Crushed in Y
 

Unlike many of you who get to ride in J, my company mandates that it's back of the bus for me. For years now, I have had seatmates whose size clearly impacts my space, yet even when I discreetly mention it to the FA, they smile and say there is nothing to be done (as flights these days are usally jammed). On my last flight from YYZ - FLL last week I ended up sitting at 70 degrees to avoid her huge arm and shoulder. Thanks god I had an aisle..the poor guy at the window was actually sweating.

Well...I'm mad as hell and not going to take it any more. My idea is for the seat manufacturers to produce a small metal fin that can be pulled up from the armrest to the back of the seat, thereby ensuring that each passenger gets half an armrest and a whole seat. Would be of minimal cost and the airlines would actually like it as complaints would decrease.
If you can't fit...not my problem...you should be buying a "comfort seat" anyway (for those that are not aware this is a seat that a large pax can buy at a reduced price and get the second seat for his or her girth).

Anyway...I know nothing will ever change...but thanks for the vent opportunity. :mad:

I agree with the Comfort Seat policy that Southwest enforced a few years back. I think this should be enforced on Air Canada as well.
As for the metal fin idea, that would never work. Incase of an Emergancy landing, you should be able to crawl accross the seats to escape. The metal fin could cause an issue. Plus if you were in a window seat, wouldn't that make you feel clausterphobic?

I'm not the smallest of guys. At 6'2 I'm a 38inch waist. I still seat comfortably in a 17 inch wide economy seat.

I feel pitty on those larger people, the ones who require a seat-belt extension. In todays world where everything is "Thinner is better" it must be embarrasing to ask for the seat belt extensions, and I'm sure the lady next to you was ashamed to take up your space, but she couldn't exactly make herself smaller.
Before you go attacking large people by saying " they shouldn't eat so many big mac's" or whatever, keep in mind some have Thyroid problems and it is not in their control.

right...for my $900 ticket I'll continue to grin and bear it like a good Canadian and sit sideways on a 4 hour flight...hate to embarrass anyone.

In all fairness, it isn't your $900 if your company is paying for it... and not to split straws but AC 900 and AC 901 is 3hrs 5 minutes... and if your company is paying $900 for this flight, then that must be Lattitude..

If your company only pays for Tango plus, then put down an extra couple hundred $ to get Lattitude and use an U/G cert. As AC P You must have a couple of those. I only make $1000 every 2 weeks, and I work at a frontline job so there is zero travel. And the only tickets I will purchase is Lattitude so I can upgrade. I got to Elite by doing this, all on my own nickel. It can be done.

If thinner is better why are people getting bigger? Most big people don't have thyroid problems.

To those of you seated next to larger passengers, tell them
"Unless you are going to pay for my seat stay out of it."

To the airlines...
As long as 150lb passengers with 100 lbs of luggage are charged extra, 300lb passengers with no luggage should be charged for extra as well.

Actually you'll have to appeal to the government on this one. Individuals who are large enough to take up 2 seats do not have to pay for their second one due to their "disability". The airlines have to suck up the extra cost of fuel and they don't get revenue for the second seat thanks to recent lawsuits against carriers charging for the second seat.

Why doesn't the government spend more time thinking about how to get all the crap off the shelves of the grocery stores, or add more nutrition education to the school curriculum instead of trying to put a bandaid over the obsese epidemic. Clearly society is having difficulty regulating healthy body weight since over half our population is over their recommended body weight.

That's my nickle.

I've been lucky enough to avoid this issue but I've heard of it from enough people to know it's a real problem.

One possible strategy would be to grab bulkhead seats where the tray table is in your armrest. The armrests there can't be raised which would avoid a large part of the problem. Also the armrests are actually slight wider and the seat is narrower.

Of course you'll have to fight the families with babies and on planes where the bulkhead isn't inches away from the seat the frequent fliers too.

It is pretty funny when you think about it...now AA is charging for all bags, and soon AC will as well I'm sure. And don't try sneeking extra weight on your AC checked bags..you'll pay dearly. BUT...you sure can carry on hundreds of pounds of excess weight on your bones for no charge! Thanks for the bulhead tip..good idea...

You sure this is right?

True that disable people who need a companion do qualify for a free ticket for the companion.

But is obesity now considered a disability when dealing with air travel? I thought the CTA had ruled otherwise?

Anyway, faced with the situation, I would (1) request the other guy to stick to within his seat. If he refuses/cannot, I would not sit. When the FA comes along, I would repeat my request and just say that I won't take half a seat so I won't sit until my space is clear. If they offload me, so be it.

Once I sat on a Dash 8 beside a lady that was broad in the hips and wanted to raise the armrest. I just said no and forced it down against her flesh.

You have to keep up!

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showp...7&postcount=12

Did she overflow or underflow the armrest?

On the Dash 8 the other day, I was in 1D, a POS was in 1C with his extension, a petite little lady wedged in 1A. The POS's wife was also a POS, she was behind me in 2D with her extension and a neighbour. I thought it a little unfair that two POSs' can make two innocent pax flight miserable, they should have been put in the same seat pair.

Fat bias is the last socially acceptable bullying allowed
 

It is sad that todays society is such that one finds it still socially acceptable to prejudice, bully, harm, and ridicule fat people. The same treatment used to be acceptable for women, people of non-white races, disabilities, and the list goes on. Intolerance breeds more Intolerance.

As far as flights go, I have much more often had a dreadful flight because of a non stop screaming baby, overly drunk & obnoxious businessmen, nervous flyers that won't stop bothering me, flyers that can't handle take off and landings puking in the motion sickness bag, flu infested passengers that insist on sneezing and coughing an entire flight, and women who reek of cheap perfume. None of which are linked to being fat.

I would choose being squeezed in by a fat person over any of those anyday.

y is cramped, smelly, stuffy, noisy, and everyone knows it, it's too bad cruzcap that you work for a cheap company that doesn't value you enough to put up in biz class. My advice is that it would be easier to get a new job than go your whole life avoiding fat people on planes.

I read this article on Delta's new economy seats they hope to retrofit their
767's and 777's with over the next two years and was really intrigued by the layout, more of which is shown & better explained here:

http://gizmodo.com/382292/delta-cozy...semi+tolerable

It's doesn't show it in the pictures, but in others I saw today in Travel Weekly, a U.S. travel agent magazine, it had the seats tilting much like theatre seats making it much more convenient to let someone pass to the airle or even to stand up to get something out of the overhead bin. A real advancement in economy seats I hope to see spread to other airlines, though it would seem unlikey to AC anytime soon.

Yes jocko2... ALL of those are annoying too.... you'll get no argument from anyone here on that!

That being so does NOT change the fact however that a person too big to fit in the seat they bought ends up taking up some of the (little enough) space another pax paid for - and should - quite reasonably - expect to have to themselves.

Saying that is so is not prejudicial.. nor is it bullying or ridicule.. and harm??? You're kidding right? A POS can avoid all problems inherent in their size by buying two seats and as it is THEIR problem.. perhaps they should do so............. Kudos to Southwest for their approach indeed! (But why aren't more POS proactive in this regard??)

Babies crying? well, they really don't know any better do they?

Being drunk, extremely sick and extremely smelly are actually grounds for removal on most airlines.. whether or not it happens.... it is clear that a POS infringing on another pax's space is "just too bad".....

Speaking of ridicule.. if you are THAT concerned.. why do you refer to FAT people? Why not use a more acceptable alternative description? Isn't THAT a "hateful" word?

The tiny percent of people that truly have medical conditions aside, most fat people could be more fit if they so chose. Unfortunately, these days it's easier to make excuses. That is why people dog them. And fat, obese, POS, whatever, it's all the same thing, and no game of musical chairs nomenclature will change the fact that large people are killing themselves.
I will be the first to say that I am intolerant of others whose choices and lifestyles adversely affect me personally.