I thought there was a law about this, but I can't find it either here or just with Google, but I thought that passengers over a certain weight were required to purchase two seats when traveling. The closest info I could find was here:

http://www.smartertravel.com/travel-....html?id=15819

I just flew back from Miami yesterday, and in front of me, a 300 pound guy (maybe 6'4", but still big) was sitting in a seat-and-a-quarter with the armrest up, and a small woman came to sit next to him. She basically dealt with it and tried to sleep most of the time.

I can't imagine myself dealing with that, but I'm not sure what I'd do. Clearly, if the armrest can't go down, I wouldn't be getting the seat I paid for.

Has anyone been in this situation or seen it? Do the flight attendants basically kick off the larger passenger? Is there, in fact, any rule here?

Mostly just curious in case it happens to me . . .

Good question for thought! What would we do if this happened to us? Personally, I have problems saying what I REALLY feel or want if it means that it might hurt someone else's feelings or make someone feel bad. So, I'd like to say that in this case I would ask the FA to find me another seat or something.... but, I've been in a situation similar to this (a few years ago) and I didn't say anything - I just sat there and dealt with it. However, I have become a little less shy about things like this lately, so maybe if that happened today I would actually say something. It's hard to say for sure unless it was really happening right now.

But what would you all do? Say something to the FA in front of the person sitting next to you? Say something to the FA in private? Say nothing and deal with it?

I love how obesity is the last openly accepted prejudice... Perhaps we shouldn't let fat people fly at all. Put them on the back of a watermelon truck so they can gorge on watermelons the whole way... Well, scratch that. Fat people would rather eat chocolate.

Anyway, I digress. Where do you draw the line? As a morbidly obese person myself, (I am 5'11" and a good 315lbs) I don't hang over in anyones seat and the armrest goes down easily. I scrunch myself against the wall tightly so as to make sure that the skinny next to me gets the WHOLE armrest to themselves, and always they always seem to take both armrests on their seat for their arms.

I definitely agree that hurting someone's feelings is both unnecessary and hard, and I would try to avoid it. Funny enough, by the end of the flight, the interactions between this guy and myself and people around us made me realize he was quite obnoxious, but I wouldn't have known that at the outset.

Also: full flight. No other seat out there.

My feeling about hurting someone's feelings is tempered by this issue: they knew before they bought one ticket that they didn't fit in one seat. So isn't this their responsibility? I wouldn't pass judgement or tell them to diet, but I would want the (already small) seat I paid for. I'm 6'2" and 160 - I know I fit in one seat just fine (at least width-wise).

James, this wouldn't apply to YOU then. I think this is referring to those that can't fit into a seat (i.e., the arm rest can not come down and the person's body is taking up 1 1/2 seats). Don't be mad and think that this applies to you, mate!

james318 -

I don't want to start a flame war - and I don't think that it's a prejudice. You are exactly the person I'm NOT talking about - the person who thinks ahead and recognizes the potential problem, and deals with it.

This wouldn't be a point I'd raise at all if I haven't seen several people board early and put the armrest up immediately since it can't go down.

It was lucky for the big guy that a smaller woman was next to him. What if the other person would have been as big?

GA's should have delt with this before the "big" passenger boarded. I would gone ballistic had this happened to me.

I had 2 such pax either side of me (the ones that need extensions in their seatbelts) in Y on a longhaul flight - now this wasn't back in the days when I weighed less than a hundred pounds but more recently in the days of my middle aged spread, luckily I was able to move to another row but it would have been excruciating for all 3 of us had I not been able to. Back in my younger days I also thought it might be a good idea that passengers and their luggage could have a combined weight allowance so light ones could have extra baggage - no longer subscribe to this one though!

... and now per Continental's website so do they -

https://www.continental.com/web/en-U...2E95216E62680D

There was a discussion on the Continental board last week on this topic ("No room in the seat?") and apparently at least 1 FA is/was currently NOT aware of this policy.

The onus seems to be on the GA to prevent boarding of POS with only 1 seat:

" A customer is required to purchase an additional seat or upgrade if they do not meet one of the following criteria:

The customer must be able to properly attach, buckle and wear the seatbelt, with one extension* if necessary, whenever the seatbelt sign is illuminated or as instructed by a crew member.
The customer must be able to remain seated with the seat armrest(s) down for the entirety of the flight.
The customer must not significantly encroach upon the adjacent seating space. See our seat maps.
Continental Airlines will not board a customer who declines to purchase a ticket for an additional seat or upgrade for each leg of their itinerary when required." (bolding mine)

So not sure what other pax/FA can do once POS is boarded/seated.

ymmv

It just doesn't look right refering to a person of size as a POS.

Not really trying to start a flame war, just trying to show I am comfortable joking about it. I can't tell you how many threads I see here about the horror of being stuck next to a fat, disgusting person. (Which you did not convey at all. )

What I find quite offensive is the terms "person of size" or "heavy-set"... Just call me fat or obese already!

I guess my point is that how do you really know until the plane takes off. Any self-respecting gastropod can force that armrest down until takeoff. (And the obnoxious guy gives fat people a bad name... We are jolly, darnit!)

I think telling a FA in private would be the best thing to do, if of course there are other seats available. If none were available the closest thing you could do would be to tell a FA, note her name and then write a letter explaining the situation to whatever carrier you're using. Who knows if you'd get anything out of it though, but it would be worth a try.

I can be a real a-hole to people in other situations like this, but growing up a fat kid and then coming into a proportional body around 20-21 in college, when I started playing rugby and exercising, makes me a little more sensitive to the whole situation and how crappy it can be. While I firmly believe people can change their habits I also don't think I could ever find the heart to call someone out about it in front of 150 other people, people you're going to be trapped in close quarters with for hours to come.

If I absolutely had to squeeze in, I would. I'd probably go uncomfortable for a few hours if there were no other seats, rather than try and get someone kicked off. However, if it were impossible, like him/her and I couldn't fit together then I wouldn't feel bad asking the person to relinquish the seat and possibly take a later flight or something.

james318 -

Shows what a difference attitude makes. Yours, obviously, is great. This guy's was pretty bad. I actually felt bad for him at first for having to squeeze into this tiny seat (AA). By the end of the flight, I had really re-appraised him in light of his attitude.

Granted, even in the beginning I always felt bad for the woman who couldn't have predicted this, but I cut the guy a lot more slack before he proved himself unworthy on several counts.

I'm glad you're of grace with the situation. That's the way to go through life!

You've got a good sense of humor about this, Jim. There have been numerous threads started in the past about this, and they usually get shut down shortly thereafter. Southwest seems to have a fair policy, especially when they can refund the passenger's money on a non-full flight.