Gen X Journey

I feel very sorry for overweight people in economy seats. They are a tight squeeze for an ordinary sized person. But then I have lots of sympathy for the ordinary sized person who is squeezed in beside them.

One of my most memorable flights consisted of me squashed in beside a lovely man from France from Dubai to Brisbane. He was a very big boy and quite frankly a large part of him was on my seat for most of the way.

I was squeezed into the far corner of my seat trying to give myself some personal space–harder than you might think–have you seen the size of those seats? I might point out that he and I paid the same for our seats, but I was subsiding his. There was no chance I could move as the flight was full. Fourteen hours of it. Not fun.

The airlines are not really sure about what they should do about the obese passenger issue. Jetstar does not consider obesity a disability, Virgin calls it an impairment and Tiger says it’s a medical or comfort issue. No one has a policy on the issue though most airlines agree that the obese passenger should purchase two seats. But again this is up to to the discretion of the passenger. It would be a very brave check in staff member to broach that subject with the overweight passenger, though I think those bossy ones from the TV show Airline would have no problems.

Some passengers are even ringing up before the flight and requesting that they not be seated next to an overweight passenger. How would the airlines even have this information until check in? I do all my flights online. The airline wouldn’t have a clue what size I was. I even check in online or at one of those kiosks at the airport, and I’m assuming that I’m not alone here. So what are the odds that an airline would be able to ascertain the size of a passenger until they actually presented at the gate?

Maybe the answer might be that soon we’ll have to enter our height and weight information when we book tickets. Then a faceless computer could pop up the message–overweight alert–two tickets required. Hey that might actually work if everyone tells the truth, because no one ever lies about their weight.

I was reading a Weight Watchers mag the other day. A woman, who had lost a truckload of weight, said that an air flight was the impetus for her weight loss. She said she died a thousand deaths inside when they had to go and get the seat belt extension for her as her belt wouldn’t reach. I can see how that would be really embarrassing.

Perhaps having to buy two seats might be a motivational tool for other overweight people or maybe they’d just say it was discrimination not motivation. Image