Quote:
Originally Posted by Lathum
To start I totally agree that the airlines are largely at fault.
I think your point is a bit flawed however. You assume that everyone who would be required to buy an extra seat would do it and still fly. I think a large number of people, or at least a not so insignificant number of people, would either not take the trip or chose another method of travel. Plane tickets are expensive and having to buy 2 would be a deal breaker for a lot of people, not to mention birds of a feather and all that it could potentially be 4-6-8 seats etc...
I also think there may be some people who lose the weight to fly. If they travel frequently of have a trip planned a year from now maybe they say, hey, I'm not buying 2 seats, I'll work to drop the weight. I don't know.
I also wonder if a middle ground would be give people the ability to purchase a row. So an overweight couple, siblings, etc...could buy the row in essence buying 1/2 a seat per person.
I think we all get flying is uncomfortable to an extent, especially in a middle seat, but when you have a very large person literally taking up 1/3 of your already small space I think you have a legitimate gripe.
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Not necessarily. My first assumption is that standard of "passengers who have extended more than 1 inch beyond the outermost edge of the armrest and a seat belt extension is needed” will only be enforced if there is a complaint from the passenger next to them. If the passenger is sitting next to a adolescent, there will probably be no complaint . If it is only an hour flight like the one I described and it is only an inch and a half of encroachment, again no big deal from the passenger. Finally, given our increasing size, two passengers sitting next to one another are probably not going to complain about each other. All that still does not include the people who will be quietly pissed on the inside but will be non confrontational about it. the vast majority of people who should be required to purchase an extra seat will not have to.
If the standard is enforced regardless of the complaints of other passengers, then yes some people are not going to fly. Are there people who are currently not flying because they don't want to get stuck next to an obese person ready to take that seat? I don't think that is the case. Are airlines just going to stop having obese travelers on their flights especially if the average passenger is surging closer and closer to obese status because every now and then a passenger complains about an obese passenger? I don't think so. As far as purchasing the extra seat, I don't think it will be a thing a family of four going to Disney World might do. But if I had to fly from say Tampa to LaGuardia (I have to make that trip early next year so it was a quick look up
) and my options were $132 for one economy ticket $264 for two economy tickets or $478 for premium economy, $858 for business and first class, I might look at two economy tickets even though I don't need to just to get the extra room. I suspect that airlines would have no problem providing those extra seats at a discount to keep frequent fliers of the obese kind. That last suggestion was what I was suggesting earlier. I don't know what kind of hate the waif passenger with disposable income would get when the packed plane takes off and he/she has purchased the whole row for him or her self.
I am not saying that someone does not have a gripe if their seat is impacted by someone of a larger size next to them. I am just saying that the ire should be directed at the airlines not the larger passenger.