StAugustine

The real, real answer is that any POS should take the responsibility of booking the second seat when they book the first seat. The airline doesn't know this is a POS until they arrive at the boarding gate. Book the second seat when you book the first seat. Problem solved.

DCAFly

I am not quite sure what this means. "for the displaced seatmate" - ok get that. What is a cascading effect of elite status passengers? Are you suggesting that only elites should get a cabin bump if they are displaced by a COS? What about the non-elite on a full Y fare versus the barely elite who is on a lower class economy fare.

I am not trying to antagonize you, I just legit don't know what you're suggesting.

HMPS

You are correct.
But unfortunately today we live in a society where "everything is someone else's fault, not mine" culture. So the POS who are adding numbers daily to their ranks are able to say, blame and sue the likes of McD for serving such high calorie counts !
Until we develop a civic responsibility for our own actions and the "PC empathizers " understand the damage they are creating, we are doomed. The lawyers will make out handsomely.

Antarius

To echo what others have said, AA has a policy. They should enforce it just like they should enforce the baggage policy.

nk15

I meant role the cabin forward, upgrade an elite to move the displaced person to an equal/better seat, so nobody directly involved necessarily gets a free or too high an upgrade. Like the example mentioned somewhere above, someone from PE moves to J and the displaced person goes to PE (or same from regular-MCE-PE).

Antarius

I am positive there are far more PoS incidents than open seats in the forward cabin.

Save for the a321T, I see an empty premium seat once in 80 flights.

nk15

This view underestimates the importance of socioeconomic, political, public policy, cultural, environmental, genetic, etc. factors in human behavior and claims that everything is free will, the "pull yourself up from your bootstraps" mentality, which is very incomplete and inadequate, and basically leads up to "blaming the victim". There has to be a balanced view that takes all these influences into account. The obesity epidemic in the US (and other issues, such as gun violence) are systemic, societal, multifactorial problems, not just "individual" problems.

Badenoch

The way to get AA and other airlines to enforce the policy is to make it less convenient for them to do otherwise. That means not accepting a VDB or meekly suffering through having much of your seat being taken up by a POS. When the flight delays increase because normal-sized passengers are not compliant then perhaps they will take it more seriously.

jtav559

To some specific incidents on AA....

For reference, I am 6' with broad shoulders - I fill out a seat pretty well but am always well within the boundaries of my armrests, usually just my thigh touching it.

Had a middle seat in MCE on a red-eye SMF-CLT where I was between 1 POS and 1 even larger POS. I had to roll my shoulders in to make it fit. The FA saw my predicament and waved me to the back - gave me the rear jump seat for the flight. Slept the entire way until we were about to land and I wedged myself back in the seat. I am sure that was against all sorts of policies - but with a sold out flight I had nowhere else to go. I was the easiest variable to change in that equation. She got an AApplause Cert.

Window seat on LAX-ORD hop, and I had the window seat. POS in the middle seat and an average sized woman in the aisle seat. FA came by and let the POS know there were some open double seats in the last 2 rows if they wished to move to the back for more comfort. He gladly accepted and was on his way, even wished his former row mates a nice flight. No fuss, pretty simple.

Have yet to be apart of a onboard Mexican Standoff over seat space encroachment. But I stand in the camp that if you are outside the published AA policy of 1 inch over the armrest, I will request some sort of change to remedy the situation. I don't mind moving, even if it is to a less desirable seat location - just make sure my drink is full. I think most folks can see the difference between 2 semi large folks who happen to be seated next to each other AND someone who is certainly a POS and they willfully neglect to abide by the requirement to buy an extra seat in the effort to save money and make other uncomfortable enough to move (thereby getting the extra seat for free).

tomj888

This rationale does not make sense. How do you compare paying more for clothes to losing personal space on a plane? I wear a size 14 shoe and I agree I don't pay more than someone wearing a size 10. However, my size 14 shoe is not taking up precious space on an airplane where the seat width at BEST is 18 inches!
The main issue here is comfort for the POS and for the person that may have to sit next to them. Each person paid for their seat and as such deserve the right to that personal space. In short, the best solution would be for the POS to pay for two seats. How an airline can price it, sell it and market it is up to the airline. At the end of the day, money talks, BS walks. We can all pontificate (just like I"m doing) but the ultimate power is where we put our dollars.

Antarius

One would think that enforcing bags would help speed up boarding and hitting that D0. But they don't. Except for a random once-in-a-blue-moon time where they'll take out a measuring tape and argue with you when youre in J on a 777.

aztimm

Moderator note:

These threads pop up periodically, but it really is up to AA to enforce their policy as noted in post #5:
https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/30907247-post5.html

We've allowed this thread to continue, but it seems to have run its course. If you have something substantial to add, please send me a PM (with what you'd like to add), and we'll consider re-opening.

Thanks.


aztimm