On the topic of Air Travel......

[caveeagle]

I travel a lot for work, (2-3 trips/month). I have been sticking with American lately because of my companies partnership program, but this week I was on a Delta flight, just because it worked out better.

So, I going to my seat. (Isle Seat in a row of 3). The guy in the window seat is a nice round 300# guy, that has the armrest up and has spread a full 3-4" into the center seat.

So I am thankfull that I am in the isle seat, and pray for a small-ish person to take the center seat on this over-sold flight.

Now, understand, I am no small gut either! I am 6'2", 265# with wide shoulders. BUT! I can fit in the FREAKIN' seat with both armrest down, can buckle the normal seatbelt and pull 8" of slack to tighten it! So I am not anti big guys here! FWIW

Anyway, a few moments later and another ~300# manatee barells down the isle and informs be that he is seated between us in the middle. As I get out of the way, guy#2 pulls up my (our)armrest, sits down and is easily 6 full inches into my seat! To get my seatbelt, I had to ask him to lift his freakin @$$ a bit and hand it to me.

So, beleive it or not, I could actually still fit my @$$ in the small remaining space, but I had to lean into the Isle a good 6-8" to keep this 1.5 hr flight from turning into a "date". To make it more fun, a delay had us sitting on the tarmac for 45m in the FL heat without the engines running. ~HOT~

Onece in the air, I get hit in the shoulder by the beverage cart twice, while the flight attendent bitches at me to move out of the isle. I snap right back at here with "where the hell to you want me to move to?" By this point, I am not even trying to be polite to anyone. Ive got manatee man-sweat all over my left pant leg, and my sense of humor is LONG gone.

I am so FREAKN' pissed about this crap. (a)I should not have to pay for the 25% of my seat that was incaccessible to me! (b)If you are to freaking huge to fit in a normal seat, you should buy two seats, or pay for first class, where you have more room.

I am planning to call Delta Cust Service and rant a little to them. Probably wont make any difference, but maybe they will comp be a few points or an upgrade or somethin'.

Sometimes air travel SUCKS!

 

[RDJ]

your fault for not raising the issue when fat ass #2 first sat down

 

[chrisheltra]

At least it wasnt a long flight

 

[caveeagle]

your fault for not raising the issue when fat ass #2 first sat down

Yea. It was a full flight! What are they going to do? Move us all around??

I guess I should have just asked to get off the plane!

 

[RDJ]

Yea. It was a full flight! What are they going to do? Move us all around??

I guess I should have just asked to get off the plane!

well you didn't say that in your OP. I have seen airlines move fatasses to a different seat before. as far as getting off the plane, that would have been my choice LOL! assuming my schedule would allow it.

frankly stories like yours are going to get more common because airlines are cutting flights in order to make more money. I would have been hard pressed to not force the armrest down just because LOL

 

[caveeagle]

well you didn't say that in your OP.

uhh?

...and pray for a small-ish person to take the center seat on this over-sold flight.

..as far as getting off the plane, that would have been my choice LOL! assuming my schedule would allow it.

Yea... I was working a pretty tight schedule. Had my wife picking my up at the Springfeild airport enroute to going to a wkend father's day visit w her dad.

.. I would have been hard pressed to not force the armrest down just because LOL

Yea, I have actually done this before. That was not even an option in this case. Man, this guy was actually sitting on 3-4" of my seatbelt, while it was bucked! I could feel it get tighter every time he moved!

 

[Katy TX5.0]

I wonder if they didn't have a jump seat for you to sit in. I'm a 260 lb weightlifter and the only issue I have is my shoulders encroaching on the person next to me. I try to get an aisle or window seat so I can lean away.

 

[11GT50]

I wonder if they didn't have a jump seat for you to sit in. I'm a 260 lb weightlifter and the only issue I have is my shoulders encroaching on the person next to me. I try to get an aisle or window seat so I can lean away.

They will never let you sit in a jumpseat. It's against FAA regulations(FARs).

I am planning to call Delta Cust Service and rant a little to them. Probably wont make any difference, but maybe they will comp be a few points or an upgrade or somethin'.

It's probably worth a few thousand DL FF miles.

 

[PSUCOBRA96]

I would have said something, if they are too fat they buy a second seat or leave the plane. I pay for a seat and anyone on my side is in my space I paid for. Complain to the stewardess and make a safety complaint, they wont ignore it at that point and the fatty can'y blame them at that point when another passenger starts the complaint. I 180 pounds, fit, and very in shape and it is not my fault the fatty ate too much. You should have said something. Did they keep the armrest up, I never let anyone touch the armrest unless it is family, it keeps everyone on their side of the seat.

 

[coposrv]

^ anything thing like this in the future, make it a "safety issue". No one wants to be responsible for ignoring or passing off someone who or something that brought up a safety issue. I am a firm believer that safety is third, but sometimes you have to use it for your advantage.

 

[oldmodman]

Get the flight attendant to come over and insist that both of those Gigantors fold their armrests DOWN!

If they can no longer fit in the seat then they should be ejected from the aircraft.

I have no sympathy for fat people that try to pretend they are not fat and make the rest of the flying public suffer because of it. And in my case I am calling the kettle black since I am overweight and don't expect to take up anymore room than I am being sold. I only fly in aircraft that seat two by two.

 

[Silver2003Cobra]

don't aircraft use fuel by how much weight they are hauling.. they probably cost Delta a couple grand right there..

 

[VirtualSVT]

See I fly first class or Business to keep some poor, skinny ****er from touching me.

 

[CobraBob]

Speaking of problems like this. Some airlines want to increase the size of some seats (due to the increasing number of overweight flyers) while reducing the size of the rest. Now wouldn't THAT be wonderful. As if the economy seats weren't small enough already, with seat pitch getting smaller and smaller.

Therefore the big question is: how far can airlines reduce passenger comforts before a backlash occurs? And IMO no airline is exempt from the trend of reducing passenger comforts as they seek to reduce costs and increase profits.

 

[Gray_Ghost]

I'm a big boy at 5'11" and 280lbs. I haven't flown in nearly 20 years. If I didn't fit in a seat I'd voluntarily pay for 1st class just to keep this from happening to somebody else. So, as a "big boy" I say to the OP, don't take that **** next time. A person pays for ONE seat. Not 1.2 or 1.5. Be a ****head. You paid to be comfortable.

 

[caveeagle]

Thanks for the support guys! I guess I just needed blow off some steam on this. I am no small-fry either (as stated). So I do have a little compassion for big guys. This one just pushed me over the edge (so to speak).

I generally avoid being a prick and really DON'T want to be "that guy" making a scene and giving the staff a rash of crap for no reason.

I guess, It bothered be a little at first. Then as the flight went on, it just seemed to get worse and worse. By that time, it was too late to really do anything about it without making a huge deal of it. And for those of you that don't know.... Cause a big enough problem that makes them pull the jet back to the gate and the TSA can fine you up to $20,000. With my luck, I would be the guy they decided to make an example out of.

I will say that I am better off staking out window seats. That allows you to drop your armrest down and refuse to let anyone touch it. When youre in the isle seat, that kind of puts you in a bad position.

 

[nickf2005]

I'm not happy at all with Delta Airlines right now...

Coming back to Indy from Providence, RI yesterday, we were had a 2:30 flight to Detroit in order to connect to Indy. The plane was late to Providence, making us miss our connection in Detroit. They rebook us to a 6:00 to Atlanta to connect to a 10:00 to Indy. They board us only to find out that an electrical panel is broken. They keep us on the plane for 2 hours trying to fix the part. They finally come over the PA and say they fixed it by cleaning it with some contact cleaner... Couldn't have tried that earlier???

So, we had a slight chance to still make our 10:00 in Atlanta. They then take their sweet time backing us out of the gate and we ended up missing our connection by 10 minutes. They then put us up in a sleezy hotel for the night and rebook us for 7:45 this morning. Luckily, we got there in time to get a room, but about 50+ people were left once the hotel was booked full. They shuttle those people back to the airport and basically said, "Sorry, good luck." I ended up getting about 4 hours of sleep before having to return back to the airport.

All in all, about 50 people missed the 10:00 connection from various places by less than 20 minutes and they didn't even have the decency to hold the flight by 20 minutes.

Cliffs: 2 delayed flights resulted in me getting home 15 hours later than scheduled.

 

[leo2hot4tv]

I'm not happy at all with Delta Airlines right now...

Coming back to Indy from Providence, RI yesterday, we were had a 2:30 flight to Detroit in order to connect to Indy. The plane was late to Providence, making us miss our connection in Detroit. They rebook us to a 6:00 to Atlanta to connect to a 10:00 to Indy. They board us only to find out that an electrical panel is broken. They keep us on the plane for 2 hours trying to fix the part. They finally come over the PA and say they fixed it by cleaning it with some contact cleaner... Couldn't have tried that earlier???

So, we had a slight chance to still make our 10:00 in Atlanta. They then take their sweet time backing us out of the gate and we ended up missing our connection by 10 minutes. They then put us up in a sleezy hotel for the night and rebook us for 7:45 this morning. Luckily, we got there in time to get a room, but about 50+ people were left once the hotel was booked full. They shuttle those people back to the airport and basically said, "Sorry, good luck." I ended up getting about 4 hours of sleep before having to return back to the airport.

All in all, about 50 people missed the 10:00 connection from various places by less than 20 minutes and they didn't even have the decency to hold the flight by 20 minutes.

Cliffs: 2 delayed flights resulted in me getting home 15 hours later than scheduled.

I had a similar maintenance problem with Delta that cost me 5 hours of my life.

to the OP: I think airlines tried doing that at some point(charging fatties double). Don't know what happened. It will keep happening though as airplanes become more crowded as they try to add seats. I hear they're taking space from the lavatories to be able to fit a couple of more seats, and I thought that was already small enough.

 

[nofire]

I have no idea how big these people are to not be able to put the armrests down and buckle up. I'm massive compared to most people 5'10" and 300lbs and I have ZERO problems doing either of those activities.

Just for the comfort of other passengers I do ask for the window seat so I can put my back kind of to the wall so my shoulders aren't intruding into their paid for space.

 

[SID297]

Can't be afraid to say something.