Heavy Lady Tries to Take Half of Girl’s Seat

September 13, 2015

in Portly Stories

I was flying alone from Orlando back home to Phoenix. I got my window seat that I paid extra for (or should I say my company paid extra for) and sat down. A few minutes later, some girl about 14 comes up and is the most polite thing ever. She asks to switch seats so she could have the window. It was her first time flying alone and she wanted a window seat. She promised that she wasn’t going to get up from her seat ever and, “Please? Please? Please?” She was too polite, so I agreed and I took the middle seat. And down the armrests went.

Then some 300+ pound woman comes down the aisle and goes to take the aisle seat. She reaches for the armrest to raise it up, but I held fast onto it. Then she asked, “Why does the girl have the window seat?” She goes on that she specifically worked with the flight counter people to get the seat next to the girl so she could raise the armrest up and take half the girl’s seat because, “She won’t need all that space.”

Then the woman tries to convince me to switch back with the girl. I refused and held onto that armrest. So the woman gave me a few choice words and goes to sit down and had to squeeze into her seat. The armrest swayed a little bit, but it held.

The 14-year-old girl and I had a pleasant conversation about flying and she was just too polite. She talked about Star Trek to pass the time. She even went so far as to bring up the YouTube video of the Klingon captain from Star Trek III saying, “Emergency power! To the thrusters!”

After we landed, when getting off, the 300+ pound woman had to grab the seat in front of her and pull as hard as she could to get herself out of the seat.

The morals of the story are: Politeness will get you everything. And buy two seats if you need them.

{ 19 comments… read them below or add one }

Conway September 15, 2015 at 12:20 pm

Cool story! Thanks for sharing.

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mensa58 September 15, 2015 at 1:33 pm

Good for you. No way would that poor girl have stuck to her guns like you did, she'd have been squashed by that rude woman.

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RedHead0186 September 15, 2015 at 2:35 pm

I would hope that no airline counter worker would deliberately manipulate seating assignments to put a larger person next to someone who (they assume) won't take up all the space. So I really hope the woman is lying on that part, but either way, she had a really poor attitude.

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Jim Smythee September 16, 2015 at 9:39 am

One small thing to add. The girl plays the "emergency power to the thrusters!" video as the woman was trying to pull up on the seat in front of her to get out.

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Jodi September 16, 2015 at 3:18 pm

I think it is wrong to make fun of people simply because they are heavy. But it is also very wrong for a heavy person to expect someone else to give up their seat. I, like most women, struggle with my weight and I am very conscious of how big or small I am at any given time. Now, I have never been big enough to take up 2 seats, sorry my ego wouldn't let me let you think I was ever that big, but if I was that large, I would buy two seats. Simple as that. You know how large you are and if you cannot fit in the seat in your car, you know you need two seats on an airplane. Anything else is just RUDE!

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Deisy October 8, 2015 at 4:26 pm

We are about 3.5 billion ladies on this planet, and – mostly – we are NOT struggling with our weight. Get real!

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Bill October 12, 2015 at 10:34 am

Seriously? That was the best thing you could come up with to troll about!?!

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madachode September 21, 2015 at 11:56 am

you should have started a conversation with the young girl regarding healthy lifestyles and good choices and those that do not follow are a burden on society. Awesome story though and good for you , sticking to your instinct and not letting an obese person think they are due unique provisions for the poor choices that they continue to make.

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RedHead0186 September 21, 2015 at 12:09 pm

Assuming the person's obesity is due to poor choices isn't fair. It's entirely likely she put herself in that position, but there are medical conditions that could be a factor. Her behavior was not good either way, but it's not fair to make snap assumptions about her, either.

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saffie November 30, 2015 at 9:02 am

Yep, but rudeness isn't medical.

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RedHead0186 December 1, 2015 at 1:11 pm

No, it's certainly not. I was replying to madachode's point about talking to the girl regarding healthy lifestyle choices. That presumes that the girl wasn't already making healthy lifestyle choices, hence my point that her obesity might be beyond her control. She was rude, 100%, but making assumptions about why she was obese isn't good; we don't know her health history.

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James November 13, 2015 at 11:05 am

What is the secret to getting a boarding pass on spirit airlines web site.

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@Col_Reb_Sez December 2, 2015 at 2:02 am

Someone should report the gate agent for child abuse. She had no right to permit an obese woman to sit on a 14-year-old child.

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Aquarius Moon December 3, 2015 at 3:47 am

What an awful woman, thinking she's entitled to half of the young girl's seat. Her attitude sucks.

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@bassassin January 11, 2016 at 5:31 am

Good on you for standing up for the young lady who will remember that flight for all the right reasons. Lovely (probably not the right word) story.

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Howie Feltersnatch January 30, 2016 at 2:05 pm

They make cargo containers for livestock so the blob could rent one of those. To counter anyone who thinks she may have had a medical condition lets just say her obesity was caused by her "glands" or perhaps she was simply "big boned". That B.S. might have gone over in the 70's or further back but today we understand morbid obesity is caused by too high a calorie intake and zero or near zero exercise. Medical issues account for such a minuscule percentage of obesity cases that it is nearly unheard of and almost always involve side effects from prescription drugs, which again, is countered by proper diet and exercise. No excuses. Airlines need to screen passengers the same way they screen carry on bags, if you don,t fit in the demonstrator seat then you either buy another ticket/seat or you don't fly,period.

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Lizabeth Manns January 15, 2017 at 8:18 pm

I agree with the idea of screening. That's an excellent suggestion. I used to fly fairly often but my last flight smushed between TWO big people, one on either side, ruined me forever on air travel. I couldn't move my head or my legs and arms,it was just ghastly. I won't fly any more after that experience, it isn't worth it. I would rather drive.

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Andrew Beagle January 8, 2017 at 1:58 pm

This story never happened

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Jean June 16, 2018 at 5:18 am

I see that the commentary has moved from rudeness to fatness. Issues like obesity are better addressed by skipping the self-righteous moralizing. Just because someone is skinny doesn't automatically mean they are making "healthy lifestyle choices," a phrase I have come to loathe. That being said, if I were over a certain size I would probably buy two seats, for my own comfort and that of others.

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