Obese Passenger Causes Flight Refund
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"A woman has been given a full refund after being forced to squeeze into her plane seat next to an obese woman.
Janet Ogilvie boarded a flight from Halifax to Ottawa in Canada last month when she found the overweight woman sitting in the window seat and about half of Ms Ogilvie's aisle seat, the Ottawa Citizen has reported.
"She figures the woman's spine was where the middle armrest comes down when in use. The woman also needed a belt extender to be able to buckle up," according to the media report.
"The plane was full, flight attendants told her. So Ogilvie . . . wedged herself into the 10 inches (25cm) that remained of her seat.
"The one-hour 45-minute flight to Ottawa was brutally uncomfortable, though Ogilvie didn't say anything to the woman for fear of embarrassing her. Ogilvie's right hip became her rear end."
Ms Ogilvie said she was "pressed up tight against her for the whole flight".
Ms Ogilvie later complained to Porter Airlines, but received "a tepid apology at best".
"She was told politely she could forget about a refund," the Ottawa Citizen said.
"Giving a second seat at no cost to people with disabilities is what Air Canada, including its regional carrier, Air Canada Jazz, and WestJet are already required to do by the Canadian Transport Agency.
"The three airlines must give disabled passengers - including those who need a companion to travel with or are declared by their doctors to be too large to fit in a single seat - two seats for the price of one on all domestic flights."
The one-person, one-fare policy was introduced in 2008 after a joint complaint to the agency from three people involving the two major airlines, the Ottawa Citizen said.
"According to an email sent Monday to Ogilvie from Robert Deluce, Porter's president and chief executive, the airline is following the same policy to some degree," according to the media report.
"Writes Deluce to Ogilvie: 'Porter, will . . . if given sufficient notice and medical confirmation, offer obese passengers a second seat gratis in an effort to mitigate a situation as the one experienced by you. Regrettably, however, not only was your flight at capacity, but also the passenger seated in 9A did not alert us to (her) condition prior to flight time. As your safety was considered not at risk, we proceeded as scheduled.'
"Deluce's explanation is misleading. While the airlines actually affected by the CTA order will supply a second seat for free to an obese passenger who has a doctor's certification, carriers can refuse to accommodate those who just show up at the airport without giving prior notice."http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/-/world/8208240/obese-passenger-causes-flight-refund/
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I guess it's not so funny if you're the one being squeezed out of your seat. It happened to me once on a flight back to SG. I had the window seat and the lady spilled over into my seat and leg space. For the next six hours or so, I was imprisoned in my tiny little corner and I felt so claustrophobic, I wanted to scream.
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Originally posted by Rhonda:
"As your safety was considered not at risk, we proceeded as scheduled."
That's right, your safety is not at risk until the aircraft encounters an emergency situation which causes it to crash-land, and in your haste to evacuate the burning and smoke-filled cabin, you find your path obstructed by said fatty who has fallen and can't get up. -
Originally posted by Meia Gisborn:
That's right, your safety is not at risk until the aircraft encounters an emergency situation which causes it to crash-land, and in your haste to evacuate the burning and smoke-filled cabin, you find your path obstructed by said fatty who has fallen and can't get up.
Haven't thought of that scenario yet but yeah, come to think of it, you have a point there. BTW, isn't there a chance that if too many undeclared morbidly obese passengers board the same flight, won't the weight limits be breached and take-off for the plane becomes hazardous
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the passenger in front of me, put his pillow and blanket under his seat (my leg space). he supposed to be below the front seat, where his leg space is.. so he thought he got leg space for himself while selfishly hog mine!
i tulan kicked it to the isle and step on his pillow.. he lan lan picks it up and put back at his rightful place and he has no pillow for the entire trip..
hehehe...
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Originally posted by LOTUSfairy:
the passenger in front of me, put his pillow and blanket under his seat (suppose to be below the front seat, where his leg space is).. so he got leg space for himself while selfishly hog mine!
i tulan kicked it to the isle and step on his pillow.. he lan lan picks it up and put back at his rightful place and he has no pillow for the entire trip..
hehehe...
Fwah! Didn't know you can be so fierce one!
But serves him right for being selfish. -
i think that was his 1st flight, we were sitting at the isle seat at the centre, he literally stretch his neck to try to see if he could see thru any window at least 2.5 metres away.!
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Originally posted by Meia Gisborn:
That's right, your safety is not at risk until the aircraft encounters an emergency situation which causes it to crash-land, and in your haste to evacuate the burning and smoke-filled cabin, you find your path obstructed by said fatty who has fallen and can't get up.
then the passenger should pay for 1/2 price only!.. she had only "limited" space..mispresentation... advertisement says spacious and good services?
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Originally posted by LOTUSfairy:
i think that was his 1st flight, we were sitting at the isle seat at the centre, he literally stretch his neck to try to see if he could see thru any window at least 2.5 metres away.!
In that case, since he was a flight virgin, you should have just tapped his shoulder and told him to put his pillow, etc at the right place. Maybe he didn't know and thought that you were some crazy lady who stomped on his pillow out of malice and out of fear of what you might do next, didn't confront you about it.
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Originally posted by Rhonda:
In that case, since he was a flight virgin, you should have just tapped his shoulder and told him to put his pillow, etc at the right place. Maybe he didn't know and thought that you were some crazy lady who stomped on his pillow out of malice and out of fear of what you might do next, didn't confront you about it.
his partner (another guy) obviously saw it and bor chap... he knew it...cos they both saw me looking at his stuff and giving him the look and warning...he spoke something to his partner and din bother about it..
so i decided to kick his stuff out of my leg room :)
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Originally posted by LOTUSfairy:
his partner (another guy) obviously saw it and bor chap... he knew it...cos they both saw me looking at his stuff and giving him the look and warning...he spoke something to his partner and din bother about it..
so i decided to kick his stuff out of my leg room :)
Good that you can't be bullied! -
I tot you can always ask for a window seat when checking in and confirming seats?
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Originally posted by Rhonda: Haven't thought of that scenario yet but yeah, come to think of it, you have a point there.
BTW, isn't there a chance that if too many undeclared morbidly obese passengers board the same flight, won't the weight limits be breached and take-off for the plane becomes hazardous
All commercial aircraft, at least in the US, use standard weights for passengers and baggage. These weights vary among airlines, but I recall a friend who flies for Delta (ex Northwest) telling me that the references used in weight and balance calculations for a 757 are 180 lbs. per passenger in summer and 185 lbs. in winter, with bags figured in at 25 lbs. per passenger for domestic flights and 35 lbs. for international flights. I would imagine that one or two morbidly obese passengers wouldn't skew the average much, but an entire planeload of fatties might be a different story.Aircraft also have to be loaded to maintain a center of gravity within a certain range, lest the plane be difficult to fly or outright uncontrollable. That's the reason flight attendants occasionally reseat passengers on lightly loaded planes prior to takeoff.
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Originally posted by caleb_chiang:
I tot you can always ask for a window seat when checking in and confirming seats?
Most airlines will allow you to do that, if those seats are available. -
Originally posted by Meia Gisborn:
All commercial aircraft, at least in the US, use standard weights for passengers and baggage. These weights vary among airlines, but I recall a friend who flies for Delta (ex Northwest) telling me that the references used in weight and balance calculations for a 757 are 180 lbs. per passenger in summer and 185 lbs. in winter, with bags figured in at 25 lbs. per passenger for domestic flights and 35 lbs. for international flights. I would imagine that one or two morbidly obese passengers wouldn't skew the average much, but an entire planeload of fatties might be a different story.Aircraft also have to be loaded to maintain a center of gravity within a certain range, lest the plane be difficult to fly or outright uncontrollable. That's the reason flight attendants occasionally reseat passengers on lightly loaded planes prior to takeoff.
OIC! Wow... that was informative! Thanks, mate!
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Looks like challenging times for both the airlines and passengers who are not fat. One of my friends was complaining recently about sitting next to a woman whose fat was spilling over to his seat.
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oh come on guys....
Give us fatty a break....
Some of us are fat and it takes time to reduce it. It is just as uncomfortable for us to be squeezed into that small single seat at times.
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For the sake of humanity and climate change, we must impose Fat Tax !
Flights are expensive.... cause of the fat people. LoL!!
=x
More weight.. more fuel.
Or charge fares according to weight.
What say ye all!
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lanjiao!!!!!!
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Originally posted by BadzMaro:
For the sake of humanity and climate change, we must impose Fat Tax !
Flights are expensive.... cause of the fat people. LoL!!
=x
More weight.. more fuel.
Or charge fares according to weight.
What say ye all!
Fat Tax~~~
then does skinny ppl get tax rebate for being light???
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Never have an obese person sit behind you in Economy
The tub of lard was so fat I could not recline my seat.
And the tub of lard complained to the stewardess that I'm making her flight uncomfortable.
Thing was I was a blur student then and it was a Qantas flight so even if I hv legitimate reasons it was ignored (reason why to this date I refuse to fly with Qantas)
Now, I would have created a really nasty stink
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Originally posted by elindra:
Never have an obese person sit behind you in Economy
The tub of lard was so fat I could not recline my seat.
And the tub of lard complained to the stewardess that I'm making her flight uncomfortable.
Thing was I was a blur student then and it was a Qantas flight so even if I hv legitimate reasons it was ignored (reason why to this date I refuse to fly with Qantas)
Now, I would have created a really nasty stink
could you kindly elaborate how u make the person feel uncomfortable?
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Originally posted by Arapahoe:
could you kindly elaborate how u make the person feel uncomfortable?
Because I wanted to recline my seat and the tub of lard was like wedge in the seat behind me and when I tried to recline the seat a little she complained that I was making her feel uncomfortable
Than what about me!!!!
Fat ppl should just go buy a business class seat so that their butts can fit into the seats properly
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Haiz...i guess fat people like us are always ostracised when taking planes.....
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Originally posted by gasband:
Haiz...i guess fat people like us are always ostracised when taking planes.....
KNS la Ah Gas
You're not that fat.
You should see that blimp sitting behind me. Seriously I wonder how did she even squeeze into that seat. It's something that happened more than 10 yrs ago but I can still remember it clearly