First off, new to this forum so if I've posted in the wrong place, smack me down and let me know where I should put this post.

I've been traveling by plane for years - and I mean years. Almost a million miler on Delta, was a million miler on Eastern (remember them) and usually try to be the proper passenger, obeying all the rules and being nice to FA's because you just never know.

Traveling lately is a lot less fun especially with TSA and their new strip searching but that's another post. The trip I just did yesterday is the reason for this post and query.

First off, I am not a tiny person but I'm not huge either so I've never and I mean never needed an extender for a seatbelt. IN fact usually there is at least 2 inches showing that can be used to extend the belt further.

I always fly exit rows because as a frequent flyer they show up as a choice on Delta. This was an MD90 that looked a little older in the tooth than it should have. The seat I was in looked like it had been repaired - in fact I'm pretty sure it was and the tray table also was broken - one side was bent. Who knows what happened. But here's the thing that was disturbing. The seatbelt wouldn't come close to closing. I later measured it because of what transpired and it was about 32 inches. I checked and found out that seatbelts on Delta planes average between 35 and 38 inches.

I asked the FA for an extender because it was obvious the seatbelt had been shorted, probably when the seat was repaired. That's when things got interesting. She told me all seatbelts were the same and the problem was me and I had to move because the rules said no extensions on an exit row. Turns out only Delta has this rule - so it's not FAA as she and the sign in the seat said. I have long legs and the MD90 is already cramped so I sucked it in and made that darn belt fit. This was a 4 hour flight. Wow, that was horrible.

But the rest of the flight, that darn FA kept coming by and checking to see if I had the belt connected. At this point, I'm no longer having a good time. And that's what I thought I'd ask this forum. What would you have done. I didn't want to move - the seat was not right - and I now kind of have an understanding of what the more overweight people deal with when asking for seat extenders. The FA's really don't like it. I've been seeing quite a few articles about this very topic and was stunned to be impacted by the issue - and it wasn't by me - but by a bad seat belt.

I don't blame the FA's for being testy because of the really stupid baggage charges that have made every Delta flight I am on leave late while bags are checked. But this particular flight seemed to be made up of really really grumpy FA's. Do we as fliers have rights? I've heard of people being removed from flights for fighting back. Do we have to start taking trains which have their own issues? Inquiring minds want to know. What would you do? And thanks for listening and this forum.