Just wanted to pass the word about what happened to my sister last month.

My sister was visiting me at the beginning of March. She flew with her just turned 5 year old child.

Yes, my sister is also overweight, but her child is a little string-bean.

As my sister is waiting in the "boarding with children" line when a Southwest Airlines employee comes up and asks her if she is comfortable flying. My sister says, yeeeeessss..... not sure where he was going with his comments. Then he started to ask if she was comfortable in the seats, yeeeeessssss......then it dawns on her. He is specifically asking her this because she is fat and he confirmed it by then asking her if when she is sitting in the seat can she put the arm rests down because the law states she must fly with the arm rests down. She was livid, but what could she do? Yell at the guy in front of her child ? All she could say was that she was flying with her small child and there would not be a problem. She was near tears.

Mind you, the Southwest Airlines employee did this in front of EVERYONE. If Southwest Airlines has a problem with overweight people buying tickets from them, then they should say so at the time of purchase ! My sister found it very humiliating.

See, there's the problem. Larger seats means fewer seats. Fewer seats means fewer passengers per plane. Fewer passengers per plane means that seat prices jump tremendously, making them even more outrageous. So the way I see it is this: People can either be uncomfortable in an expensive, narrow seat, or they can be comfortable in a very expensive, wider seat. Of course, if they widen the seats, people will bitch about how much higher prices went. There is no winning there.

I agree. Everything is too expensive these days. Do they really need to charge people so much for a ticket in general? How much profit do they make from each seat I wonder? Just curious. If they regular seats weren't so crazy expensive then maybe I wouldn't mind buying an extra seat...and I would have too. I am 5'2" and shaped like a bowling ball. I am not one of the lucky ones who distributes their weight with height. I am a short fatty...but I still want to fly damn it. When I am a short skinny, then I still want my beautiful fatty friends to be able to fly with me without dipping into their retirement fund.

I think we need a new airline for fat people and it will be comfortable for our size whether it's horizontal or vertical or both! I bet thin people would fly on it too because it would be more comfortable than what we have already. Plus who wants to use one of their bathrooms, it would be much nicer! They would also bring back the lunch cart and movies anyway in a perfect world......

We notice the price of gas each time we fuel our cars, have you heard on the news what the cost of jet fuel is--Holy Smokes!!

And all the new safety guidelines have to be paid for somewhere.....they do not charge you individually for each bag they have to search, or each Xray examination of your carry ons---but everything has to be paid for.....and it comes in the ticket price.

I realize it is expensive, but I know it has not gone up percentage wise it doesn't seem as quickly as the cost of gasoline or diesel has. I know back a couple of years ago we flew to Vegas, and we paid $110.00 round trip, on a special. We priced them last month, and we found we could do it again with a 21 day notice for $153.00 round trip. I know 2 years ago, if I would have drove it, and taken our truck diesel would have been under $2.00 a gallon, and now it is over $4.00---so my costs to drive would have doubled---and almost as badly with the car, and gasoline. So overall while it is expensive, they are not hitting us as hard as the oil companies with the cost of fuel....

I do not have exact numbers, so I may be all washed up, but this is just my personal experience, in the cost of flying.

Now are the seats smaller than they were 2 years ago? Dunno--but I am!!!

Kat

I think we need a new airline for fat people and it will be comfortable for our size whether it's horizontal or vertical or both! I bet thin people would fly on it too because it would be more comfortable than what we have already. Plus who wants to use one of their bathrooms, it would be much nicer! They would also bring back the lunch cart and movies anyway in a perfect world......

sounds good to me.

I agree. Everything is too expensive these days. Do they really need to charge people so much for a ticket in general? How much profit do they make from each seat I wonder? Just curious. If they regular seats weren't so crazy expensive then maybe I wouldn't mind buying an extra seat...and I would have too. I am 5'2" and shaped like a bowling ball. I am not one of the lucky ones who distributes their weight with height. I am a short fatty...but I still want to fly damn it. When I am a short skinny, then I still want my beautiful fatty friends to be able to fly with me without dipping into their retirement fund.

They don't make very much profit at all. There have been several smaller airlines that have folded in the last few weeks, in fact. Between fuel prices, employee benefits/wages, etc., the airlines aren't doing so well.

Since we have so many problems with the airlines I think we need to get that flying car we were all promised in the 50s!!!!!! Where is that car?

Since we have so many problems with the airlines I think we need to get that flying car we were all promised in the 50s!!!!!! Where is that car?

I'd kill for a Jetson's car!

Jetson's rule!!!!!

Astro rocks!!!

Rats right rorge!

Laurend and Kat hit the nail right on the head. The airlines (and I am no fan, I assure you) are not discriminating based on a person's size. They have to go on how much weight the plane carries. The more weight, the more fuel that will be consumed per flight. The more fuel consumed, the lower the profit margin.

The weight issue (vs. size) can also be looked at from a safety point. It's an extreme example (and 1-2 POS would not make such a drastic difference), but would you rather be on a plane that was target weight, or a plane that was dangerously overweight? That's why the airlines aren't hit with discrimination suits. If a person's disability was that they farted flames, and were denied a job working in a fireworks factory, would that also be discrimination? (We'll have to wait for a DS'er to answer that rhetorical question, I suppose)

It could be late and I could be tired but aren't they two separate topics, not flame farting but the size of a person fitting into a seat and encroaching on another's space vs the total weight of passengers on a plane. Wouldn't they weigh us all before we got on. It still could be that it's late, east coaster.

No, B II, I was trying to make light (pun intended) of the situation by funny metaphor. The reason a person might have to buy 2 tickets is more for their weight (and, because the flight burns more fuel, the airline's profit margin is cut) than for spilling over onto fellow passengers. I think the airlines don't give a toss if the passengers are comfy or inconvienced, as long as they make money.

OOOOOOh,

Then why all the beachin about size and side rails and spilling into the lap of the next person when it's all money and weight and fuel costs, guess it took a dude to put into perspective! Thanx, got to go to sleep now:closedeyes:

Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe it really is that the benevolent airlines only care about protecting the normal-sized passengers from the evil obese ones.