The passenger says that on a U.S. Airways flight from Philadelphia to Anchorage, the airline seated him next to a passenger who weighed more than 400 pounds.
"His size required both armrests to be raised up and allowed for his body to cover half of my seat," the passenger tells [consumer advocate] Elliott.
He says he notified flight attendants right away, but while they were sympathetic and admitted that the gate agent should have required that the other passenger book a second seat, they could do nothing for him.
Writes the passenger of his situation:
'It did not allow me to use my seatbelt during takeoff and landing as well as required me to stand in the aisle and galley area for most of the seven-hour plus flight.'
The passenger later reported the incident to both the authorities and the airline, which eventually responded in an e-mail that apologized for his "regrettable" experience. He was offered a $200 voucher for his troubles, which the passenger says is less than 1/4 the price he paid for the ticket.
Even Elliott, who has been known to have some luck with getting airlines to sweeten their offers, was told quite bluntly that U.S. Airways "had made its last, best offer."
Neither he nor the passenger were able to get the airline to address the safety concerns of having someone standing in the aisles for an entire flight.
Anonymous B replied with this 15 years ago, 1 minute later, 6 minutes after the original post[^][v]#256,112
@previous (marvin !CaTLdYmooc)
That has never happened. Also, I believe they have a limit of how many tickets they can sell based on the amount of seats on the plane.
Falco !PZmcClOUDk joined in and replied with this 15 years ago, 11 seconds later, 6 minutes after the original post[^][v]#256,114