Obese Passenger

Some airlines will upgrade passengers seriously inconvenienced by an overweight person in an adjoining seat if there is space available in business or first class at no extra cost. Some don't. However, I expect you have to ask.

Married to someone who is classed as overweight I know how difficult he finds it being on a plane and how embarrassed he is feeling he is being judged. He doesn't overspill the seat but is pretty restricted in it - on our trip to NZ last year the person in front flung her seat back so far he didn't have room to even put his tray down - she also had her long hair hung over the back of it dangling in his face! He will never sleep on a flight due to snoring and will never put his seat back for fear of disturbing the passenger behind so sits bolt upright throughout the entire flight! When he went to NZ on his own a couple of months ago he said the return flight was fairly quiet and he had 3 spare seats at the side of him - as soon as they took off a woman behind grabbed all the pillows and blankets and laid down full length on these seats the entire journey so he had her feet stuck in his leg! Some people are just totally inconsiderate! I feel the 'poem' of the OP was in very bad taste. I've done several long hauls to the US and have put up with some pretty unpleasant fellow passengers but equally some met some really nice people - I always try to book an aisle seat so that I can get out - I have a fear of needing the loo (which I do frequently) and being stuck in a middle seat! No matter how you fly it's not a great experience!

We call it "peasant class."

Interestingly, one rarely sees a fat person on the tube? How do they get about town?

By taxi for fear of being criticised.

Muses. If the person that the op talked about is black, is the poem still ok?

I always travel 'peasant 'class Lillie. If I didn't I'd never see my family. ... but then 'I know my place', as Ronnie Corbet would say.

Arguments are valid but there are some nasty comments and OP is vicious and lillie surprised one lowers oneself perhaps the fat are avoiding oneself

Obieone its not acceptable whatever or whoever the person is No one who has an iota of humanity let alone kindness or care would speak like that about ANYONE and no one has the right to mock others for a problem

We just boringly call it economy and like you willsmadnan that's all I ve ever travelled and that's fine I ve never had a horrendous trip apart from boredom, length, weather and cancellations which affects ALL classes .....I guess I know no better so it's perfectly acceptable for me

Agree with all your comments Bluebell and it's horrendous to fat shame as some of the posting people here have. Anyone with a weight problem knows it! Society fingers points all the time and in fact a lot of over weight people are overweight because they are depressed and comfort eat (I do this myself!) others drink or spend too much or dose themselves up on anti depressants unfortunately for the comfort eater their way of dealing with the unhappiness is publicly on display. I lived with an alcoholic parent growing up, she was a secret evening heavy drinker but managed to keep a day time veneer and hold down a good job etc it was only the nightly bootle of Scotch that was the problem! She drank because she was unhappy but because it wasn't visible she escaped censure and name calling! The overweight don't have this luxury. Before people start being judgemental they should may be look at why someone over eats it not usually just a question of greed!

OK,sorry if I've upset anyone by using the word fatties. However I have been squashed by a plus plus size on a plane and it's just not nice.
My very good friend does refer to herself as 'a fatty'- probably a defence mechanism.
She is lovely but very greedy!

obese is just a word and means fat. Why is being called a fatty worse than being obese?

As to travelling there are fat people who book two seats and
and there are XL seats, everything else is a safety hazard.

Pay a bit more, book early and book those seats by the emergency doors. Fat people are not allowed to sit there

Fatties, It doesn't bother me being called fat, as I am, and so is Mrs P. We are both obese, so can't deny it. I used to feel embarrassed if I was in a narrow plane seat and encroached on my neighbours space. When traveling for work I was nearly always in cattle class, but I used to try and get a plane that was not full (if you ask most airlines will move you to an empty plane)
I did once get a flight to Singapore that only had 6 passengers.
If we are paying for the seats, we go business class, gives more room and is well worth the extra.
Limps, ATM we both have limps, we call ourselves Hobbly & Wobbly.

Overweight people can be as large as they like. However, when it causes serious problems for other people as in planes its not fair to those they affect and who have paid for a seat with the reasonable expectation that they wont be pushed uncomfortably to one side to accommodate another passengers girth.
I know BlueBelle's problem is with the terminology but mine is with how the adiposity affects other people. I think this is akin to passive smoking.

You can stop smoking when it inconveniences others, but you can't suddenly become slim.

If you are very fat, some airline will insist you book two seats, not that I have ever had that problem.

So what can the relatively slim person do?

Can someone please tell me what medical condition causes obesity and cannot be treated by eating less?

I think it must be extremely unpleasant to have one's space encroached upon by an obese person. I have had such an experience in a small way in a theatre and didn't like it, how much worse on a flight? I don't like my personal space being invaded at any time.

I had a colleague who was 26 stone and when forced to fly to Ireland for work she bought an extra seat.

Being obese is not a disability, surely it is not fair to inflict your body onto other people.

I have a suggestion, put the obese people next to each other! I'll bet that would cause uproar.

I've never been asked about my size when booking a flight so how could the airlines organise seating any better?
Maybe they could make us fill in a questionnaire and give us a few pointers on how to be a considerate flyer.
e.g. Do not hang onto the seat of the person in front as you get up to go to the loo.
If you are a man sitting on one side of a woman with another man on the other please do not sit in the Boris position with your legs wide open and use both armrests. I have been that woman. I controlled one of them but the other chap was a stranger!

Pamela I have been asked to move to accommodate another passenger's situation so I think it would be simple for the staff to simply say that their seat has changed. However, I haven't really thought it through just like the idea of them having to sort it out between themselves and then understand what it is like for others.

I've never had this problem and have not even considered it, but will now add being squashed from the side to my list of dreads when boarding. At the moment they number just three - being behind the person who throws back their seat right after take off and never sits back up straight, being in the vicinity of someone with BO, and being close to the inebriated eejits with the very loud voices and the manic laughs. I've ticked them all off at least once.

If I ever come into money, my first priority will be to upgrade all my travel. That's what I'd call money well spent.

I am firmly with those who find this poem cruel and mean. However, we do need to look seriously as a nation at the problem of our increasing girth. Wherever I've travelled recently it's so apparent that we are as a nation much heavier than others, and getting bigger.

I don't think we've quite caught up with the US yet though, thank goodness!

I don't think I agree Jane that obesity is akin to passive smoking.

Passive smoking affects your health, being squashed for a few hours is unlikely to kill you barring a dvt, and let's be honest you can still get up and move around the cabin even if the person next to you is obese.

Margaret I object to a total stranger calling me fatty quite frankly !! I am obese , so use the term. I don't call people with cerebral paulsy 'spastics' or people with obvious mental health issues 'nutters' , so why would calling obese people 'fatties' be acceptable ? Times have moved on to a more pc world , obesity is the last bastion whereby people feel they have a right to insult you because you are overweight. But that's a whole different discussion I feel.

Nonnie only two spring to mind Prader-Willi syndrome and Cushing's syndrome are both medical conditions that lead to obesity .

N&G don't know either of these but don't understand how they can make you put on weight if you don't eat. As a hospital consultant once said to me "you never see photos of fat people in concentration camps".(before it was wrong to use that word)

No, I'm not being harsh, I have a condition which means I put on weight if I average more than 850 calories a day so I feel I am in a position to have this opinion.

I think the comparison to passive smoking is spot-on, at least for the duration of a flight - someone is affecting your physical well-being and comfort.

Why should you have to get up and move around because the person next to you is encroaching on your space, never mind have to lean to one side for the duration of a flight from Australia!

Prader-Willi and Cushings are very rare. I think we all know, and speaking as a life-long yo-yo dieter, people are obese because they overeat.

You pay for one seat, and the price doesn't include a portion of those on either side.

That 'poem' is indeed more than unpleasant, truly.

And yet, just booked 'cattle category' long haul tickets for November, and I certainly do not wish to share in this manner.

Both OH and myself are chubby, me officially obese according to figures- but fit and very active- and both of us fit quite nicely in normal seats, and we link arms normally to avoid any spread. Not flown long-haul for about 10 years- so see how it goes. We learnt earlier this year that the reason one of our best friends has not yet visited us, is because he doesn't fit into a standard seat. We had no idea that was the reason.

Nonnie there are illness that can make you obese besides the ones N and G has mention An under active thyroid for instant which s not rare and is not to do with over eating, policystic overies, and any condition that causes hormone instability or a slowing down of the metabolism Bipolar can have the same effect Many medications can cause you to put weight on as can depression, self hate, and other mental health conditions To imply it is all self induced and through greed isn't really fair It can be, but equally it may not be, is it really our job to judge and speak badly of someone whose background we have no idea about