an overdose of hugs
Slate has run a few stories this week about oversize air travelers (fat, tall, etc.) and what can be done about them.
The first story is a little ridiculous. They want me to feel sorry for tall people?
4. Treat height as an in-flight disability.
6. Many tall and wide people can’t afford bigger seats.
Sorry, but no. If you fly economy, you get what you deserve. If you want comfort on a flight, pay for business class or better. It’s that simple, really.
The second story has some ideas on how to alleviate the problem.
5. Pay people to switch [seats with extra space].
6. Give tall people the first option to buy leg room.
7. Put some wide seats on each plane and give wide people the first option to buy them.
News flash, the airlines already do this: it’s called business class.
And here’s a real gem:
One common complaint in the forum was about short people in exit rows. “There is nothing more frustrating than seeing a short person in the exit row bragging about how much room [they] have to stretch out while I cram my legs into a regular seat with my knees going numb,” writes Jennifer.
Dear Jennifer, you must not understand how the air industry works, so let me help you out. Those rows are reserved for the airlines’ best customers. The short person sitting there in glorious comfort is at an earnings disadvantage of $798 per year per inch compared to you, and had to work that much harder to afford that seat.
Jennifer, you have only yourself to blame, for being too lazy to work hard to earn enough money to purchase a seat that fits you.
Rest assured, my kids will not get an overdose of hugs which is the gateway to an overdeveloped sense of self-entitlement.
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I 100% agree! As someone who has to travel for work, there’s nothing worse than getting on a flight and having to watch a 350 lbs person squeezing through the isle and praying they are not going to sit next to you.
I too, like Mr. Chiang, am not a large individual, but why is it fair that when I pay for a whole seat, the giant who sits next to me takes up all of his seat and half of my seat! I paid for the whole seat, shouldn’t I get to use the whole seat!
I have been on plenty of flights and it takes a pretty big person to truly burst out both sides of the seat. It is funny how people seemed to have no problem fitting in airplanes in the 70′s and 80′s. Is this a weird part of human evolution that we are going to rapidly get fatter, or is it that people have just become extremely lazy?
You are exactly right that it comes down to entitlement. Just because you are large, the airlines and passengers should not have to accommodate you – You should have to accommodate us! Either pay for another seat or pay for personal trainer!
Side note: I believe that airlines should not only charge people for being large, but they should also ban people who stink! There is nothing worse than flying next to someone for four hours and having to smell their bad hygiene!