Obese Passenger

We always refer to it as 'cattle class' and yes, that is how we normally travel.

However, having travelled in Premium Economy (an upgrade) the seats are wider and there is more legroom. It is more expensive of course, but not as much as Business.
And we have sat, fingers crossed, hoping that an obese person does not come and impinge on our less than generous space.
Last time i flew Emirates a very large man in the next seat fell asleep with his head on my shoulder. He was large rather than obese (no, it was not DH!).

Not judgmental at all - it can be unpleasant enough spending 13 hours on an aeroplane without being squashed for all that time.

Gosh there's some blooming judgemental people in th
No one knows this man s background or how mortified a lot of people feel and how they have to learn to put a smile on their faces and pretend they don't care
I ve never thought of referring to anything as cattle class but that's all I ve ever travelled in even on a 24 hour trip to NZ and yes it is squashy especially when the woman in front puts her seat in the relaxed position from start to finish as happened last time I did a long haul but I can't believe the unkindness and name calling on here
Do you really refer to people as 'fatties' Pamela what about people with a limp or some other disability do they have names too

Seats come in four sizes, cattle class, premium economy, business and first class.I am size 12 and cattle class doesn't give me much wriggle room.
We occasionally dig deep and pay for premium on flights to visit DD in Aus when we're not having a stopover. Even that makes a huge difference to comfort.
This man either has a medical problem (some poor people do but most don't) or spends a lot more money on food. Perhaps if he treated himself to a bigger seat he may not be able to afford to eat so much, a win win situation!
He may have hoped he would be upgraded, the airline would do this to avoid upsetting other travellers. The plane was probably full.
I think all economy passengers watch with dread as a fatty comes down the aisle towards them.

Seats don't usually come in different sizes, not that I'm aware of anyway, neither do you always have a choice on where to sit. Yes, maybe he could have/should have paid more for two seats, or maybe the airline should be obligated to provide larger seats. But whichever, that doesn't justify such wording as 'mountain', 'humongous mass', 'monster' and 'thing'... Humour at the cost of another person's feelings isn't really very funny.

choose a seat that he could fit into like Ana says, is that even possible. ?

Fair enough. I would never have written it or even thought it up. I dealt with our Oz flight situation in the usual British way -sighing and putting up with it (with a bad grace!)

It has been mooted by travel experts that airlines are cynically reducing leg room etc so that more of us will upgrade!

Can remember being stuck in a BA queue at a big US airport that took forever to clear because not enough staff were available YET a BA employee was going up and down the line trying to sell upgrades so that we could go to a special desk where there was only a little queue - my normally very calm and polite OH nearly exploded!

I do have great empathy with any of you that have been 'squashed' for 7, 8, 9 hours it would be a very very difficult time for you and I have no problem with you grumbling or asking for help but to pen that poem is unforgivably cruel and that is not something to applaud or laugh at I think its awful

Do airline seats come in sizes these days?

It's so long since I've been on one...

No. Just choose a seat that he could fit into. It may cost him more of course...

I appreciate you had a long and uncomfortable flight but regardless of any airline obligations or legal rights and wrongs, I found the 'ode' unbelievably cruel. What did you want the passenger to apologise for and what did you expect him to do, lose half his body weight before sitting down?

A friend of my took a flight in a little prop plane top Scilly and everyone had to be weighed so they could distribute the weight evenly - sounds a bit scary to me!

Yes I know. Obviously we could all get or be fat but its not fair on other passengers if we squash them into less of the space they have purchased.
I had a hellish trip back from Oz once. I had to lean heavily to my left due to the massively overweight man in the next seat. Getting him out when he needed to go to the toilet was a massive operation. We were all at risk of DVTs purely from the even more limited space that this mans sheer bulk led us to have. The staff were apologetic but the flight was full.
The man wasn't apologetic at all and just assumed it was OK to push us all sideways for so many hours.

But for the grace of God........

phoenix I agree that passenger weight should be a consideration. In fact, I think there have been instances (not in the UK, but US), where passenger weight has been a contributory factor in air crashes. I also think it should be possible to purchase a seat commensurate with your body mass, but I can't perceive many airlines doing this for the foreseeable future unless there's a solid business case for doing so.

This is a hot topic at present. Some airlines insist that an extra seat is purchased if a passenger cant fit comfortably in the seat with both arm rests down. Others will charge for an extra seat if the seatbelt extension has to be added. Rules vary but passengers should be able to sit comfortably without their personal space being impinged on by others. There are several lawsuits going on at present. Maybe the staff referred to were aware of this and didn't know what to do?

My thoughts too Bluebelle. I thought I must be missing something, so didnt post earlier.

phoenix I have wondered that too!

I think the problem is that space in economy is quite limited anyway so having someone taking up more than the allocation and squeezing you into a tight space can cause more problems than just discomfort - it could possibly cause DVT, as happened to one woman on a flight from the USA when she sat next to an obese passenger and was squashed into a small space.

It is also very annoying if the person in front shoves their seat right back and leaves it like that for the whole journey while they happily sleep.

Oh to travel business or first!

I found that really discomforting to read why would anyone be so cruel as to write about someone like that I m not sure I even understand was this poem in the paper or written by the original poster Talking about a man as an item ...a mountain, a mass a monster I find this very upsetting that anyone can write such cruel words about another human being

Sorry, got ahead of myself! So, a skinny passenger weighing around 8 stone, with a really large heavy case has to pay extra, but a passenger weighing 30stone with a small case is ok?

I thought the weighing luggage thing was a safety aspect to make sure the plane wasn't carrying too much "cargo" but perhaps I'm wrong (often am )

I do wonder why airlines insist on weighing luggage and charging if you are over their prescribed limit..........

Next thing, people will be sueing the airlines for not having bigger planes .

It must be hard to ignore 3 such desperately uncomfortable passengers. Not exactly customer care!

Why should staff apologise and why did it affect other passengers and cause them not to smile on disembarking?

Poor passenger I think. I would have hated a short flight never mind7 hours plus.