Overweight Charged For Second Seat On Airplanes: Is “Fatism” To Blame?

I agree with a lot of the comments. I could care less what people weigh when I’m interacting with them everyday, but sitting next to them on an airplane is definitely a different matter. It has nothing to do with them being overweight and everything to do with my space. I have a problem with being in the middle seat and people using both my armrests too. In that case, I can nicely ask them if they mind letting me use the space, but you can’t ask someone to give you back your seat space that they are overflowing into it.

I will say that the shrinking seats is a valid argument, however I look at it this way. I am paying for a certain percent of space on that plane. If there’s 300 seats I’m paying 1/300th of the cost. If there were less seats I’d pay more of the flight. I can fit in a small seat – I don’t need a bigger seat. If someone wants a bigger seat, then usually they can pay for a bigger seat. Virgin America even has “preferred seating” for $100 more roundtrip and it includes free movies, food, and drinks.

I think the equivalent of trying to Justify larger people paying the same price for first class or two seats is the equivalent of demanding that two gay people can naturally have a child together. It’s not a prejudice thing, its just is what it is.

This is one of those issues that I go back and forth on because it is so cluttered with emotion and political correctness.

I would say that the most rational thing to do would be to have a set amount of weight that each passenger is allotted, and that weight can take up a certain amount of space, based on where they are seated. If you want to bring X pounds of cargo (including yourself and your luggage), you will need to pay this much and if it takes up Y space, you can sit in this section (sections would be wider or smaller depending on how much space they are made for).

In this way there are tiers, but these tiers are not a ‘back of the bus’ kind of thing, but rather a practical, space-and-weight efficient system. At the end of the day, mayb the airlines are trying to make more money, but so what? They are a an industry trying to stay in business. They need to be able to pay for the extra fuel that is used to carry more weight. To criticize them for trying to pay their bills is tantamount to saying that we want them to operate at a loss, which is not sustainable.

Fatism or no fatism, it’s another way for airlines to make a buck at the expense of passengers who are already paying good money for a service that increasingly sucks.

Eva, I see what you mean from the Chicago Tribune article, though interestingly the article I worked from stated the policy directly:

UA will refuse to transport or will remove at any point, any passenger … in the following categories where refusal to board or removal from the aircraft may be necessary for the safety or comfort of themselves and other passengers: … persons who are unable to sit in the seat with the seat belt fastened and the armrest down. Note: A passenger will not be removed upon the purchase of an extra seat. If an extra seat is not available FOR SALE on the same flight, UA will transport the passenger, without penalty, on the next flight having adjacent available seats and the passenger will be required to purchase the extra seat as a condition of carriage. …

That sounds to me as if the person will have to purchase an extra seat either way…but I’m assuming, as many flight attendants tend to try to be accommodating (the human interaction vs. what is written on paper), that they will not force passengers to buy another seat if there are two available.

I think that there needs to be more compassion for the morbidly obese. Their problems go way deeper than a lack of will power or bad eating habits. They suffer from low self-esteem and overeating is their way of dealing with stress and anxiety. Everyone has a coping technique, some people drink, some people watch TV, some people overwork…overweight people just carry their problems for the World to see. I view the obese with sympathy…just like I would an alcoholic or someone suffering from depression.

But they need to seek help, and I think that this ‘fatism’ movement will hinder them from doing so. This isnt a matter of being overweight. If someone is so large that they can’t fit into an already enlarged seat or cant put on a seat belt, that’s another problem entirely. They should have to pay for an extra seat, perhaps this will be a wake-up call that they need to go into therapy and learn some better methods of dealing with stress.

I think that it’s not a fair comparison to say being gay should be in the same category as being morbidly obese. People are born gay, but people arent born overweight. It’s a symptom of a greater problem and needs to be addressed, not embraced and accepted as normal, or ‘healthy’.

I agree with others here that comparing obesity to ethnic origin or sexual orientation is a straw man argument. And while some people may have medical conditions that cause them to be obese, although this is unfortunate it also is a personal responsibility, like the comparison made earlier about needing to bring a dialysis machine aboard. If you need more space on a flight then you should have to pay for it.

Blaming society for obesity and insisting that obese people should be given special treatment is itself a form of reverse discrimination. Despite the influences around them people are still free to make their own personal choices. I grew up obese but then – with a LOT of hard work – maintained an average weight throughout most of my adult life. Now, due to an operation that affected my hormones, and being older, I am quite overweight but still able to fit into an airline seat. If I couldn’t I would see it as my responsibility to pay for an extra seat beside me, if only for my own personal comfort. Plus I would feel terrible crowding out the person sitting next to me. Why on earth would anyone think they had a right to do such a thing? I’ve had the experience of having an obese person taking up half my seat space on an eight-hour overseas flight and would not wish this on anybody.

We can argue back and forth as to whether or not being overweight is genetic, the fact that dieting causes the metabolism to slow down and sometimes never be repaired (actually, we can’t argue that insofar as where science has currently taken us), but in all of the flights I’ve ever taken, I have never seen a morbidly obese person. I’m not saying morbidly obese people never fly, but it is a rare sight. This new rule will affect people that would be considered large or overweight.

I’m a petite woman. That means that every man who is over about 5’10, and say 180 pounds, ends up in my personal space on a plane. Legs, arms, whathaveyou. Not comfortable for me (and I’m sure not for them). Do I often wish I didn’t have to sit next to them? Yes. Do I think they should be charged for a second seat or first class? No. I think they should make bigger seats, for at least a couple of rows on the plane.

Whether they are too big width-wise or too big height-wise, making them pay more based on the size of their body is sizism.

Turner writes: “Only through discomfort will they actually try to get rid of the deadweight; widening doors and allowing them two seats in the name of PC or equality is just wrong.”

I guess I don’t see this as a PC issue, since I have watched so many people, particularly women (including myself) go through deep pain due to their size (and some have almost died on the other end of the spectrum-becoming bulimic in order to “deal” with their obesity). I agree with Reannon’s point that an emotional component underlies many weight issues, just as some use alcohol or drugs to dull their pain. But I can tell you this, heaping blame or discomfort on overweight or obese individuals will NOT get them to “skinny-up” long-term (how many “Biggest Losers” have to gain all of their weight back after the show is over before we understand this concept?)

Acceptance and love for themselves is a much surer bet to losing weight then anything else–the food vice loses its grip, because they no longer need to dull the pain. And that’s when sustainable weight loss often happens.

Yes, it’s a touchy subject. Yes, there are genetic factors. Yes, yes, yes

But … if someone is taking up more than one seat, they should pay for it. As a smaller person, I quite often feel that if someone is several inches into my seat, I should get a partial refund. I’m not using my whole seat and I feel gypped paying for a whole seat. Someone else is paying for only one seat and using more than one seat. One way can be considered discrimination against fat people, but the other way is almost discrimination against smaller ones – we’re the ones suffering when we’re seated beside someone who takes up more than their fair share. When someone is so big they can’t fit the armrest down, they are in my space – mine, I paid for it.

I came to your article Christine via the link, congrats on the mention by Mr Colbert.

Perhaps a more fair fare would be for combined weight, bags and person. I certainly pay full fare for my 3 and 6 year old. But to the crux of the issue we in America have lots of overweight folks, we also work very hard for many hours and the cheapest easiest foods are bad for us. I am only too happy to assist in accomadating all physical dificulties of others in life. If someone is very tall and my seat has lots of leg room of course I’d trade. Pregnant women needing extra time to even walk, grandma struggling with the overhead, moms traveling alone with 3 kids, or fat folks needing extra room. I like all my fellow humans.

I am obese. For all I know, some of these people are complaining about sitting next to me. On most airlines, trying to sit in a seat with the armrest down means cutting off circulation to my leg. But somehow, I seem to lose weight when flying airlines other than United.

On United flights, I need to ask for a seatbelt extension. Yet on my last flight, when I got off my United flight and switched over to my US Airlines fight, I somehow did NOT need.

And somehow when I fly JetBlue, I lose so much weight that I fit entirely into my own seat. I can put down the armrests without pain. How can this possibly be?

Could it be that JetBlue’s 17.8″ wide seats are somehow more comfortable than United’s 17″ seats? Or can it be that United is too cheap to put an extra 2″ of webbing into their seatbelts? Or that JetBlue contours their armrests so they don’t have sharp edges that cut into one’s hips?

Maybe we can all start to agree that packing folks in to 17″ seats causes discomfort for even those of normal sizes. And that people who feel trapped into too-little space in a flying tin can can get pretty trapped-rat hostile. And that airlines like United have long ago decided that passengers are merely self-loading cargo and no longer care for our comfort, and will use this to turn us against each other so we don’t notice how they no longer deserve our business.

Nowadays I only fly JetBlue anyway. I used to have elite status on United and even then, could tell from their program and offers that they spent their creative power on trying to give me as little as possible benefit while making as much fuss about it as possible. If they had spent that energy trying to give me as much real value as they could afford, they might still have me as a customer. And be making a profit. I have absolutely no sympathy for United, and this policy just points out how much they see customers as mere money sources.

Restricting overweight people from flying would be fatism.

Requiring them to pay for the extra amount of space they require to fit on a plane is a fair compromise.

It’s perfectly constitutional! Most people are not fat because of their genes, it is almost always because of them not exercising and eating too much. It is like packing too much baggage. It is the people choice to get obese and hence, their choice to have to pay for the extra seat. The only fat people who I have any sympathy for are the ones with a genetic disorder.

I am generally against discrimination. I come from a family of tall, broad-shouldered people so I empathize with the lack of room in airplanes. But that being said. You’re being gay does not affect my life one bit. However, I have been on flights where the person next to me was about 300 pounds and that did affect my wellbeing on the flight. I’m not sure what the answer it. Certainly people shouldn’t be demonized for being fat but at the same time it is not fair to pay the same ticket price for a fraction of the space.