Comments on: F.U.nited

By: blueboo

blueboo — Mon, 04 May 2009 08:49:54 +0000

Perhaps you are simply unaware you are injuring those around you.

I have Lyme disease and I’m in a lot of pain. I’m on disability, I can’t pay for first class, it’s just not an option. And I’m tall and thin so I don’t fit in my seat either, but I do wedge myself into my allotted area as best I can and I make sure I’m not hurting someone. I expect those around me to not lean on me our continuously hit, kick, or bump me the whole flight. It’s been both fat men and women who do this. And the occasional large business man usually it’s broad shoulders that cause a problem.

And most of them are completely unapologetic about causing me a great deal of pain. I’m sorry if you’re too big for your seat, but that doesn’t make it ok to sit *on* me in my seat. I’ve had bruises afterward for weeks after such encounters. So I am pretty sure I’m not just a whiner. Being unable to sit next to me without sitting on me, and causing bruises is I think a justifiable reason to make someone pay for an extra seat.

Really I’d just like to survive the flight without physical injury.

I’d love to have a larger seat. A longer seat. And I fly as little as possible. I skip things like weddings and funerals because it’s just too painful to fly.

Airlines don’t give you bigger seats because you’re disabled. At best they wheel you between gates, and when they absolutely have to they will carry you onto the plane. If you know you’re really sure you can’t walk. It’s completely humiliating to be disabled and fly.

So I would just ask that if you find that you are “touching” your fellow passenger, you make sure you aren’t hurting them even if it seems like to you it’s not a problem. And if you can’t put the arm down, make sure you aren’t continually bumping it and whacking the person next to you with the seat arm. That can leave painful bruises.

By: juliah

juliah — Mon, 04 May 2009 00:34:23 +0000

So start in the center (peak) of that Gaussian, move a bit forward from the peak, and then shade everything to the left of that point. Those are the women airlines are looking to charge singly. The 40% or so remainder, the section to the right of that point, will be charged doubly. What a boon for UA, eh?

Jeebus. That is a huge group of people UA can now gouge for little reason.

I wonder if United is willing to let these double-charged passengers take on twice the amount of luggage and get twice as many complimentary in-flight snacks. After all, they did pay twice as much as anyone else on the plane.

By: Meowser

Meowser — Sun, 03 May 2009 23:31:20 +0000

“Untied,” hee hee. That’s what I used to call United Health Care when I was with them.

I’ve been going back and forth on this with someone on Alas who thinks anyone who could conceivably touch someone with their icky sweaty flesh should have to be charged double. I’ve been trying to explain that there might be ten or more such fatasses on a a given plane, who have the saddlebags issue but are not in a position to actually injure our seatmates, and that we really can’t win. If we don’t buy the second seat, we’re subject to ejection if F. jerkwadius is our seatmate and zie complains. If we do buy the adjacent seat, flight attendants look over the plane and say, “oh, looky, we’ve got lots of empty seats,” and march bunches of people on to the plane to take up the seats we’ve paid for. (Any one of whom might be one of F. jerkwadius.)

And if we refuse to give them up, WE are the bad guys. Either I’m too fat for one seat or I’m not. It can’t be that I’m too fat for one seat if I haven’t bought one, and not too fat for one seat if I have. I mean, come on now.

By: Kate Harding

Kate Harding — Sun, 03 May 2009 21:53:42 +0000

This was years ago, but I assume if they allowed that they would allow “My Big Fat Ass” to buy a ticket too.

I sincerely doubt it, after 9/11. :(

By: Elsajeni

Elsajeni — Sun, 03 May 2009 19:30:38 +0000

@daxxinn — I used to know a cellist who would buy a second ticket for his instrument, under the name “Cello Jones.” This was years ago, but I assume if they allowed that they would allow “My Big Fat Ass” to buy a ticket too.

By: lore

lore — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 15:48:52 +0000

My mother in law is a large woman, and slightly claustrophobic. She always buys two seats (by choice), preferably by the bulkhead, to keep from feeling closed in. On a 2007 trip (American Airlines) the flight attendant asked her to give up the empty seat next to accommodate another passenger. She explained to the flight attendant that she had paid for both seats and would not be giving up her assigned seats. The flight attendant continued to pester her for 5 minutes with the other passenger chiming in with whiny begging. They finally left her alone but she heard other passengers making rude comments about her for the rest of the flight.
I expect this would happen with any second seat rule on Untied too. Any airline would love to get paid for the same seat twice!

By: daxxinn

daxxinn — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 07:02:41 +0000

“You know what else? Suppose you’ve got this compliant and well-heeled Fattie who
conscientiously buys his or her two seats, and the plane is oversold. You just know that the gate
agent, and anyone else who’s aware of the situation, suddenly starts looking at her ANYWAY
because my GOD she’s taking up TWO SEATS and why should she get two seats when other
people have none?”
Ah, this. When my grandfather and grandmother would fly they would always splurge for a third seat(and I do say ‘splurge’ because grams has a tendency to overspend) Many a time they would have been sat down waiting for the rest of the passengers to settle in and someone would come along with a flight attendant asking “what about this seat, it’s open isn’t it?” Well, my grandmother would whip out the three tickets and explain that this seat has been paid for and NO, you can’t have it.

I am curious though, for those who have in the past bought two tickets for themselves, have you ever considered putting another name on the second ticket to see if anyone notices. For instance on ticket 1-Jane Doe and on ticket 2-My Fat Ass, or, to highlight the stupidity of the airline’s policy, ticket 1-My Fat Ass and ticket 2-You Dumb Asses. Of course, without any sort of ID to prove that I am in fact My Fat Ass I wouldn’t even be able to get my fat ass pass security.

By: bigliberty

bigliberty — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 14:43:38 +0000

If one imagines the distribution of sizes as a Gaussian about some average, some of the figuring done above is that a woman at about a size 16W would potentially not be able to fit into their seats as per their definition (with variation based on body shape, of course). The average size of a woman in the US is 14W. So start in the center (peak) of that Gaussian, move a bit forward from the peak, and then shade everything to the left of that point. Those are the women airlines are looking to charge singly. The 40% or so remainder, the section to the right of that point, will be charged doubly. What a boon for UA, eh? If I end up being prevented, harassed, etc in any way in the course of my travel back and forth to Italy this summer, I will post about it, and note it in these comments. I am one of the people who could have employment-related consequences to being a member of the 40% or so of women who will be affected by this policy. I could potentially travel quite a bit, and each opportunity means a lot to my career in the long run. If fat people on average make less than thin people, this kind of policy will only widen that gap. How is that okay?

By: nakedfaery

nakedfaery — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 21:23:53 +0000

I am sorry that I came across this blog post so late. I am not in the U.S nor have I ever flown with a U.S airline, but I’m still extremely tempted to complain.

“…just that when you take the number of people whose bodies don’t meet that particular standard and subtract the number of people who already routinely buy two seats, fly first class, or find alternate transportation, how many are actually left? My fat gut says probably not that many.”

I agree wholeheartedly with this comment. I’m 190lbs and I find fitting into seats uncomfortable. And the LOOKS you get for having the audacity to need to extend your seatbelt fully to fit over your stomach (I am gut heavy) are enough to put anyone off if they’re not strong of heart like me :-P I really don’t know that many people that find the seats comfortable in any way, and that says to me that airlines really need to consider having differently sized seats to reflect the size of most passengers.

If the average passenger finds the seat uncomfortable and some passengers are PREVENTED from flying because of their size…well they’re just doing it WRONG! The airline should cater to a MAJORITY of people and not a minority., especially if they want to stay in business.

By: Sarah Bee

Sarah Bee — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 05:29:31 +0000

I got the same generic bs response to my letter as everyone else. It’s so disheartening that I’m not really sure how to respond. But I’ll figure something out.