed. I was size 10 and 8.5 stone back then, but those were the rules.
2 years ago I was on a short flight on a smallish plane - maybe 20 seats - there were 9 passengers and the flight attendant distributed us evenly throughout the cabin.
It isn't a big deal on a huge airliner, but I think it could become a problem on smaller planes. As pp said, what is the point of weighing luggage and not people.

I’m sure they were well within their rights and I wouldn’t want tickets to be based on weight either. I was just mildly miffed at the time!

I wondered about this… people suggest buying 2 seats if obese, but I don’t know how you would actually do this on a normal online airline booking? I have never seen anything that suggests more than booking one seat per person. 🤔

I assume you’d have to ring the airline up and talk to someone. Or live chat. I always ring up after booking to get me and Dd sat together free of charge (she has medical needs so airlines will do this).

Omg that must have been awful, I mean I know he was nice and everything but what an uncomfortable flight for you...

I agree with you in terms of weighing up social scenarios etc. For some, the sound of children or babies crying is intolerable, for others it could be the infringement on body space.

In an ideal world, there would be perhaps - family flights, choice to sit beside larger than normal people etc. And larger than normal is not limited to obesity - my FIL is 6ft 6in with very wide shoulders of example. The natural drop of his arm would be into the seat beside him.

The airlines do nothing to mitigate this - clearly there is not enough money in it as they are very quick to monetize all aspects of flights.

I feel badly for people carrying that much extra weight. I only understood it when pregnant - you have to plan how you walk through spaces based on how much room is available, manouvering the body this way and that. Rigid seats are a no no because you cannot get into them, or worse, get out of them etc. Life has many extra layers of difficulty before we ever get to judgement or health.

No I’m saying it would be a good idea

I am obese but have never needed a seatbelt extender. I am also paranoid about not taking other people’s space. I always get an aisle seat so I can lean out if necessary. . As seats can vary, it could be difficult to know if you were too fat for a particular seat especially if you were borderline width wise. I was recently lucky enough to fly business class as it was really cheap on day of purchase. 2 weeks later, it was 6k more. Very few people could justify that additional cost. I read stories about people who have purchased the extra seat but then airline fill it, what would happen then?

I like the idea of the 1.5 width seat and would be prepared to pay for it but per an earlier comment, I can see others wanting to purchase those seats for comfort/ability to sleep even if they don’t need the extra room.

Awful op. I’m flying soon & im dreading being in your position.( I’m 5’1 small build ) Couldn’t imagine anything worse than someone’s overweight sweaty limbs invading my space. Not to mention having to ask them to get up & witness the struggle shuffling about in them tight spaces as I need to wee quite frequently.

I would be really uncomfortable with this.

it’s always worth trying to get an aisle seat if you need to pee a lot!

Hahaha 😆

But there is no way to stop the skinny folk booking them. Because the fat folk might actually have a skinny friend who wants to sit beside them.

Just the same as the extra leg length seats the short folk want to sit beside their tall pals.
Like wise with kids. You can't say Hoy fatty your skinny kids need to go elsewhere!

People should be able to sit in their paid seat without being touched by someone else’s body.

Maybe each passenger should be weighed, along with all their luggage, at check-in? So the total amount of weight they are bringing on board would be taken into account and each person charged accordingly.

I think the main the point here is that we should be allowed to sit on plane without being touched by others. I have asked skinny men to remove their legs from my space or not lean on me with their arms and I wouldn’t hesitate to ask a larger person to do the same.

I am considerate with my space and body in regards to others and I expect the same in return.

I feel for you, that sounds so uncomfortable and gross, someone’s body pressing into you like that. As with any public transport you do get all shapes and sizes but I agree the airline could add a disclaimer to their booking that overweight people need to purchase an extra ticket if they can’t fit into the seat dimensions - much like oversized luggage. Gate staff should check much like they do with onboard bags. Why should everyone else around heavily overweight people suffer being squashed. There is a marked difference between being tall and being so heavy you can’t contain yourself in your seat.

I was at a concert not too long ago and had a huge lady next to me. A backside and stomach so big it spilled over the concert seat, she was absolutely massive (wide, not tall). She kept waving her equally large arms around and dancing, obscuring most of my view and took up a quarter of my seat when sat down. I‘m not interested in fat shaming people but if you’re that large you ought to purchase two seats!!