Middle Seat Nightmare: Oversized Passenger Forces Neighbor Into Half A Seat – Who’s To Blame?
A passenger flying Helsinki to Copenhagen on Monday clearly didn’t fit into the seat. From the photo it appears to me to be a Norwegian Boeing 737. The passenger sharing it offers that they felt sorry for the large gentleman who didn’t fit at the aisle “and the guy next to him in the middle seat.”
He appears to blame the airline rather than the passenger. I don’t, except in so far as they don’t require the larger passenger to buy an extra seat.
Fifteen years ago a passenger went viral when a flight attendant took a photo of him spilling over into the aisle. That photo was also taken from behind. He had the same colored shirt.. and the same hair. I think it might even be the same person?
The passenger in the middle seat bought a specific amount of space on their flight. They did not receive the space that they purchased.
Airlines commonly require passengers to purchase enough space for their travel. For instance, here’s the American Airlines policy though this frequently goes unenforced.
If a customer needs extra space outside a single seat to travel safely, another seat is required. We encourage customers to address all seating needs when booking.
- When you call to book, Reservations will make sure you get 2 adjacent seats at the same rate.
- If you didn’t book an extra seat in advance, ask an airport agent to find out if 2 adjacent seats are available.
- You may be offered a seat in a higher class of service that may provide more space; in this case, you’ll be responsible for the fare difference.
- If accommodations can’t be made on your original flight, you can buy seats on a different flight at the same price as your original seats.
I need to be consistent. I don’t believe that other passengers should bear the burden when someone brings on a support animal. The person bringing the animal should have to buy enough space on board to accommodate it.
Similarly, a person should have to buy enough space to fit in their seat, or require the airline to provide it (I do not endorse this), but certainly their size shouldn’t mean taking space that has been purchased by someone else.
Last year, a plus-sized influencer started a viral petition demanding free extra seats from airlines when passengers don’t fit into a standard seat.
Here “Big Curvy Olivia” points to a different issue entirely: she says it is discrimination that aircraft aisles are so narrow, and posts video of herself struggling to get through a United Airlines Polaris business class cabin.
Lol and the First Class cabin has much more space than economy pic.twitter.com/YCAh501hF3
— Ben Kew 🏌️♂️ (@ben_kew) May 18, 2023
The problem is that any solution would either mean (1) less space in the seat for everyone else (including for the person being accommodated!) or (2) fewer seats on board to make room for the larger aisles, which in turn would mean higher fares – so it’s passengers across the board who would still pay. There would be fewer flights, too, since not all routes and frequencies would support those higher fares.