A brief background:

My mum and neighbors take a yearly trip to Vegas just to get away and let loose. I don't ask what she gets up to as what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. Anyhow, my mum is not into air miles, flying etc and just wanted to get from A to B cheaply and without any hassle. She never complains about anything and just gets on with it.

This year she booked BA from LHR. From reading other threads here about the 747 on this route I thought that something might go wrong somewhere.

The flight back is where all the fun and games started:

Our neighbor had the window seat with my mum taking the middle. No dramas. However, once they were sitting in their seats this obese person comes and tries to sit in the isle seat. He struggled to get into the seat and it took the person's female companion and a stewardess to help him get into it. The BA staff had to get an extension seat belt and I'm told it took over a solid 5 minutes to get him physically into the seat. The end result was that the flab from his arms and legs took up half of my mum's seat (her words not mine). She was furious. Just to put this into perceptive, my mum is a tiny skinny women, not even 5'5 in height, as is my neighbor.

My mum and neighbor was unable to get out of their seat for the flight back to London because they say it would have taken them over 5 minutes just to get the male out of his seat. During meal service the tray wouldn't fit down due to the chaps size and by the end of the flight, she said that the whole area of the plane stank due to no ventilation and the male's awful personal hygiene.

So, with all that, I explained to my mum that yes the plane is old, but the flight is full so BA are making money. Why would they improve their service? They do not care about your comfort so nothing you can do there. It's also not BA's fault that their passengers have weight issues or bad hygiene. My mum did make a point that she felt trapped in her seat. She said that if something would have happened, they would not have been able to get out of their seats fast enough. This is where I listened. She also went on to say that last year when they flew Virgin they had an over-sized female board last and she had two seats to herself (they were sitting 4 rows away from the women). That to me is common sense. Why didn't the staff on the flight look at the situation and act? Yes we could argue that maybe the flight was 100% full and there were no other seats. I don't know. My point is, it's all about basic planning. Maybe the guy should have taken the window seat so that at least they could have gotten out in an emergency? Why couldn't a staff member look at the situation, see that the two women clearly are going to be uncomfortable and address the situation? Even if no other seats were open, why not at least come over prior to the male boarding and explain that they have looked at other seats and nothing is available. That to me, would show that they at least tried to address the situation.

So, with that, my mum says she won't fly BA again. She won't complain because that is not her style and I told her there is no point as BA won't care anyway.

What would you have all done in this situation where you honestly felt trapped and unsafe?