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Sort of an aside, but the problem is not the width at your rear end, it's the shoulder width. I am fairly petite. Whenever I fly, I am always crowded out by guys who sit next to me. People, especially men, are actually wider at the shoulder than they are in the hips. So you could have a very fit man of average weight who fits in the seat, but his shoulders will encroach on the seat next to him. This has been a bigger problem for me than obese passengers because apparently since I am relatively small, larger people sitting next to me seem to think I don't need or want all that space around me.
This will never happen because it would affect the airline's bottom line, but, I think as a courtesy to extremely obese people, there should be an option to allow them to self identify as overweight so that they can have the seat next to them empty - at not cost to them - for them to sit comfortably.
Accommodate obese people on flights by not charging them extra for the seats (that's the key to self-identifying and being accommodated), they are customers too and need to fly.
Well, this is a sweet suggestion but you have underestimated the selfishness and self-absorption of some people. There are a LOT of people who would 'self identify' as overweight if it meant they got a free extra seat beside them. I can imagine entire planes where half the seats are being given 'free' to ver weight people.
Not sure how well that may go over with an ticketing agent telling a sobbing pregnant woman she has to purchase two tickets. Think about it for a moment...
This is true, but it would go over quite well with the 98% who fit in one seat.
It's interesting, I just had the experience of traveling on two separate flights with neighbors beside me that were significantly overweight. Both flights were on regional jets (2 seats) with the arm rests that can be raised or lowered. Both times I was in my window seat when my neighbor arrived - the first time the neighbor asked very politely if I'd mind if they raised the arm rest. I had no issue and event though he was larger he was very aware of his space and did his best to minimize the impact on me. The second passenger yanked the arm rest up, flopped into his (and half on my) seat and proceeded to elbow me and "squish" me for the duration of the flight.
In both cases the flight was a little under an hour, but other than seething in resentment at the second guy I wasn't sure what (if any) options I had (the flight was full).
Not sure how well that may go over with an ticketing agent telling a sobbing pregnant woman she has to purchase two tickets. Think about it for a moment...
It doesn't go over well. One of those airline reality shows had someone who had to tell an obese person they need two tickets, and predictably huge drama ensued.
The difficulty is that it is subjective, obviously the ticket agent doesn't know the exact weight or dimensions of the passenger so it is very difficult to establish and enforce firm rules. Makes it easy for drama passenger to turn it around on the airline employee demanding to know how they can pronounce them too fat for one seat.
According to the Centers for Disease Control, the average weight of American adult males has increased from 166 pounds in 1960 to 191 pounds in 2002. So even if this trend halted in 2002, this still means that American men are considerably heavier now than they were back in the 1960s -- which is when many of today's popular airliners, including the 737, were designed.
Some of that increase is due to height. People are taller now.
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In the long term, I think Boeing needs to design its new 797 (or whatever they want to call it) to have 3-3 seating but with each seat being 20 inches wide.
Airline companies, not Boeing, specify seat sizes. Airlines sell the seats that people are willing to pay for. I suspect that very few people would pay the necessary extra price for wider seats. But it would be interesting to see one airline try it and see how it works out.
Airline companies, not Boeing, specify seat sizes. Airlines sell the seats that people are willing to pay for. I suspect that very few people would pay the necessary extra price for wider seats. But it would be interesting to see one airline try it and see how it works out.
We have mixed reviews on that. Spirit is trying it with its Big Front Seat, and it seems to be going over well. But in the past we had airlines that offered fist-class seating width in all seats (remember Midwest Airlines, anyone?), and they went bankrupt.
Of course American Airlines had a "more room throughout Coach" approach in the past which famously flopped, but selling Economy Plus seats with extra legroom seems to be working for the legacy airlines now. Maybe we've finally achieved a level of discomfort in coach class that is so apparent to everyone that a significant percentage of the passengers are finally willing to open their wallet a bit wider and pay a reasonable fee for more space?
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2. Legislate a larger minimum economy class seat width (which will prevent the majority of squishing issues, but at the cost of a mildly increased ticket price for everyone in economy class).
That's the last thing we need. I don't want or need the government forcing me to pay for extra space used by obese people.
And do the math. In a 737, you would have to reduce the 6 seat rows to five seats to be able to add 3 inches to each seat. That would require around a 17% price increase. In an MD80, it would be even higher.
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