Not so Silent Bob and being to fat to Fly?

[Thanatos340 1]

So Silent Bob gets kicked off a plane for being too fat.

Southwest side of the story http://www.blogsouthwest.com/blog/not-so-silent-bob

Reading that I would agree with the airlines. Sorry, If you dont fit in one seat, You need two. Pay for it.

But then hearing Kevin Smiths side:
http://smodcast.com/
He makes a good case that he was screwed for no good reason. He usually buy 2 seats. He had two seats bought for his original flight. Got on stand by for an earlier flight that only had one seat. He took it. Then after he was seated (he claims he fit fine in the seat and could buckle the seat-belt without an extender and was not intruding into the neighboring seats) they came and kicked him off the Flight for being too fat.
Then after they put him on another flight, A Large girl sits in the same row as him (He paid two seats so the middle seat is open) and they pull her out.

Can definitely see both sides of this one but bottom line is southwest handled it like shit in my opinion.

[quade 4]

I watched the final Conan O'Brien show. In that show Conan made a speech that said people shouldn't be cynical; that nothing good ever comes from going down that path.

Also, don't get me wrong, I love the Smith's work and think he's funny as hell.

That said, Smith has a film coming out in a week and a half.

Hmmm...

I'm not suggesting he created a scene simply to boost the buzz, but it certainly does seem coincidental that he's getting all this free publicity. Maybe he saw an opportunity and decided to use it.

quade -
The World's Most Boring Skydiver

[futuredivot 0]

He only wishes he was 2fat2fly. That was one smart, funny son of a bitch.

You are only as strong as the prey you devour

[NickDG 23]

I think there's a third angle. The population is getting larger and larger, so how long before the airlines start accepting that fact and begin making seats bigger overall. This situation probably happens a lot but doesn't always hit the news. Heck, I'm smaller than the FAA's mythical average sized person and the seats (in coach) are already uncomfortably small even for me.

NickD

[riddler 0]

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so how long before the airlines start accepting that fact and begin making seats bigger overall.

I think it's an insidious plot. The airlines don't care if fat people crowd us out of our seats and drip sweat on us. They never did.

They just care about the weight. Now that they're all charging for checked bags, they're looking for ways to charge per pound of flesh. Southwest is the last holdout in the two-free bags category - that's the only reason they are policing the fat people.

And we can't really make jokes about Silent Bob being fat, because Jay already did the good ones.

Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

[happythoughts 0]

Pet Peeve.

Last week, I went to a seminar. To maximize occupancy,
the seats were side by side.

The width of the seats is a lot smaller than the
size of the average adults. I was sitting with my arms
folding for 2.5 hours. It was uncomfortable at the least.

For most of the men, their shoulders were wider than the seats.
I think that holds true for airline seats also.

[Bolas 5]

Just listened to the whole thing. He should have made them admit what the safety issue was before getting off the plane.

If they are going to remove someone if they don't meet certain size criteria, they need to be forced to admit it. None of this corporate BS speak.

If he could show he could buckle the belt and have the armrests down they had no right to remove him.

At the end of the podcast they talk about how the the airlines abuse their power. Until people stand up to them, it will keep happening and keep getting worse.

Stupidity if left untreated is self-correcting
If ya can't be good, look good, if that fails, make 'em laugh.

[stitch 0]

The story I got was he sat on George Lucas.

"No cookies for you"- GFD
"I don't think I like the sound of that" ~ MB65
Don't be a "Racer Hater"

[Tiger6513 0]

I agree, arm rests down and buckled (even w/ extender) person should be allowed. I would preffer them not be next to me however, I am a broad shouldered 210lb guy. My fat ass barely fits (uncomfortably) in those seats as is, but if they can tolerate a 3 hr flight feeling like a sardine more power to em. I just hate when fatties don't clean properly and they smell, thats grounds for giving them the boot lol.

Travis Roy Foundation. At very least its a tax write off

[Thanatos340 1]

I think they should have a Size-wise thing for both your Carry-on luggage and YOU before boarding the plane.

Make the boarding door the same width as the seats for that plane. If this was a requirement, The airlines would have to put in bigger seats otherwise they would loose too much business.

[Squeak 17]

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I think they should have a Size-wise thing for both your Carry-on luggage and YOU before boarding the plane.

Make the boarding door the same width as the seats for that plane. If this was a requirement, The airlines would have to put in bigger seats otherwise they would loose too much business.

I have a similar idea, where all passengers are allowed a certain weight allowance for Bags, carry one and SELF.
e.g. 150kg total weight including all baggage if you a huge arse you get to take less shit. if ya small you can take more shit.

You are not now, nor will you ever be, good enough to not die in this sport (Sparky)
My Life ROCKS!
How's yours doing?

[SkyDekker 1,465]

He got himself fat, nobody else force fed him food. These are the consequences of not being able to control what you put in your mouth.

Whatever happened to personal responsibility?

[Niki1 2]

This doesn't address the current problem but an idea for the future.

The airlines should charge by the pound. Treat every thing as freight. The capacity of the plane is XXX. The cost of the fleight is YYY. Weigh everyone with all their bags. Do the math and that's how much your ticket is.

Also, some one needs to invent a new kind of seat. Maybe some kind of bench with sliding armrests and seat belts. You weigh so much, you get this much room.

Now remember. You heard it here first.

Most of the things worth doing in the world had been declared impossilbe before they were done.
Louis D Brandeis

Where are we going and why are we in this basket?

[futuredivot 0]

I'm a big mother fucker but I don't have any problems sitting in the seats or buckling the belt (no extender, fair amount of belt left over) but it there is an even close to average guy beside me, we can't both lean back at the same time because of our shoulders. Add that to everyone flying longer segments in RJ's instead of the 2 1/2 hours max that they were intended for. Makes for a lot more miles on my car than there would have been otherwise.

You are only as strong as the prey you devour

[Thanatos340 1]

Not a Bad idea but we are talking about two different area of Storage. The Overheads and the seats. The seats are a defined size. You either fit or you do not, How big your carry-on is not relevant to someone spilling over into your seat.

In the U.S. (Not sure about the rest of the world as I do not do much international Traveling) they have a Rectangular Metal Frame at every boarding door and a sign that says basically your Carry on should fit in this box else it is too big. (I wish they did a better job of enforcing this).

Do the same for the passengers. Either you fit or you do not. If not, Buy two seats or you cant fly.

I agree that the seats are too small. The way to address that problem is to make it no longer profitable to have tiny seats. Mandatory Size-wise Door that matches the width of the seats to board an airplane.
If the airlines cant fill the tiny seats (because most people don't fit in them) then they will have to put in seats that people fit in. Seems like a simple solution to me.

[Bolas 5]

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He got himself fat, nobody else force fed him food. These are the consequences of not being able to control what you put in your mouth.

Whatever happened to personal responsibility?

The issue is less about personal responsibilitiy versus corporate BS IMO.

If they have set policies, they should be enforced uniformly.

The part that bothered me the most was them not just saying it was a weight or his size issue.

Had they said "Sir, we have a weight and balance issue and as there are no other seats available and you were standby, we have to ask you deplane."

Stupidity if left untreated is self-correcting
If ya can't be good, look good, if that fails, make 'em laugh.

[Bolas 5]

Quote

I'm a big mother fucker but I don't have any problems sitting in the seats or buckling the belt (no extender, fair amount of belt left over) but it there is an even close to average guy beside me, we can't both lean back at the same time because of our shoulders. Add that to everyone flying longer segments in RJ's instead of the 2 1/2 hours max that they were intended for. Makes for a lot more miles on my car than there would have been otherwise.

I hate CRJs... Not only are they cramped, they have really thin padding on the seats too.

I flew first class back from a trip and one segment was on a CRJ. The first class seats suck just as bad.

Stupidity if left untreated is self-correcting
If ya can't be good, look good, if that fails, make 'em laugh.

[skymama 37]

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The airlines should charge by the pound.

Then tall people would say they're being discriminated against. What are they supposed to do to lose weight, cut their legs off at the knees?

She is Da Man, and you better not mess with Da Man,
because she will lay some keepdown on you faster than, well, really fast. ~Billvon

[SkyDekker 1,465]

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The issue is less about personal responsibilitiy versus corporate BS IMO.

If they have set policies, they should be enforced uniformly.

Their company, they can do whatever they want as far as I am concerned. (And people are free not to fly with them)

The problem isn't the companies wanting to make more money (Last time I checked that whole industry really isn't doing the greatest), but people demanding ultra cheap flights.

This guy knew he was too fat to fit in one seat. When he requested stand by, he should have ensured there were two seats for him and when told only one seat was available he should have declined.

[Bolas 5]

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Quote

The issue is less about personal responsibilitiy versus corporate BS IMO.

If they have set policies, they should be enforced uniformly.

Their company, they can do whatever they want as far as I am concerned. (And people are free not to fly with them)

The problem isn't the companies wanting to make more money (Last time I checked that whole industry really isn't doing the greatest), but people demanding ultra cheap flights.

This guy knew he was too fat to fit in one seat. When he requested stand by, he should have ensured there were two seats for him and when told only one seat was available he should have declined.

I agree they can do whatever they want, but they have to actually admit to doing it, not dance around it like they did in this case.

The airline industry is having more issues with customer service and complaints. Rather than be straight with us and raise flight prices, or consolidate their backend systems to allow them to be more efficient, they charge fees for damn near everything which makes it almost impossible to succesfully comparison shop.

Separate rant: Why haven't the travel sites been able to incorporate these fees into their prices yet?

Stupidity if left untreated is self-correcting
If ya can't be good, look good, if that fails, make 'em laugh.

[futuredivot 0]

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Why haven't the travel sites been able to incorporate these fees into their prices yet?

Well, you are talking about the people that couldn't understand why I wanted me round trip ticket to end up at the same airport that I had originally left from

You are only as strong as the prey you devour

[AndyBoyd 0]

This is a tough situation sometimes. I am not a big guy -- 5'6'', about 150 pounds -- so I fit just fine into airplane seats. Twice on flights from Chicago to Phoenix very large persons have sat down next to me. Both times, they were spilling over into my seat to the point where I could not sit without leaning well into the aisle. A flight attendant found me another seat once, but the other time the flight was full. I spent virtually the entire flight standing in the aisle while my seat-mate took up half of the seat I paid for. The flight attendants just shrugged their shoulders. It was infuriating. But I don't know what the solution is. Maybe the airlines should require people of a certain size to buy two tickets. Throwing people off planes seems harsh. But it is very unfair to customers like me to be forced to stand for an entire flight so an extremely overweight person can be comfortable. The airlines need to take a long hard look at this problem and find a fair solution.

[billvon 3,109]

>Then tall people would say they're being discriminated against.

They are, but it's not unfair; it takes more fuel to carry more weight. It's like the discrimination against short people on some rides. It's not because the amusement park hates short people, it's that the ride cannot safely handle them.

The objective should not be to reward people for losing weight via preferential pricing for airline seats. The objective should be to get people safely across the country, with each person paying for the service they receive (even if it costs more to move them.)

[Niki1 2]

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The airlines should charge by the pound.

Then tall people would say they're being discriminated against. What are they supposed to do to lose weight, cut their legs off at the knees?

Those basketball players can afford it. The taller people are the wider they are.

This "Silent Bob" guy had bought 2 seats to start with. His stand-by should've been for 2 seats. Was he going to get a refund for going stand-by in just 1 seat? If not, the airline messed up. They would've made more money letting use the 1 seat and keeping the money for the other one.

Most of the things worth doing in the world had been declared impossilbe before they were done.
Louis D Brandeis

Where are we going and why are we in this basket?

[lauraliscious 0]

I swear, I opened this thread fully expecting it to be about PsychoBob and 2fat2fly. I miss those guys!

Enemiga Rodriguez, PMS #369, OrFun #25, Team Dirty Sanchez #116, Pelt Head #29, Muff #4091