The other day at work we where discussing fat people on planes. Like if you are huge, should you pay for two seats? Of course there was someone there who said that to demand them (really, really fat people) to pay for two seats was discriminating and wrong. That person has obviously not sat next to a fat person on a plane, ever.
I’m not very skinny myself, in fact, i am what you would call “a bit round” and so on, but i damn fit in on my own airplane seat, not flowing over to someone else’s! When I flew home from Sweden I hade to take two planes. The first trip was 40min and in quite a small plane without set seats. Which meant that people could sit down wherever. Which meant that I, happy as a bird, sat myself on one of the seats next to the window (the plane only had rows of two seats on either side of the aisle). And who do you think comes and sit down next to me? The fattest person I have ever seen. Kind of. Which meant that for the 40min that was supposed to go like a breeze, I was stuck, pressed against the wall, only taking up half my seat because the other half was taken by the man sitting next to me! And of course the plane was a bit delayed so I had to sit like that for a bit more than an hour. Hurrah…
Anyway. We were discussing (at work) back and forth and some people seemed to be shocked when I say that I think that a really fat person has to book two seats on the plane. If that person then might get some sort of fatty discount, fine, that seems fair enough, but don’t book ONE seat when you know you’re too fucking big for it! Seriously. Because I have paid for ONE WHOLE SEAT. And If I only get to sit on half that seat, I should only pay half on the ticket for the trip. THATS fair enough to be honest.
When I finally reached my UK flight, I flew with BA (lots of legroom) sitting next to a skinny gay man reading “Attitude”, thank god for that! Plus I got his copy of Attitude later on, which was cool. Had a very interesting interview with Daniel Radcliffe. For you who don’t know this, “Attitude” is a magazine for gay men. But I must say that it was a long time ago since I’ve read something so well written and funny and engaging. Gay mags is the future for the mags business, must be!
Cheers
P