Originally Posted by
rickg523
If the airline decides to offer oversized seats at a price, you can buy them. If not, and you need the space afforded by two standardly narrow seats, you should buy them. Nothing in American law says airline passengers fatter, or taller, than the cabin's equipment can standardly accommodate, should be given extra space at no charge.
In fact, airline business practice being as it is, seeing the size of the American population in general, it shouldn't surprise anyone if they made the seats yet narrower (16") and demand that two seats be purchased if required. Just another ancillary profit point. AA's stated rule seems like a first move in this direction.
You are missing the point, both the obesity epidemic and the narrowing airline seats are the side effects and results of the same capitalism system being unchecked and going off the rails. If the trends continue and we go with the attitude expressed above, in 5 years obesity will be at 50% of the population and airline seats will be 15 inches wide, and so on. The system is broken and needs to be fixed. Doug if he had his way there will be only one airline and would make all seats 10 inches wide and ask everybody to buy two, because that's what unregulated capitalism does.