Quote:
Originally Posted by GREENBACK
It's a shame that we as americans have come to this. I would personally be embarassed if I were the obese person in question. I know obese people flying isn't new but I guess it's way more common now.
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Back home in Guam, my mother/brother once flew on Air Nauru to Sydney--it services the south-west Pacific. There are some pretty hefty people out there (not necessarily obese, just
big), and from my brother's description, their standard seat was about the size of an American first-class seat.
Here in the US, they've actually shrunk the size of seats (and leg-room too) over the last couple decades in order to cram more people onto the aircraft (more passengers per flight = more money per flight). I'm one of the smaller-framed guys, and even I sometimes feel like the seats are uncomfortably narrow. I don't understand how larger people can even stand a long flight.
I see the biggest problem here as being the confrontations that will almost assuredly arise out of this. Big guy can't get in the seat, stewardess kindly explains the policy, and the guy refuses to accept it. It becomes a scene, people get angry and annoyed, and in the end, air marshals end up having to escort said man off the plane. First call he makes is to a lawyer. It's ridiculous, but it's going to happen, and happen soon--guaranteed.