Dang what happened to that guy on the left! :P

Excellent photoshop, Charles.

I usually expect these types of posts from Dan... but props to you for being *somewhat* objective.

And now I can't get Ludacris out of my head.

So, what about the ones who need THREE seats? And both of those fatties are going to need a bulkhead aisle, as they won't fit in a regular row, but they fail the safety requirement that bulkhead passengers be able-bodied and able to help in an emergency. So, the safety of the other passengers is compromised to accomodate these people.

I hope these dudes don't have to use the bathroom.

Fatties who need three seats are to be boiled down for oil and ambergris.

doug@5 brings up a question i hadn't considered: are they gonna havta make those tiny closet bathrooms bigger to accommodate these people, too?

I thought those two usually got around on matching scooters.

If you were standing in line for the bathroom and saw one of these dudes come out... would you still go in?

I'd pass.

cant we just put them on palettes, shrink wrap em, and send them UPS?

Shouldn't those two be in the cargo hold of a supertanker?

Aw sweet. If I get two seats do I get two meals, too?

If this came to pass in the US (which it won't), I suspect the airlines would bolt down the armrests except in one or two rows, rename those rows "Comfort Plus", and charge double for sitting in them.

oh, come on you assholes, fat people are still people, and many of them are quite nice. don't be hatin.' you can disagree with this ruling and still be decent about it, can't you?

@8, hilarious.

On the other hand, I fly often, and those seats are hardly big enough for me, and I am skinny. Normally I don't have much sympathy for people who've let themselves go this far, but... one person one fare, period.

It's the airline's fault that they've turned airplanes into cattle transport. They underestimated the size of us American fat-asses. And as much as I support incentive to lose weight, there's no excuse to give breaks to the awful airline industry, just to get another chance to kick the fat kid around like we did in school.

Two words: urine bag.

@14:

Not easily.

@15:

What's next? Should they get twice the meals at the same price at a restaurant?

The airline sells transport. The cost of transporting someone who requires two seats is more than that of someone who requires one. In the US, airlines can (and do, at least for Southwest) charge more for passengers who consume more.

Unless the courts set a standard at what point a person has to have two seats, airlines in Canada will do everything they can to cram an obese person into a single seat. I predict a new market for extra large shoe horns.

Here here, #14. Obesity is often be a disability resulting from a character flaw, but it still manifests as a disability.

It's socially unacceptable to mock people for any other disability, even if it's self-inflicted. I've never heard comments of this vitriol directed at people who are paralyzed because of their drunk-driving accident, or their snowboarding accident, or who suffer physical complications from STDs, or who can't complete physically exerting tasks because of their smoking history, or... point being. We all engage in various risky behaviors and sometimes there are physical consequences. Nobody else gets the abuse fat people get, though.

Supertanker cargo hold? Shrink-wrap for UPS? Boiled down for motherfucking oil? There are disgusting people in this thread, but the fatties aren't them.

I wonder if 2 skinny people can share a seat for 1 fare

Charles, I think you're missing a "bitch" in your song quote. Shouldn't it be:

"Move bitch, get out the way, get out the way, bitch, get out the way"

P.S. We're all potty-mouthed adults here on Slog. You don't need to use the asterisk.

20 FTW!

@20 since when is it socially unacceptable to mock smokers and throw them out in the rain. As a smoker I'm sure I get way more dirty looks and get told what I do is terrible than any obese person.

Once again, Canadians show they know what rights are while Americans line up and show their papers in their police state ...

Maybe I need to get that 2nd passport renewed ...

What a bullshit ruling. Once again, I still think the airlines should charge by the pound, traveler and their luggage combined.

i need 3 seats bcuz i have a misanthropic disability. i sit in the middle with an empty on either side.

stop oppressing me!

Just in time for "SeaFATTLE"!!!

If Canada wants to insist that what they're selling is a chance for a person to sit their ass in a plane, regardless of size, then this works. But it's their loss, giving up a seat to half of someone's ass rather than a whole second paying customer. @21 has a good point.

The fact is that the airlines don't run their planes as they would transporting cargo, or we wouldn't get food & drinks during the flight, or pillows or blankets, or all the other amenities that must weigh something. My gut reaction is to get pissed off about this ruling, believing that the obese people are getting something for free, but then I remember that it doesn't affect me. It's not my business. Either I buy my own ticket and get my own seat (preferably not having to share it with half an ass), or the flight fills with one less passenger in the count due to someone bringing enough body mass for two.

@24: Uh, no, I promise you, you don't. Unless you're doing it in the faces of people, in which case you might deserve it.

Just to put this in perspective: I'm 300 lbs, which is pretty darn fat, and I manage to wedge myself into airline seats. I sometimes need the extra seatbelt extension but I can do it. There are not a lot of people who are dramatically fatter than me, and I bet most of them don't fly very often. Agree or don't, but this ruling is not going to have a significant impact on the operating cost of any airline.

I was squeezed between two large passengers with a baby on my lap. What a shitty flight! I had to sit forward with my hips slanted and my body turned for the whole flight. Uggghhhh.....Thank God it was only 45 minutes! They should have two seats if they need it so that other passengers do not suffer as a consequence, it is a service that the airline should provide for the benefit of all passengers. They may get two seats for the price of one but they do not have the pleasure of kind company, that is for sure after reading this blog. What if they are gay and fat? Should they get a free seat then? Judge not lest ye be judged. Maybe being fat wasn't a lifestyle choice for them and they were born that way. Whatever the case it certainly shouldn't be the business of others. Do you frequently see obese people marching smugly about, proud of their choices, happy to pull one over and get an extra seat on the plane? Support this and the next logical step is for adjustments to be made for tall people. Whats your problem folks?

@20:

We don't mock people who drive drunk? We should!

Are there any things people do for which they can be held personally responsible? Or are they all now "disabilities"?

Unless they're traveling to some sort of obesity surgery clinic than thats some bullshit. If they can afford to super size that #6 meal than they can afford to supersize their plane ticket.

Next you're gonna tell us that we can't mock retards.

Judgmental, much?

Airlines should charge for seats and baggage by weight.

I see most people standing up for this don't see the underlying issue; They are taking up possible revenue created by having another person sit in the space they occupy. Think about it; if someone consumed twice the amount of resources and only paid for half of it, would you think that's fair? since the fatties are taking up twice the amount of space they are keeping another customer out of that seat. That's lost revenue. It's ridiculous that you can't charge people more for consuming more of a limited resource.

Let's ponder some logistics for a second:

1. How wide do you need to be to justify having a double seat? I can see a lot of people that *want* an extra seat suddenly saying that they "need" one.

2. Would people get booted off the plane? If there is a full flight, and a bunch of people suddenly need to have two... who gets booked for the next flight?

which leads to:

3. When you book your reservation, are they going to ask the width of your ass?

@35 and others.
How do you go about booking a flight online in this case? And if you buy tickets in advance, then gain wait, what happens? Or if you wear an extra 10lbs of clothing? Or if the person's in a heavy wheelchair, or pregnant?

People aren't cargo... They should expand the seats to two seats per section, instead of three. Making the general public more comfortable, and eliminating the dreaded middle seat, as well as allowing fat people a little more room. Isn't this the obvious answer?

Either that, or they should just acknowledge what they've actually been doing and go for the slave ship model... lying us down end-to-end in hundreds of rows, and jettisoning the sick or disruptive.

I take one seat, I pay for one seat.

You take to seats, you pay for two seats.

Seems simple enough. And not discriminatory towards anybody. You PAY for what you GET.

Aw come on, it's pretty simple. Companies make accommodations for people in wheelchairs and such, making accommodations for the extremely obese isn't much different. When you buy a plane ticket (or show ticket, or pretty much anything else) there's a checkbox asking "do you require special accommodations?"

@38:
"if you buy tickets in advance, then gain wait [sic]" then you pay the difference at ticketing check-in. Same thing if you weigh less, you get a proportional refund.

Re: "Or if you wear an extra 10lbs of clothing? Or if the person's in a heavy wheelchair, or pregnant?" Easy: you pay for the more weight you bring onto the plane. Don't wear heavy clothes. Pay the fair share for your cargo (wheelchair) and all parasites you bring on board.

Airlines already have two seats per section: it's called business class and you PAY MORE FOR IT!!!

@38:

If you want a wider seat, you can pay more for one. The option is there.

Me, I'd rather save my money and sit still for a couple of hours. It's not that hard. The notion that society should compel airlines to force their customers to pay for first class tickets is idiotic and would make the airlines even less profitable than they already are.

@40:

One problem with this equivalence is that, with respect to obesity, there is potentially some fault associated. We assume everyone does due diligance in trying to avoid being weelchair bound (though perhaps this assumption is a bad one--think of bungee jumpers)--but are overeaters responsible for their weights.

Another problem is that it seems not to cast doubt on the notion that customers should pay for what they use so much as it does upon the ADA. If theater seats are an expensive and limited resource, should, say, someone with a broken leg pay for two?

Alternately: should obese people receive more food for the same amount of money at a restaurant? What's the difference between that example and the theater one?

@41, No!

How is it that people think that being gay is a choice but becoming obese is not?

We live in a twisted society.

Dan@42, who cares whose fault it is? It's partially a lot of handicapped people's fault that they're handicapped (accidents while doing something dangerous, untreated diseases, etc). The ADA and I'm sure the Canadian equivalent don't require that you had no fault in your disability.

The difference with food in a restaurant is that being obese doesn't mean you have to eat twice the dinner at a restaurant. If you fly on a commercial airplane or sit in a movie theater without other accommodations, you have to use two seats. Companies need to make "reasonable accommodations." Extra-obese people can't use go-karts even with accommodations, so go-kart tracks are exempt. It's easy for airlines, so they're not exempt.

Oh no all the thin people in Canada are being ripped off now. Oh what will we do?

Who cares? If you think that obese people are getting treated too nicely, just continue to Slog away.

Dan I don't know why you bother, it obvious you have some kind of hatred for fat people and your mind won't be changed, just like the Mormon’s who don't want you to get married.

@44,

Except for a small number of people who disagree, our society has the very clear opinion that fat people are fat by choice.

If this be so than I call for a clause that requires the obese traveler to serve as a "mule" to any poor, skinny and desperate traveler willing to take such "accomadations," at let's say, a third of a regular fare. Not saying body cavity per se, but maybe boob flap or between the third and fourth chin.

@40:

But they don't, as a rule, CHARGE YOU EXTRA for the accommodations. As someone who traveled extensively with a wheelchair-bound traveler I can tell you this. We were often upgraded to first class free because it meant less stress for the chair user. But had they required us to pay more, we would have (he wasn't obese, just disabled)

Again...you take two seats, you pay for two seats. What's not clear here?

This ruling doesn't apply to all large persons; just those "functionally disabled" by obesity. I assume that means persons who have serious mobility issues related to obesity. Your basic potato-chip-eater isn't going to qualify. I'd assume you'd have to have some kind of medical certification to present to the airline to qualify for the two-seats-for-one discount.

@45:

My point was that society might wish to distinguish between at fault and not at fault cases. Then again, it might not.

So let's assume I'm a stranger from another country and I don't know anything about the ADA. Explain to me why, on a full flight (that is, on a flight where, to give the obese/handicapped individual an extra seat, the airline must give up revenue), the airline should be forced to do so?

If the government wishes to use tax dollars to subsidize this, then it would seem reasonable: if society wishes to require the airline to treat all passengers equally, it must also bear the cost.

What makes no sense to me is the notion that society can require the airline to accommodate all passengers and require the airline to pay for it. A passengers who requires two seats on a full flight is costing the airline twice a regular passenger. Yet society is saying, "This is the cost of doing business in such a market" and, indirectly, saying to the other passengers, "this is the cost of consuming something that costs more to serve to handicapped people."

Why should the airline--and the other passengers--bear the cost of this? If society wants to require this, society can pay for it. What part of my choosing to fly on a plane can be interpreted as my taking responsibility for the cost of others choosing to fly on a plane?

Sorry if that's a bit incoherent. It's late and I had that drink on an empty stomach.

I hate flying in or out of Houston - Jesus, what a fat town. My last flight there I showed up at my row to find my seat was between two 300 pounders.

I rechecked my boarding pass and said, "You've got to be fucking kidding." One of them gave me a big Texas smile and said, "Suck it up!" My armrests were their fat rolls. They didn't seem to mind.

Maybe the airlines could save money by pairing up the too fat ones and giving them three seats.

I'm scrawny with poor circulation, and cold most of the time in winter. It's a disability! I demand that the Gas & Electric company give me cheaper rates than they do for more "insulated" folks, so that I can heat my house to be at the same body temperature as are those others. If I have to subsidize their airline seats, they should subsidize my heating bills! Fair's fair!

Airlines giving people two seats for the price of one won't affect me in any financial way. It's not going to make a huge difference in ticket prices. It will, however, mean that airlines work as hard as they can to cram each person into one seat which absolutely sucks for the people next to the cramees. If an airline wants to "accommodate" a wide person by giving them half of my seat, I propose that they "accommodate" my claustrophobia by giving me a complimentary Xanax with my $2 soft drink.

um, i have a disability that i like to smoke cigarettes. the courts can make them let me do that on a plane too, right?

Do I qualify for two seats because I have a wide stance?

@55: Sure--you can have the whole wing to yourself.

I'd much rather an obese person being given two seats than sit next to an obese person who is forced to squeeze into one. More room for him/her means more room for me. This benefits all airline customers by giving everyone a little more space.

It is right to treat it like any other disability. You wouldn't be resentful of a person who had to have an extra seat for medical equipment. Yes it's going to cost airlines a small (TINY) amount of money, but who cares about the fucking airlines?

But I do think that people with B.O. or perfume should have to buy out half the airplane.

God damn, Dan, for someone who purports to be some kind of expert on oppression you really need to get a fucking clue. Your H8 blinds you completely. You are simply unreasonable and unwilling to think beyond your own asshole. It is completely disgraceful and disappointing. You have quite a lot in common with the fag haters out there. Congrats!