Just wanted to thank you for your consideration. I'm sorry it's going to cost you so much money.
Wish they just made those seats a little bigger for everyone. (I know..I live in la-la land.) As someone who flies a lot, I've noticed that the airlines seem to be concentrating on the seat size but pay no attention to shoulder size. Most men DON'T fit in their seats, when you consider how much shoulder space they generally require.
I'm currently getting over months of compressed sciatic nerve pain due to a long flight which I spent twisted in my seat. (I do that a lot, but this is the first time I paid for it medically.) The guy sitting next to me had no place but my space for his shoulders to go, but no one makes him pay for two seats. (He'd actually have legitimately needed 3 seats, since he was sitting in the middle and he was taking up shoulder space on either side.)
Ah, well. Since the airlines are never going to actually solve this problem, the best we can all do is to be kind to one another and wait to get off the plane. (And yes, I've sat next to Pooh-sized people, put the armrest up, and then we both just politely did the best we could.)
The last time I flew was on SWA and I got the window seat and then squished myself against it as much as I could so I wouldn't bother the woman sitting next to me (my parents were the ones who paid for the ticket, not me, and SWA wasn't so anal about enforcing the two-seat thing then). I try not to get up on flights as well, so that I'm not bothering anyone, but I flew to Anchorage once and that was just too long to stay sitting
That one was on company dollar, so they didn't buy me two seats, either. I'm sorry about your pain. That's never fun
I work with the elderly, so I hear all about that from them (ranging from knee pain to scoliosis, mostly). I hope it gets better for you soon, since that can't be easy to live with.
As someone who used to weigh in at 350 at 6"1", I can certainly understand how you feel. It took a long time and a lot of work but I'm now at 240 and hope to lose a bit more. I sincerely wish you luck in your weight loss attempt. You're wise to not try to crash diet.
I do have a question regarding the subject in this thread. Since SWA is all "general admission" seating, how do you stop someone from sitting next to you in the extra seat you paid for? If you ask them politely and explain the situation to them and they plop down anyway, what do you do? Would a flight attendant make them move? I got to thinking about this since most airlines these days are notorious about overbooking.
My old coworker was anorexic and bulimic and obsessed with working out. She looked like a skeleton with skin. I know my weight's not healthy, but neither was hers, you know? Besides, being overweight and then crash dieting doesn't work, since then your body thinks you're starving and it holds onto the weight anyway to keep you alive.
If you have two seats on SWA, they ask that you check in at the counter, not online. They give you a blue sleeve for pre-board and then also give you information on refunds (for if the flight's not full) and an airline marked "seat reserved" sign for you to put in the extra seat. If anyone goes for the seat, you can point it out to them and they'll find another seat, and the FAs will know that you legitimately have two seats.
Just out of curiosity...what was their policy?
AirTran's unpublished
headache
policy is that you have to buy two seats. I'm not sure how exactly they enforce it, since it's not published anywhere and I had to spend ten minutes on hold to get it from them. I'm not going to fly with them, though, because I don't like how they don't publish that information. I even found some news articles where the journalists had tried to get the policies from them and couldn't for some reason. I guess they didn't call
JetBlue's is more lenient and allows the passenger to make the decision. Their caveat, though, is that if your neighbor (or neighbors, if you're middle seat) complain, you will be moved if there's available space, or deplaned and made to buy a second seat if the plane is full. I've decided not to fly with them because their travel times are insane. Chicago to Orlando would be Chicago to New York or Boston to Orlando with the earliest possible flight leaving Chicago at 7am and not arriving in Orlando until 2:30pm
My return flight, unless I wanted to pay a lot more, I'd have to leave the hotel at 6am
i am certainly not a skinny chick so i do feel for pooh like people, usually
on flight back from WDW 2 weeks ago on AirTran (assigned seats i paid for) i was surprised to see what I thought was
2 people already sitting in the row, figured i'd have to get FA to ask them to move....
turned out it was
1 very large man (tall as well as wide) sitting in aisle seat and most of my seat next to it
(his zone had been called, another issue where they didn't allow those who paid for preboarding to board 1st
out of MCO
groan).
we squished in, i was sitting on hump between DH & my seat with seatbelt high & loose vs low & tight
took awhile to flag down FA.
Flight was sold out and FAs told me that once the gent was seated, they technically can't remove him
1st time i heard that one.
I insisted the FA pull the arm down between the seats (helped abit, he still spilled over it & positioned his leg in my space. Turned out he & rest of his over-sized family all were sitting scattered throughout the plan-all in aisle seats! & a chorus of other passengers requested the FAs force down the armrests too.
i applaud the OP for being concerned! This group in question of 6 people (my DH estimated none were under 450 pds) had to have the fleeting thought they might inconvenience other passengers imo just didn't care or they'd pay for seats in the same rows to only squish themselves.
btw, i did complain during & after flight & got 2 $50 vouchers (more than cash value i paid for seats had CC reward vouchers for over 1/2 of flight costs) & automatic 1st class seats on next flight good for 1 year.
That confuses the heck out of me... Every airline I've looked into has had a policy regarding overweight passengers, usually requiring two seats or deboarding if the passenger hasn't bought two and is infringing on their neighbors. Even if the passenger is seated. If they're an airline you fly regularly, you may want to keep in mind what the woman I spoke to last night told me. She said that they do require people to pay for two seats and will ask them to leave if they haven't and are infringing. I mean, yeah, I'm concerned about bothering someone else, but I want to be comfortable on my flight, too
For the record, I'm not as big as the man you mentioned
I'm hovering around 300 at the moment (yet no one ever believes that because of how I dress
). I'd say for sure, but my scale is evil and keeps giving me different numbers
SWA actually posted a sale on fares today, but they're not for my dates. I could leave two days early, save $200 on airfare (even with the second seat), and then use that for two extra days at Disney if I wanted to, but the sale ends on Thursday and I won't have the money by then
I don't want to intrude on anyone else, and I plan on sitting in the back of the plane no matter what airline I decide to use. If I had the money, I would buy the second seat and not worry about it, but I just can't afford that right now. This is the first real vacation I've ever taken as an adult, and I don't want it to start with me being kicked off a plane for breaking the fat seat rules, which is why I just wanted to find out the policies, you know?
), including: 
