New points to consider
Have greatly enjoyed reading this thread. Have learned several new things...such as seat size & that my shoulders are 16" across, more or less, so even when I was much skinner, I always had to hunch shoulders on airplanes. Never knew seat sizes were right at the same length as my shoulders, just knew that I needed all my space, and if someone went over their space I'd always feel my personal space had been invaded. I do fit in my seat, but do not have any room to share. And greatly agree with many observations as to diet, losing weight is simple (eat less than you burn) but not easy, the woman might have needed to buy 2 seats, etc.
Anyway, have two new points for consideration:
I know that this may be taken the wrong way, but when you're NOT the one in the middle seat--no single passanger has this as your first choice--you've got to give a little. The window seat person can hug the window, the aisle seat person can lean into the aisle (and gets whacked by every passanger & cart going by), but the middle person really has no where to go. And I don't care how POLITELY you say it, there's just no way it doesn't come across as "your too fat, stay on your side!"
Which brings up my next point: maybe this woman is already in the process of trying to correct her size, but as it didn't take a year to get that big, it will take longer than a year to lose it... I do not believe that she needed the seat belt extension, so just how much spillage is too much? 1 inch on either side? 10 inches???? Anyway--she can't become "unfat" overnight, and certainly not while she's on the plane. Yeah, she's made a lifetime of bad choices, but for the immedate situation, what is she suppose to do? I'd give someone the fish stare too. Don't get me wrong--I try very hard to be polite, but also expect it from others too.
Final point--seating is limited on airplanes. The flight attendants do not have unlimited seats to chose from--and if you want to be moved, chances are you're going to start affecting someone else. Yeah, you don't want to sit next to the stinky fat person? Or the one with woogums? Or the one with the screaming kid? Or the other with the newborn baby? Or next to mister tall guy who you've got to climb over to get into your seat (and forget about mid-flight restroom breaks). Uh, not too many choices left
My solution: make window & aisle seats 1/2" to 1" shorter. Give that to the middle seat. And/or start charging 5 to 30 extra for the choice window/aisle seats. Then airlines make more money, & there's seating for the short & squat.
:rofl: