Obese Passenger

By taxi for fear of being criticised.

We call it "peasant class."

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

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!

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.

Blondehedgehog That very rude letter or what ever it was you sent was wrong and offensive.

However this situation does needs addressing by the airlines.
We are "captive" in our airline seats most of the time when flying.
The airline staff and other passengers should consider the comfort of fellow travellers and the issue of being completely squashed by passengers who are very large needs addressing however sensitive this issue is.

Wouldn't it be a wonderful world if we all were a standard size? I am taller than the average British woman. At 5'9" I find most airline seats very uncomfortable as I don't have enough legroom, so I empathise with the discomfort of insufficient space on flights. At school I was very self-conscious as I was taller than my peers and this was made much worse by one 'perfect' little B***h who always referred to me as "Big" Rosieroe. I imagine she grew up to be someone like the op who, with the smug confidence provided by being someone with a 'normal' sized body, thinks it's fine to talk in such a manner, dehumanising another person by referring to him as "a mountain" and "a sweaty brick". She says that "he tried to be thinner by crossing his arms", so the man was obviously self conscious and would much rather not have been given a centre seat in the first place. Direct your anger at the airlines who cram people into such tight spaces. Did no one think of letting him into the aisle seat to make it easier for him and therefore all three of you to get in and out?

Pamela I would refer to an overweight person as large, or overweight certainly not a fattie or any of the horrendously cruel phrases in that odeous poem
I don't think it hurts to be kind to people does it? especially people who may well be very conscious of their problem
I m not overweight myself but I cannot imagine how hurtful it is to hear people saying things like the original poster did if that's meant to be funny then God help the human race
Greenfinch don't let this worry you or stop you living life as you want to

We were weighed when we flew to The Scillies last year. !!

I am totally with you Bluebelle
I find this poem absolutely unacceptable.And some of the comments are very hurtful.
I am over weight and have made the decision not to fly again.I would hate to think people were criticising me for impinging on their space.It would be just too embarrassing to have to ask for a seat belt extension.

I'm plus sized !

I fly frequently internationally and did all my working life .

I must be really lucky because I have never in 30+ years seen anyone who needs 2 seats but I do know that all the major airlines require you to buy 2 seats if you need more space than one seat provides.

If the flight is not full, the airline returns the cost for one seat back to the flier.

I prefer not to fly economy because of the ridiculous amount of leg room available. So I upgrade to Premium or Business depending on finances . It's virtually impossible to 'overflow' in many Premium or Business seats as they are not a row/bench type seat.

Are obese people the last group who can be called names? You can't refer to people by colour , or ethnicity , you can't discriminate by age ....but you can still call people 'fatties' .......??

BlueBelle,
Everyone that I know calls it cattle class.
How would you refer to people of much larger size then is 'normal'? None of the adjectives that I can think of is nice.

What about some empathy for the squashed?!

Not judgemental to hope you have a nice person sitting next to you but it's horribly judgemental to call people names and I m totally surprised at the lack of any kind of empathy on this thread Very surprised

Perhaps it is time for all airlines to instal a couple of wider seats on every aircraft to accommodate larger travellers? After all the Nhs are having to provide beds suitable for heavier patients and reinforced ambulances too. 'Normal' sized passengers should not have to suffer discomfort by being squashed into their normal sized seats by the oversized. It is detrimental to both health and safety.

We had to be weighed (in public) on internal flights in the Falklands. It was also quite tricky to climb into the little planes - and I am relatively light. I'm sure it would have been impossible for a very overweight person. If we had to be weighed on all flights it might be an incentive to lose some weight! Just saying!

Oh dear yogagran....what is it with men and shorts in public places. Saw a few at airport t'otherday. Must admit I know I'm getting old when I find myself thinking......shorts on the beach only please!

We sit in the departure lounge trying to guess just who is going to be our seat neighbour. Crying baby, truculent toddler or large person!

One flight I took a couple of years ago, luckily only a short internal flight, I was seated next to an ordinary sized man but he was wearing very short shirts and sat with his hairy legs wide apart, encroaching on "my" space. It was not a pretty sight

OK am going out on a limb here and will first of all state that I have been pretty sturdy in my past......at 5ft 7 a generous size 18 and probably about 15 stone so am hardly a judgemental skinny. Also having just been on a couple of long haul flights and endured the minimum 3 hour waits, security, jet-lag and claustrophobic atmosphere of an airplane I am rather in tune to the pressures and general unpleasantness of air travel at the moment.

Any way.....the sort of sizes we are talking about here are big....they were not created that size and there is no single illness that makes people balloon to 25 stone over night...so I think what I am trying to say is that at what point do people stop and think...gosh, I'm getting big....I'm finding it hard to buy clothes, sit in a theatre/airline seat.....shall I do something about it????
Is there not some element of personal responsibility to be reasonably healthy and not encroach on others space when you sit in a public seat?

I am fully aware that loosing weight is a problem.....believe me I've tried it and its a miserable process but I can hand on heart say I did get to a point where I thought that I would just try very hard not to get any bigger....and that's not nearly so difficult...and yes, I have finally got myself in hand and push myself to do some exercise and to stop on the third glass of wine or the second slice of cake. Its not such a great hardship and being reasonably fit, mobile and to be able to look tolerably smart in ordinary sized clothing is hugely liberating and I will try very hard not to go back to loathing the sight of myself in a shop window.

So I think what I am trying to say is that when people have got to this vast size where they make another passenger's life a misery it is fair to say that they should bear some of the responsibility. In many ways it is just as much about basic good manners as about size. For example I do not recline my airplane seat until after the meal has been served and have noted a few people around me have done so. Neither do I stand up for ages leaning up against someone else's seat (as happened to a friend on a recent flight). Even when sat next to DH I tend to keep my elbows within the boundaries of my own seat (although if I not off I cannot be quite so controlled).

Anyway, I know this will offend some but just wanted to have my five pennyworth.

The first sentence was in reply to phoenix re overweight luggage.

Unless, of course, it is just a way of charging you more?

Although I can see the absolute logic of the argument because overloading aircraft is a definite safety hazard.

How about doing some impinging in return, with elbows or books maybe?
It doesn't matter what the person's medical problem is, that's no reason for others to be made to suffer.

phoenix I may be mistaken but I seem to remember my gran telling me about being weighed when she flew to Jersey in the sixties. It stuck in my mind because I thought 'well I'm never going to fly then!' (it might not have been Jersey)

I'm happy to join you under that tin hat Phoenix! Maybe all these court cases against airlines by people affected by overweight neighbouring passengers will lead to some rethinking. I hope so. We can all be politically correct but sitting like I did for all those hours next to that obese man did not lead me to very polite thinking about him.

Ok, tin helmet time again!

If the weighing of your luggage is for safety reasons, I.e. to ensure that the weight of cargo is related to fuel or whatever, then surely the logical thing would be to weigh each passenger with their luggage, "they" should be working out the total weight on the plane, I.e. passengers plus luggage?

Obesity can cause disabilities but is not itself a disability and I am sure no-one on here would call people with a limp names.
I hope not as I have one but try not to spread myself into other people's limited space.