Update: November 16, 2018
A man says he is suing British Airways because he suffers back pain after sitting next to an obese man. It’s an issue that comes up every now and then, and I have a pony in this race. Here’s what I wrote then, and I still stand by.
According to a news website many of my friends say I shouldn’t read, Professor Dame Sally Davies, the Chief Medical Officer of the United Kingdom, has suggested that fat people be forced to pay more for their airline tickets.
This viewpoint is supported, on the same website, by Julia Stephenson, who says: “I just hate being plonked next to someone who – how shall I put it? – is a little too large for their seat.”
As a fat person who flies quite a lot, I have a fairly strong opinion about this. Firstly, I’m tempted to say that judgemental people like Dame Sally Davies and Julia Stephenson should be required to pay more for their airline tickets because there is a danger that they might start spouting their opinions to an unsuspecting neighbour. But I won’t say that because it wouldn’t be nice.
What I will say is that, for better of worse, people are getting bigger yet airlines are doing all they can to squeeze more of us on to a plane by providing smaller seats that are closer together. If seats were the same width and distance apart they were 20 years ago, there would be less of a problem.
Personally, for my own comfort, I try as often as possible to fly premium economy or business class, but this is expensive — more expensive, indeed, than it ought to be compared to the size of an economy-class seat.
If, for example, a premium economy seat is half as wide again than an economy seat (although they generally are not) and maybe there’s a little more leg room, then the airline would be justified in charging 150 per cent to 200pc of the price. And, if they did, I’d snap that up.
