Originally Posted by
zymm
The armrest is such an odd test, it basically tests width at a point, when that particular point is not always the problem as it doesn't address the shoulders at all. People have gotten heavier, yes, but they've also gotten taller and larger boned, so pretty much every part of the seat is fair game to overflow.
Exactly. if a person is wide through the waist and/or hips, the armrest test works. But if they are wide through the thighs, butt, or shoulders, they may be able to get the armrest down with no problems, but still be significantly encroaching on their seatmate's space.
The other factor, there's no way to enforce anything beforehand. Buying an extra seat, or getting someone who needs it an extra seat is something that's really difficult to do last minute at the gate or after boarding. Airlines really should be more up-front about their policies, kind of like they are with luggage policies.
I absolutely agree with this! And the fact that everything from ticket purchase to receiving your boarding pass can now be done online just adds to the problem; the first time the person is seen by an actual airline agent may well be at the gate. With so many planes flying nearly 100% full, that doesn't leave either the airline or the large passenger much in the way of options (particularly if the passenger is flying a complicated multi-segment itinerary).
It's easy for those of us who post here to forget just how rarely the average person actually flies. Someone who's on the large side but who fits in seating in other public venues such as movie theaters may honestly not realize just how tight the seating is in Economy these days, and that they should play it safe and book a second ticket. And the airlines don't display either the seat width or how to go about booking a second ticket prominently on their websites; you have to go digging for that information. Even Southwest, with their very customer-friendly COS policy, has that information hidden pretty well. The airlines need to be much more proactive about informing their passengers that they DO need to book a second seat if they are large, and make it easy to do.