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True, profit margins are pretty low and airlines go out of business all the time. There's no solution to this other than paying more...if everyone was ok with airfares going up it would work, but most people go for the cheap and easy option most of the time.
As a fairly tall guy with shoulders slightly wider than some airline seats, I'd love another inch or two of width and legroom. But I don't expect to be given extra accommodation for free.
People are definitely fatter today, and the seats are certainly smaller. The airlines didn't push the envelope back in the day, but they do now.
I'd love to pay 10-15% extra for a little more room, and will do the extra charge for an exit row for example. Not triple for business/first though.
Wrong on both comments. The majority of people today are not obese and fit comfortably in today's seats, and obese and really tall people decades ago were just as uncomfortable as they are today. The airlines shrunk the seats by a tiny margin so they could offer cheaper prices and remain competitive, not so they could make more profit. Flying is so unbelievably cheap as a form of long distance transportation as to be completely laughable in comparison to any other mode of travel when factoring in the time/distance and price/mile.
People like YOU want everyone to think the seats are too small for the average person, but it's not working because we all know they are just fine for most. So, either you are pushing this bs agenda because you are much larger than the avg adult or because it is YOU that is brainwashed.
"The room between rows – measured from a point on one seat to the same point on the seat in the next row – has been shrinking for many years as airlines squeeze more seats onto their planes. It was once commonly 34 or 35 inches, and is now less than 30 inches on some planes."
"Besides being uncomfortable, the shrinking seats threaten the ability to evacuate a plane within 90 seconds, an FAA requirement, said Paul Hudson, president of FlyersRights.org."
"Flyers Rights said that shrinking seats, which it calls sardine seats, present an issue during emergency evacuations, especially as larger passengers could struggle to get out of the seats in a hurry.
But the FAA said that current seat size is not a safety issue."
"Journalists covering the passenger experience space will not be surprised about the content of the videos supplied by the FAA. After all, Airbus famously used gym members and its own fit employees when it conducted its 90-second evacuation test for the A380."
"But the FAA concluded there is "no evidence that a typical passenger, even a larger one, will take more than a couple of seconds to get out of his or her seat" in case of an emergency.
The agency's proof that sardine seats are just fine consists of five videos of unrepresentative test subjects doing abbreviated, partial evacuations.
Except, none of the videos show a complete evacuation. They only show how passengers weren't delayed getting out of their row."
Well then, they're foolish. Most of the population of the U.S. is overweight. The chances of getting seated between 2 fat people (or someone sick, or someone's baby, or whatever) is likely.
Just b/c a majority of people in the US ARE overweight doesn't make it ok for normal-sized people to be squished in a seat they paid for.
People should expect that when they pay for a seat, they get the full-seat.
Ah, ragging on fat people! The last truly acceptable form of bigotry!
I'm 5'2" and *I* barely fit in one of those seats. They are WAY smaller than they used to be. That's on the AIRLINE.
So - are you going to restrict those weight limit things to just the fatties? Or are you going to start adding HEIGHT requirements too, so that 6' 4" guy who weighs in at 280 has to buy a double seat, too? Or how about guys who manspread? That's been a MUCH bigger problem for me on planes than fat people. How about people with jabby elbows? I had one guy raise the arm rest so he could take up room on MY side as well as his. I put it back down. He tried to raise it again. I held it down. He desisted and glared at me the rest of the flight. I didn't care.
This woman was a biotch. Period paragraph. She could have asked to be reseated in a calm, collected way. Instead she decided to be intentionally disruptive and rude. That's on her. I have NO SYMPATHY for her at all.
It's not the airline's fault you barely fit in a seat. They made them smaller, yes, but you could have also lost weight. It's not 100% on the airline.
Airlines could solve this very easily if they wanted. We all of us, airlines included, know the average American has gotten heavier and taller over the last couple of decades. Instead of accommodating for that, the airlines shrink the seats and shorten the legroom. Then they act surprised because people are so short tempered on flights.
They could offer larger seats in sections for a higher price, maybe a little less than business or first class. I'd pay extra to have one of those myself.
The other thing thing the situation on this plane highlights is how few of us have manners today. The decent thing to do would have been to find a flight attendant and out of hearing of the other passengers, ask to change to another seat if possible and explain why. No need to shame anyone or be rude or involve anyone else. I'm not the slimmest reed in the swamp and if someone had embarrassed me like that, I would have called them a b***h too. I'll admit it, if someone else is going to act like a donkey at a dance, I'll lower myself down to that level to communicate with them.
how about don't be fat? That would solve the problem wouldn't it?
The world isn't going to adjust to you, so you need to adjust to the world around you. If the seats on planes are getting smaller, people need to adapt to that.
You don't get a 'free pass' b/c you're fat. I used to be fat. I did something about it.
Yes...there are two alternating arguments going on in this post.....one is the rudeness or lack of kindness by the woman who complained....and the other on the lack of self discipline, overeating habits and apparent lack of caring about it by the obese passengers. But they are not mutually exclusive....meaning that both sides can be responsible/in the wrong here, not one vs the other like some are choosing to take sides with here .
While I side with the woman who complained, I agree that she probably could have handled it better...but...I'm not in a cramped airline seat being squashed by two overly fat people as I type this...If I were I'm sure I would feel more like she did at the time and have my temper at a boil.
The issue is that the 2 fat people appear to have booked their seats that way intentionally … which is wrong. They knew damn well what they were doing.
All this talk of "fair" and whatnot...you sound like snowflakes. Rude snowflakes at that.
If you are so concerned about the possibility of rubbing up against (literally) the Great Unwashed, I suggest you pony up and pay for the privilege to avoid it (First Class Tickets.) However, We, the consumer as a whole, insist on the lowest fares, and the airlines oblige us by shoehorning in a few more seats and constraining us further.
Furthermore, there's a difference between sticking up for yourself, and insulting your fellow man. I was taught to stick up for myself whenever possible. I was also taught not to make a scene; roll with the dogs, you get fleas.
Not everyone can afford first-class so that isn't a realistic option for many people ...so a richer person should buy first-class but a poorer person should just deal with being squished for 5 hours?
The airlines know what the "fat" demographic is (what percentage of customers are morbidly obese).
Instead of everybody being surprised and traumatized when fat people take up too much space in regular seats, there should be a section of seats to accommodate fat people.
When you are ordering your ticket, one of the questions would be about height and weight. If you are over a certain limit, then you would have to pay for a larger seat.
But no, we'll all pretend this isn't a reality. Stupid airlines.
But we would have to rely on people being truthful when they go to book.
yes but if you're going overseas all 3 of those options are impossible … so then what?
People crossed oceans in boats long before airplanes and still do today.
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