Originally Posted by
lloydah
When the woman first bought her return tickets she was just about in a condition to fly. It's no fault of any airline that she increased in weight to the extent that she couldn't be "men"handled onto the plane, winched on or otherwise accommodated. Stop blaming the airlines for the woman's health and lack of common sense that would have told any sensible person the path they chose was doomed from the start. Oh, I forgot. We're not allowed to have any responsibility for ourselves are we? No no, just sue when things go wrong as it's bound to be someone else's fault. sob sob.
Everyone keeps forgetting that the airlines were made aware of her weight BEFORE she ticketed the return. In KLM's case, KLM had already flown her to Europe from the USA, so they bear full responsibility for her lack of return...and the concomitant failure of her two seats from functioning properly. The other airlines were within their rights to not sell her a ticket under such circumstances if they can reasonably demonstrate their inability to accommodate her in normal seating, but both DL and LH sold her a ticket anyway--thereby accepting responsibility as per any contract.
The airlines got sued as a result, and they settled. The disgruntled among you might not like it or accept that this was more likely a case where the FAs and pilots involved were being discriminatory toward a fat passenger in a different way than they would be towards any other non-fat passenger, but I suspect that is also due to the fact that the discriminatory thinking towards obese people isn't limited to just the FAs and pilots involved.
You can complain and whine all you like, but the fact is that the airlines settled. I accept that and think it is perfectly appropriate.