Recently on a flight to Denver I sat next to a morbidly obese lady. She was so large that when I got into my seat and put the armrest down I hear her say "Oh, great". When she couldn't squeeze into her seat she asked if I could put it back up and I did as I didn't want to be rude. She asked the flight attendant if she could move to an empty row at the front of the plane but could not as the attendant explained that was "economy plus" and would cost her extra. So for the duration of the flight I had this lady taking up a quarter of my seat as she was pushed up against me and then complain that the airline wanted to charge her extra to move into a higher class of ticket.

As I say this I am not judging her or anyone else... sometimes people are overweight due to medical conditions, sometimes it's metabolism and with others it is due to an unhealthy balance of diet and lack of exercise. Personally I carry about 30 lbs. too much (down from 55 lbs. too much) and had I gained even more weight this could have applied to me. However I have no problem fitting into a standard airline seat and am not squished in when the armrests come down.

I realize this will seem insensitive and might be unpopular but I think if you can't fit into a standard airline seat you should have to pay for 2... unless the row is empty. The point is that I paid for a full seat and should be able to sit with the armrest down. Even most people 60 lbs. overweight can fit in a standard airline seat with the armrest down so you have to be very obese to have this effect you. While it might not seem fair remember that having to have the armrest up will mean that the passenger in the next seat suffers as a result. If I wanted to be a stickler I should have demanded a discount from the airline for not being able to sit comfortably in my own seat.

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