Please help - will I get kicked off plane because I'm fat?

[BioGirl]

I am currently 24 stone 8. About 340 lb and 5ft 11. I'm lucky in that I carry my weight everywhere and wear UK 26-28 clothes.

I am travelling twice soon on easyjet (18 inch seats) and another on a 17inch seat. I am terrified I will be kicked off.

I have been on a plane before but I was about 1 stone lighter but i did previously fit on Ryanair with an extender.

Does anyone have anything to ease my worry. I can't sleep at night!

I would be very worried about your health, far more than fjying, although I can see you would be worried having already booked.

Please try to get some support to bring down your bmi, even losing a few stone will help enormously and you presumably would drop several sizes and benmore comfortable yourself in an airplane seat, as I can't imagine how uncomfortable it must be to have to be so restricted by those stupid little seats they provide on budget airlines.

I hope it's a reasonably short flight for you, as that will also make for different levels of what's manageable for you and those around.

I definitely wouldn't want to be touching shoulders with my fellow travellers.

Are you flying alone or do you have a travel partner who is smaller than you? In case of the latter it will help if you put the armrest between you two up. I've done this in the past for someone. You should ask first though.

fwiw I'm 6', 14-15 stone & a size 18, & I find easyjet seats quite snug (more so than they used to be I think)

fwiw on my last 2 flights I booked window seats in an extra legroom room, another single had booked the aisle seat, & the middle seat was empty both times.

If you are travelling with somebody could you try that? Book window & aisle, & hope the flight's not full? (extra legroom seats costs more so they don't get filled until late on)

It seems we cannot help you with this, as with our carry-on baggage weight, it is decided by each airline individually as to their own rulings. Each has all their restrictions detailed for advance checking for passengers to know the limits of their tickets/planes/flights.

Apparently each have a section on 'passengers of size.'. Although, everyone is a passenger of 'size' of one kind or another!

Apparently a vast majority of travellers are unhappy at the imposition it places on their comfort during their flight having their own space taken by those who are obese enough as to encroach on their ticket paying space.

So its not only about whether the flight will accept you, its about the effect it will impose upon those around who have to fly alongside you. You are not the only consideration, your fellow travellers need consideration too. Just because you are accepted to be on the flight doesn't mean you should.

Please don't assume booking two seats will automatically work. I have seen someone protest as the second seat they booked was given away to someone else because the flight was overbooked. Bad feelings all round.

That's a horrible rogue practice isn't it, continually over-booking flights! Greedy.

You may already have seen this, but this is what the easyJet site says if that helps?

"Additional seat requirement

Our minimum seat dimensions are as follows:

Pitch (distance between back of seat and back of seat in front): 29" (approx. 72.5cm)
Width (distance between armrests): 17 ½ " (approx. 44cm)
If You are unable to fit into a single seat with the above dimensions for any reason (including medical requirements e.g. a broken leg) You will be required to purchase additional seats at the prevailing rates to accommodate Your needs."

You simply can't buy a seat on a plane that's too small for you, that makes sense.

I guess it would mean buying a bigger seat, so that it fits properly and doesn't encroach on next door seat, like business class, but would exclude you from the budget airlines.

Can you get your money back rather than risk it, as then I think you wouldn't get a refund

You say you've put on weight (10lbs?) - Are you significantly larger than you were when you posted about this the previous occasions?

If this is causing you so much lost sleep each and every time that you fly, you seriously, seriously need to consider your options regarding your weight and flying. We cannot tell you for certain over the Internet. Contact your airline.

I find easyjet seats tight and I'm a size 12.you need to buy an extra seat. Please don't spill over onto your neighbours that's really bad.

Whoever sits next to you will probably sigh or worse, though, as you will be hard up against them shoulder-wise even so.

Frankly, if I had to spend a period of time forced to be “hard up against” someone because they are fat, I’d sigh and worse.

You won’t get kicked off, and you will fit - I’m 5’10 and size 22-24 (like you I carry it all over) and travel on easyJet all the time. I have a massive arse and I fit perfectly well in the seats. I’ve never rubbed shoulders with anyone, and tbh the attitude on this thread on the whole is astonishingly fat-phobic. There are a million and one reasons why someone might be fat. You’ll be absolutely fine, OP - and if you need more reassurance there’s a fb group called something like flying while fat which has lots of helpful info. Enjoy your trip.

My Dp is big build. Huge shoulders and 6ft 4. So we booked seats on our flight accordingly. We have chosen seats with extra leg room where there are only 2 seats, so he is comfortable and not encroaching on someone else.

There are a million and one reasons why someone might be fat

Well yes, but let's be honest. The majority of us that are overweight (Yes me included) are because we eat too much. It's unfair to encroaching on someone else. My son has aspergers. If someone was sat touching him for 5 hours he would have a melt down. Does that mean he shouldn't fly, just In case someone too larger for their seat sits in the next seat?

It isn't fat phobic. I think posters are trying to be helpful without being rude. There was a thread recently about an overweight person who couldn't even put the armrest down. I'm not even sure if the armrests lift up on Easyjet flights.

You wont get kicked off. You cannot possibly be the only person your size who has ever flown on Easyjet etc and they carry millions of people every year. It’ll be a squeeze and you may be given a belt expander.

I once remember flying back on a long haul flight we got seats with extra legroom DH if 6 5 and I am 6ft at the time we were probably average weights for our heights. We were sat next to two really people. I think they both had extended belts. Four of us were in a row. Our shoulders were in agony the whole way leaning to accommodate these two. The whole flight was horrendously uncomfortable so much so that we have never flown long haul since. These two should really have paid for one or two extra seats.

I think it's possible for people to want to be able to use the whole of the seat space they've paid for without being fat-phobic.

On the other recent thread that pp have mentioned, the overweight passenger also found the whole flight distressing. Buy as many seats as you will need.

At 6ft I struggle with my legs fitting in and I encroach on my fellow passengers (luckily my shorter family), being tall, you might struggle there too, depending on where your height is.

Blimey I'm a size 18 at 5'3", but airline seats are a lot bigger than this travesty of a bastard train seat I'm presently crammed into. On the train I can feel my wrestlers arms pushing me verrry slightly over onto the unlucky (hopefully slim) person beside me, but I've never had that problem in an airline seat - not even a Flybe vomit comet!

Just to add - you can buy your own seatbelt extender from Amazon. Saves the hassle of asking for one.

If you cannot sit with the armrest in place and the flight is full then yes they could ask you not to fly - I'm size 16 and Ryan air is snug! I would contact the airline for advice as to their policies but try not to actually give your name initially so they can't endorse your booking until you know the options

The new easy jet seats are definitely smaller. I have a fair amount of space in the old ones and literally an inch either side of me in the new ones and I'm size 10. I'd phone the airline rather than worrying, or making pretend seats from boxes. It will stop any concern and I'm 100% sure it won't be the first time they've been asked.

You wont get kicked off. You cannot possibly be the only person your size who has ever flown on Easyjet etc and they carry millions of people every year. It’ll be a squeeze and you may be given a belt expander.

Of course you can be not allowed to fly if you don't fit in the seats. I flew with monarch a few years ago. I just got in the seat at a size 16. I carry all my weight and stomach and arse. The arm rests didnt go up. Someone several sizes bigger wouldn't have fitted in at all. It's not about the belt.

If the op physically doesn't fit, what would you expect them to do?

I've been on planes up to size 24 roughly 290lbs and fit ok but I did need a seatbelt extender - which they are quick, discreet and kind about

I do have a smaller arse in comparison to the rest of me but I still had butt room in the seat. This is on BA, Ryanair and Easyjet