Dave Noble

The solution is that if someone does not fit into the seat area, that that person book 2 seats

1StRanger

How can a passenger figure it out while you are buying a ticket? (Especially since different planes have different seat width, even in Y.) What if the passenger hasn't flown for ages or at all?

PS. That reminds me about Procrustes: He found an effective solution for those who didn't fit into his bed.

Dave Noble

There isn't a great range of seat widths in economy ime - if someone is of a size that they may not fit in the width, then perhaps actually checking

Tizzette

Any obese person who has flown economy in recent years does know the narrow seats are not adequate, but hardly anybody will chose to buy two seats voluntarily. I hope the Italian lawyer's suit helps motivate airlines to enforce better policies. The Southwest policy requires the obese person to buy two seats, then refunds one seat if the flight turns out to have had empty seats available to sit beside. SW must enforce this some way, maybe deplaning a spillover COS if the flight is too full to sit by an empty seat.

1StRanger

Dave, how about some fact checking?
(But, I guess in this election period it is no longer fashionable..)

In Economy class, the difference can be more than 2 inches in seat width. (Source: seatguru.com)
Examples: Qatar airlines B777-300ER v.1&v2: 17", B777-300ER v.3: 18.5"
ANA: B777-300ER : 16.5"
One of the widest: Qatar airlines: B777-200LR: 18.9"
Yet another comparison for the same plane model, A333: AirAsia X: 16.5" (I saw 16.33" in other sources), while Air Canada: 17.8".
Tables: https://www.seatguru.com/charts/shorthaul_economy.php (warning: there are some errors there)

How important are 2 inches? That's more than 10%.
"Airbus says it has commissioned research suggesting an extra inch in seat width improves sleep quality by 53 percent." (Source: https://goo.gl/cdQ9nK )
Yet another fact: Spirit Airlines regular Economy seats: 17.75", while "Big Front" seats, which, presumably they suggest for the overweight people (see the next link) and for which they charge up to $199 extra, are 18.5". (Source: https://goo.gl/kedZ9R )

I think these facts demonstrate rather clearly that for some people figuring out if they need or not to pay money for the extra seat is not that easy and may depend on the aircraft and airline (which may also switch the aircraft at the last moment).

While searching for this information, I found this collection of airline policies for overweight passengers (I've spotted some possible minor errors there): https://goo.gl/h0vW7c .
I understand the necessity for the airlines to "draw the line" somewhere, but I also found an interesting statistics on how the airlines have shrunk the seats over time: https://goo.gl/MlcECh .
And despite the efforts of various groups http://fortune.com/2015/09/12/airline-seats-shrink/ and even aircraft makers: https://goo.gl/cdQ9nK , the airlines are holding strong against any regulations that would mandate the minimum seat width (size).

A few interesting facts:
"When Airbus introduced its A380, it offered 10-abreast seating, giving each passenger up to 19 inches of hip space." (That was not too long ago, 2005) "In 2013, ten airlines fly Airbus A330 with nine 16.7-inch seats in each row, rather than the eight it was designed for."
"Although for almost 20 years, the standard setup in the back of a Boeing 777 was nine seats per row, in 2012 nearly 70% of the biggest version of that plane were delivered with 10-abreast seating."
Source (with references therein): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airline_seat#Seat_width .

So, maybe it is time for the airlines to back off? And to stop squeezing money from the passengers?

ft101

You're looking at the wrong picture. There is indeed a Lufthansa pic showing an example of an obese bloke, along with an Etihad photos showing plane seats and a Jetstar photo. The one at the top of the article however is Emirates, and the actual guy and seatmate that are the subject of the story

ft101

2 inches is next to nothing in this case. The examples given here are that on each side at least, and pass completely across the arm rest into the neighbours seat area. Minimum 4 inches and probably more.

Many of Spirit's "Big Front" seats prohibit the use of seat belt extenders so not aimed specifically at the overweight.

stuie2210

I'm waiting for the obese guy to sue Emirates for making him sit next to a lawyer for 9 hours

m3red

No lawyer bashing please

danielonn

Well then mea culpa. The seat in the picture reminds me of the old Lufthansa Airbus seats before they put in the new blue seats circa 2007-2010isn.

Yachtman

I was in a situation on EK a few years ago, boarding the flight to see that the lady next to my seat was overflowing into mine, I knew instantly I wouldn't even fit. As discretely as possible I went to a Flight Attendant, who very professionally invited the lady to 'more comfortable' seats, a row of four blocked off down the back as far as I could see.
I wouldn't hesitate to do the same again and would go so far as asking the airline to offload and rebook me if they couldn't find me another seat.

Internaut

Unfortunately, I have to agree with the plaintiff. When you buy an economy class ticket, you buy the width of the seat, demarcated by the armrests, and the legroom, for your use. The airlines should deal with very wide people a little better than this. Discrimination works both ways. Seat comfort should not be a lottery where the determining factor is your fellow passengers.

The_Bouncer

Absolutely. As a former COS myself, I was always acutely aware of the effect that my size had on my seatmates, to the extent that I would call ahead and specifically request an aisle seat with a moveable armrest, so that I could lop over into the aisle, rather than encroach on another customer's space. I'm happy to say that this is not an issue now that I have lost 45kg/100lbs, but I am still very much aware that this is a serious issue in Y, not just for the seatmate, but also for the COS.

skywardhunter

Technically speaking one buys transport from A to B in a class of service. The specification of the seat does not form part of the service purchased. Bit of course in principle that is what happens and airlines should police it. Not sure if suing isn't a bit of an overreaction though. Sounds like a bit of an American reaction. On the rest of the world we either complain to the airline, then move on when they ignore the complaint, or just move on without even trying.

Saltire74

Got to agree with this one. Too much of a compensation culture nowadays for anything & everything.

The plaintiff is an EK Skywards Gold member. Surely he would have prior knowledge even if never flown in Y on EK (I'm in that boat-so far) that seat width can be a lot less compared to other airlines because of the high density configuration in Y. He chose to buy an economy ticket and my own personal opinion is that there was an inherent risk that his seat neighbour could have encroached in to his space. A person does not have to be obese to be wider than the seat.

Would this have the same coverage if it was a 6ft 6in rugby player? A to B in the most economical way and EK provide that. The plaintiff chose to travel that way. I'm not saying I agree that if this is the way you choose to travel that one should put up and shut up but if you want personal space guaranteed then you should maybe stump up the readies for a bigger seat.

By the way, I'm 6ft 3in and 27kg lighter than I used to be and thinking back on it, maybe that's why my back is guffed. By twisting in Y seats on planes so that I didn't encroach on my seat neighbours.

ETA: Maybe he was a victim of the new Involuntary Upgrade system in place and was expecting to be U/G'd which didn't happen so put a p****r on his journey from the word go

Safe & Happy Travels

S