ukdoctor

Lawyer is suing Emirates airline after 'enduring' nine-hour flight seated next to an obese man.

A disgruntled flyer is suing Emirates airline and claiming his nine-hour flight was 'ruined' by an obese passenger seated next to him.

Giorgio Destro, a lawyer from Padua in northern Italy, claims the 'spillover' caused by the person neighbouring his 29K window seat, made for a deeply uncomfortable journey from Cape Town to Dubai.

According to an Italian newspaper, Mr Destro is 'gold member' flyer, but says Emirates wouldn't let him change seats and refused to offer an apology or any form of compensation.


Full story here.


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/tr...obese-man.html


PS: Apologies. Its on the Daily Fail.

ukdoctor

Wonder if its someone on the forum.

The_Bouncer

The lawyer or the fat guy?

TMOliver

Having long ago been similarly discomfited, I sympathize with the lawyer who knows of and has access to the appropriate forum (bar of justice/injustice?).

The ancient doctrine of equity, oft overlooked these days, apples. The "customer" deserves to receive the service for which (s)he has paid, in this case, full usage of the seat assigned.

I hope he wins (and at 6'2", 235 and broad shouldered, I need every bit of the "seat")!

former1k

Yeah, spillover problems are becoming more and more common. Full flights plus weight trends = misery.

I miss those days when the middle seat was usually empty.

ysolde

I hate these situations. Fortunately, these days I travel in premium classes, where it is less of a problem. But I will never, ever forget sitting next to an obsess passenger who insisted on keeping the armrest up because she did not fit into her seat with the armrest down. Whenever she got up (to use the lav, for example), I would put down her armrest. As soon as she returned, she would sigh, act all put upon, and put up the armrest again.

I paid for a seat, and ended up sitting in less than half of a seat.

Flame3601

I remember my first obese seat mate or should i say mates. I was traveling from DXB-LHR and was unlucky enough to being traveling in the middle seat in economy and having two rather extremely large chronically obese couple sitting next to me , they thought by booking 46a and 46c , that would leave the middle seat open for them , well guess who was placed in that middle seat ???

1StRanger

Speaking of legalese, according to the poor passenger, err. plaintiff, his flight experience was rather unique for him.
And the seats by themselves do not change the level of comfort even if they are fully occupied.

But I do sympathize to both passengers. I am sure that most obese people also feel uncomfortable about discomforting others.

At the same time, I do not see a good solution that would satisfy everybody, short of installing wider seats. And that will not satisfy the airline that will raise the prices the the passengers will have to pay.
The situation is akin the famous logical problem about a cabbage, goat, and a wolf in a boat.

Can anybody offer a good solution?

airsurfer

Offering premium Y seats in width, besides pitch (which is already available by e.g. KL).
E.g. a few 2-4-2 (or 2-3-2) rows in a 787 / 350 / 777 / 380 instead of 3-4-3 or 3-3-3) where the 2-instead-of-3 outer rows are sold for a higher price.

The same can apply in small planes (737, 320) with a few rows of 2-3 or 2-2 instead of 3-3 in Y.

NOIR

My worst experience is even worse than an obese person sitting next to me in Y. I was flying from New Delhi to Zurich with Swiss once, and the guy sitting next to me smelled like he never took a shower in days. The smell was horrendous, plus he was a mouth breather. I had the window seat, tried leaning towards the window through out the flight to avoid the smell which was impossible.

I even went to the back of the plane to complain to the flight attendant who was of South Asian origin to my expense. After my complaint she looked at me as if I was a racist, and told me to go back to my seat. I actually felt guilty of being racist which I'm not just because the smell was unbearable. She made no effort what so ever to find me another seat.

Any way to make things worse the guy next to me kept falling asleep all over me, sometimes even dropping towards my lap. As I was leaning on the window through out the flight, I arrived at our final destination with the worst back ache I've ever had. It took me three to four weeks to cure that lower back problem after that flight.

What made me laugh after that flight was all the people in our group I was with hit the first airport toilet in Zurich, and god all mighty the sounds that were echoing throughout that toilet after two weeks of eating Indian food from our trip.

Any way I had much more reason to sue than this guy with doctor's to prove my case.

danielonn

I see a discrepancy of the obese person in the article. The photo was taken on a Lufthansa flight and not on Emirates as the article points out. The caption unde the photo speaks about Emirates but shows a photo of a man on a Lufthansa plane.

1StRanger

This solution still raises many questions, e.g.:
1. What about 1+2 and 2+2 turboprops and RJs?
2. Who and how decides if one must buy such a seat?
By weight? -- What about tall people?
By chest or belt circumference? What about feet or hand circumference?
3. What happens if such a seat is not available at the time of purchase? (I am sure that more than just obese people would want those seats if they are still much cheaper than those in F/J/C.)

You can see that your solution will not satisfy everybody. And I am sure it would yield several lawsuits, including those for discrimination.

Sealink

The Daily Hate Mail never lets facts get in the way!

1StRanger

Why did you decide so?
I don't know if it is wrong or right.
I see many photos of Emirates' seats that seem consistent with the photo in D.M.: https://goo.gl/j80cQf and in particular this photo from Emirates' website: https://goo.gl/FPa40m
And I can find none of Lufthansa seats that would be similar: https://goo.gl/Gy04k5

Despite DM's reputation, - aren't you too quick to bash in this case?
Any fact checking on your part?

skywardhunter

That seat in the article is 100% without a doubt an EK Y seat.