Is This Seat Taken? Debating Extra Charges for Large Airline Passengers
December 3, Michelle Higgins, NY Times
Should overweight passengers pay extra to fly?
That’s the debate stemming from a photo of an extremely large passenger that was posted on the aviation Web site Flightglobal.com. The photograph shows an obese passenger spilling out of his seat and into the aisle. According to the blog, Unusual Attitude, which is hosted by the site, the photograph was taken by an American Airlines flight attendant to show her manager what was happening on the aircraft.
Although it was posted on the blog last month, ABCNews.com, the New York Post and New York Daily News have since picked up the photo and blog post.
More than 100 readers posted comments to the initial story, some expressing sympathy for the overweight passenger, others for the seatmate, still others for flight attendants.
One reader, Chris, who said he knew the flight attendant who snapped the photo, said the person in the middle seat was given a travel voucher and first-class upgrade on the next available flight.
Another reader, identified as “mad,” claimed to know the overweight man in the photo. “Yes, he is overweight — diabetes and obesity runs strong in his family,” the reader wrote. “However, he almost always pays extra to fly first class.”
Questions have also been raised about whether the photo is real. Fake or not, it is a heated topic, especially as airlines cut capacity. Earlier this year United began charging overweight passengers for an extra seat, joining Southwest Airlines and others will similar policies.
American Airlines told ABCNews.com that it could not verify the authenticity of the photograph. The airline “tries to be flexible for passengers of size” and handles each situation on a case-by-case basis, Tim Smith, an American spokesman, told ABCNews.com.
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