Originally Posted by bwright348

UNITED AIRLINE NEEDS BETTER POLICY TO ADDRESS OVERWEIGHT PASSENGERS!

When traveling on United this past weekend, from Chicago to Orange County I had the worst customer service experience of my life. The incident was with respect to a passenger who was morbidly obese (400+ lbs) and encroaching into ticketed seats of other passengers.

Upon boarding United Flight 1067 from ORD->SNA I noticed a very large man sitting in the middle seat of Row 23. As I approached the row I noticed the woman in the window seat, 23A, was holding her nose (in response to a putrid odor), and half of her seat was being encroached by the man in 23B. The passenger in 23B had only purchased one seat, and was over 400 pounds. The armrest would not go down on either side of passenger.

I attempted to sit down in my seat, 23C, but was unable to sit without turning my body at a 45 degree angle, with my legs and feet obstructing the aisle. There was no chance of moving the arm rest down, and passenger in 23B was taking up 1/2 of my seat. The odor coming from the passenger was also unbearable.

After attempting to make room (about 30 seconds) I proceeded to remove myself from the situation by walking to the front of the plane to consult the flight attendants. The FAs said they were aware of this passenger, but had no protocall to remove passenger or accommodate me... The flight was overbooked. The FA called for a supervisor and after 15-20 minutes UA/ORD supervisor (Todd A?) came to access the situation.

Supervisor half-heartedly apologized but explained that the only policy in place was a "fit to fly" rule. Any passenger who does not fit in their ticketed seat must be required to purchase a second seat. At this point the flight had missed its scheduled departure time and other passengers had come to the front of the aircraft to complain of the odor coming from passenger in 23B.

The situation ended with myself deboarding the plane, giving up my seat, and I was placed on a later flight. With the flight already delayed due to this situation I am nearly positive the overweight passenger was not forced to purchase any extra ticket. Due to losing my seat on flight 1067, I missed a family member's birthday dinner and I do not feel the supervisor handled this matter properly. This year alone I have flown over 70,000 miles (All Domestic) with United Airlines and have never had a customer experience this poor. I have submitted this complaint to UA and sincerely hope that this matter is addressed in proper fashion.


Anyone else have a similar experience? What was your outcome?