HMO

I'm pretty sure in this situation one of the pax seated close to a POS will move to the other seat in order to have a little more comfort.

Cardboard55

One time I was flying AA, in Main Cabin Extra, and had selected an aisle seat. Right before the door closed, a very large (in all dimensions -- think linebacker) man came and sat in the middle seat next to me, completely overflowing into my space. The GA followed him closely, and handed me another BP, saying "here sir, I have found another seat for you." It was a middle seat near the back of the plane. It didn't seem fair that I had to take a downgrade from Main Cabin Extra aisle to back of plane middle, so I objected. Everyone around me acted as if I were the jerk for refusing to move to make room for this large person. If they'd have offered me even a roughly equivalent seat (e.g. MCE window), I would have done it without hesitation, but it really rubbed me the wrong way that it was simply assumed that I'd accept such a swap, to the point of having printed a new BP for me.

In the end, they magically found another seat for him somewhere else (I didn't see exactly where he ended up), and I'm glad I stood up for myself, but I don't feel like I should have had to. I'm a pretty accommodating and reasonable person, but that one crossed the line for me.

HMO

Sorry, how a guy sitting in an aisle seat overflows over another aisle seat?

sethb

I suspect Cardboard55 meant "middle".

They could have asked the people next to the empty middle in the back if one of them wanted MCE middle instead, and put the large person in the two seats there.

Cardboard55

Sorry, yes, I mis-spoke. I just edited the post to fix it!

HMO

^^^

airsurfer

I read in the NZ Herald a story of someone on an EK flight CPT-DXB (presumably a 77W) that this is not comfortable. I have flown this route more times but it is really OK. But I had my slim girlfriend beside me

EK staff did not cooperate well.

Does someone have experience with discomfort sitting beside someone of 150+ kg ?

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/aviation/n...ectid=11715442

Efrem

Hasn't this topic been beaten to death already here?

This thread, for example, has 200+ posts.

Added in edit: I see that a mod has merged the new thread, which originally started with the post immediately above this one, with the earlier thread I linked to. ^

GUWonder

Lawsuits against airline for this kind of situation? Yes, it seems:

http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/squashed-em...=yahoo&ref=yfp

In some economy class flights, having a very large person -- obese or not -- who spills over into a neighboring seat can cause a physically uncomfortable flight beyond the usual.

Given how airlines have chosen to pack in seats with so little regard for passenger comfort, some may hope that the litigation or increased regulation helps alleviate the situation.

teddybear99

I am somewhat a large person myself, but I don't spill over into someone else's seat (5'8", 265 lbs.). I had to return to FLL from MNL early due to a family emergency, and NW rerouted me from my normal MNL-NGO-DTW-FLL routing to MNL-NRT-LAX-MEM-FLL. Arriving in MEM from LAX, I had to run to catch my flight to FLL which turned out to be on a regional plane. I arrive 5 minutes before boarding commenced and one of the pre-boards was a 500+ lbs. man. Guess who I was sitting next to when I got in.Turns out he was also OCD. I spoke with the FA, but this flight was overbooked and I was exhausted after already flying close to 24hours that day, so it was either VDB or put up with it as no one would want to switch and sit next to this man. So here I was stuck in the window seat with this guy partially in my seat and I could not even lean against the window comfortably. This was the worst 2+ hours of my life.

Contacted NW, and was given 1000 miles as a token gesture of customer service

Rebelyell

The airlines know that most people are too embarrassed to make a stink when they find someone encroaching on their seat. Of course, after enduring the torture for 45 minutes, most people wish they had dealt with the problem.

The solution is to REQUIRE the airlines to make an announcement during the safety briefing that all armrests must remain down during the flight. Flight attendants should be required to do a check to make sure all armrests are down before and during flight, with an exception for families and those traveling on the same PNR. Keeping the armrests down won't totally solve the problem, but it will help immensely.

Airlines which fail to protect their customers from armrest lifters should be fined somewhere between $500,000 to a million dollars per offense. Problem solved.

CarolynUK

Personally, I NEVER allow anyone to raise the armrest between our seats unless it's a family member like my husband or daughter.

If the POS can't fit into their seat with the armrest down, it's their problem - not mine, and I refuse to make it mine.

I strongly feel that it's up to the gate staff to refuse to allow POS on board (they are hardly difficult to spot are they?) unless there is at least a spare seat for them

SpinOn2

When I used to work gate, I had to encounter POS a few times... and it's certainly not fun for anyone.

On a CRJ9 once I had to ask the POS of size to move to the last row with two seats open, as the pax in that row was willing to move up to the row the POS was in near the front. The POS was angry and unwilling to move because he didn't want to sit in the back. He of course tried to shame me and loudly exclaim that it's discrimination. I tried to be nice and explain the safety hazard but of course the pax wouldn't have it. Of course to make matters less fun, the guy next to the person of size did not want to move back either. After a minute or two of being nice, I had to get firm and told the POS he is either moving back to the open two seats, or he is going to be pulled off the flight and rebooked complimentary on the next flight. After some scoffing, threats to have me fired etc, he moved. Never heard more from it. I get it's embarrassing for a POS, but it's not like gate agents or FA's enjoy having to do that, especially in front of other pax. However, it's no far or safe for someone else to have to suffer because of a POS.

Galileo787

Instead of us fighting against each other and being united we stand, we get divided over this issue which is not our fault, the blame goes to the airlines on these seat personal space issues and they should have some weight standard limitations per seat.

lhgreengrd1

It depends. I personally believe that airlines have an obligation to design their seats so as to be able to safely accommodate anyone who's size is within roughly two sigma of the mean for the population. This means that they need to accommodate people who fit the mainstream 95% of the population. One could debate whether or not this boundary should be at 80%, 90%, or 98% or 99% of the population. But since these airlines are public accommodations - and they make use scarce government resources including air traffic control bandwidth, landing slots, etc., they need to serve the needs of the lion's share of the public. The fact that airlines utilize publicly funded infrastructure is the reason that this is not purely an issue of private commerce, and why it shouldn't entirely be left at the discretion of the carriers.

It does NOT mean that they need to be able to accommodate someone who weighs over 500 lbs.