A change.org petition from plus-sized activist and influencer Jaelynn Chaney demanding that the FAA require airlines to offer multiple seats for free to passengers who don’t fit into a standard seat is gaining thousands of signatures.
She reports that on a United Express regional jet flight from Pasco, Washington to Denver she was “subjected to hateful comments” which is sad, and she had just a single seat with immovable armrests on another flight which was very uncomfortable. And so she wants FAA action.
- Free extra seats. And anyone plus-sized who buys more than one seat should be refunded for it, with a simple online procedure.
All plus-size passengers should be provided with an extra free seat, or even two or three seats depending on their size, to accommodate their needs and ensure their comfort during the flight.
- Additional assistance and priority boarding. As well as “larger bathrooms, seat belt extenders, and alternative seating arrangements.” Generally widebody aircraft have a larger bathroom, while narrowbodies do not which is also a problem for some wheelchair-dependent passengers.
- Government-mandated customer service training “on how to accommodate plus-size travelers, including handling sensitive situations and providing appropriate customer service.”
I don’t think anyone is going to argue that airlines should emphasize customer service and not just movement from one point to another. Asking for a customer service mandate from the government, handly known for customer service, may not deliver results.
Beyond that there are two key points, I think. Airlines let you purchase an additional seat if you wish already. And this petition is for larger passengers to be given extra seats for free.
- That means, by the way, that on a full flight someone else wouldn’t be able to travel because they’re taking up more than one seat.
- And the airline would be required to offer this at a loss, giving up the revenue for that seat. This isn’t free, it’s costly. That’s easy to dismiss in the abstract (these are ‘billion dollar companies’ and it’s ‘just one passenger’) but doing this for every large passenger, in a country of larger passengers adds up – and the money comes out of the pockets of shareholders which really means all of us. Public companies are owned by mutual funds and retirement funds, like the retirement accounts of teachers and firefighters. That’s who you’re asking to pay for this.
Southwest Airlines has a generous policy where if a passenger of size purchases a second seat (as required, so they don’t take up the space and intrude on the rights of another passenger) and the flight winds up less than 100% full, the airline will refund that seat.
That still comes at a cost to the airline. The larger passenger may have taken up discounted inventory with that second seat, causing the airline to price remaining seats higher. They may still have lost a sale – indeed, the flight might not be full because that passenger purchased a second seat and the airline is giving back the revenue from that purchase. Speculative, but plausible enough that on an expected value basis this isn’t free to do but a kindness offered by the airline. Should even that be required though?
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these drugs were developed as diabetes drugs and there is no cure for diabetes but these drugs have been remarkably effective at reducing blood sugar by stimulating the release of insulin.
These drugs also have an effect of slowing gastric emptying which helps make one feel full longer.
It is precisely because they have been shown to be very effective in reducing weight loss via hunger suppression that there is likely some sort of longer term support needed. There is also abundant evidence that the return of hunger will occur if the medications are stopped suddenly. There are a growing number of people that have weaned off of these drugs so the notion that you have to stay on them long-term in order to maintain weight loss is simply not accurate.
Yes, the drugs promise to be very lucrative for their makers – the market is largely controlled by Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly – but the reason for both diabetes control and weight loss is because these drugs do what they are intended to do.
Someone noted that they had stomach banding in order to obtain weight loss. These drugs have been shown to lead to a 20% or greater loss at far lower cost than bariatric surgery.
Nobody is fat-shaming anyone – but there is medical help available for those that are obese. Obesity is costly in terms of health – and lower weight does mean less food consumption.
And if you throw in the extra cost of 2nd airplane seats – which should NOT be allowed at no cost for the reasons noted above including height – then the cost gets higher.
The introduction of Lasik was something of the same thing. It was costly at first but saves enormous amounts of money later in life.
As a personal trainer it amazes me that people feel entitled because they are overweight. There are so many healthy ways to lose weight, extend your life, and not impose on others who keep themselves in shape or want special treatment.
I’m 6’4′ and I need extra legroom when I fly, otherwise my knees are jammed against the seat in front of me. I currently pay for extra leg room. Should tall passengers demand extra legroom seats for ‘free’ from airlines? No.
I am tall, its not my fault I was born this way, can I get a petition signed for free business class seats?
“Free seats for plus sizes” is the exact same thing as many of other minorities are demanding the world accommodate them. “I have a peanut allergy” therefore NO ONE can eat peanuts on the plane. “I must bring my support pig on the airplane.” Thank gawd the airlines and FAA stopped that madness. Less than 1-5% of the population has XXX or YYY issues, They are in the minority. YOU MUST ACCOMMODATE…blah blah. If you take up two seats…you pay for two seats. It’s not the carrier’s fault that you don’t fit. Atlas, Kalitta and other similar airlines do have room, I’m sure.
Jaelynn Chaney sounds like a drag name! (‘Jailin’ Cheney)
If you need 2 seats, pay for 2 seats. No one else should absorb the cost of your poor decisions. On 1 flight I had to sit beside a man who must have weighed over 350. His sweaty fat was on my tucked in arm and taking 1/2 of my seat. Thankfully it was a short flight.
All this would do is cause seat pricing to go up for everyone.
Fuck her for trying to make her problem everyone’s problem. I shouldn’t have to pay more because she feels entitled to special treatment.
Just another silly “influencer” trying to drum up likes, followers and sympathy.
My initial reaction is no, of course not. However…considering how the airlines got something-for-nothing from taxpayers, why not? If babies get to have their run of the plane and ‘families’ get free priority boarding and seating, then why not let larger people get two seats, particularly when the flight is not full? We’re not talking luxury accommodations here people – we are talking seats that have 17″ of width and some even less than that (Boeing planes for certain). If families are too cheap to buy seats together and expect that to happen for free, then why not the same thing be extended here? Again, we are talking seats that are less than a foot and a half wide. That is the real shame here — seats that are far too narrow and sandwiched together way too close.
So, so many things I could say here.
Sweetie, first up: get off the Cross, someone else needs the wood. Second, have all of your physical health issues looked at and follow what the doctors say to do because you are headed for MAJOR physical problems. Third, no one is entitled to anything in this world so get over yourself. I am not paying for your seat.
You are acting like the witch I saw yell at a clerk that wouldn’t vash her WIC check so she could make her car payment. I saw what car she got out of with the stickrr still in the window. She is spending 5 years in the car of the prison system for fraud. The car? Top or the line with all the bells and whistles Porche turbo. She claimed support for seven kods and didn’t even have one. But like you, she thought she was entitled to that car and to have our tax dollars pay for it.
The people you really need to make aware of the size problem are the ones who actually make the aircraft like Boeing and Lockheed- you will be heard by them. Airlines are only responsible for buying the planes not how they are constructed.
I told them last year that they needed to correct their parameters because several of us had bruises on our hips from the seat being too tight.
If you are going to make a stink about it, at least make sure it goes to the right people.
As for a free seat?! Rent an SUV and drive. You will be more comfortable. The rest stops have also been greatly improved with the highway improvements so you don’t have to be as skinny as high fashion models to fit in the stalls. I am not paying more for my seat because you feel entitled. You want an extra seat then ask if they will give it to you for half prive instead of full. That may be more doable in their eyes than free.
We pay enough through the nose for shoplifters, DES abusers, and the criminals who should have had the death penalty carried out.
We are NOT paying more so you can feel entitled.
Now, go schedule with your doctor. I am sure your family and friends would love to have you around a lot longer than you are currently headed for at this time.
I would really like to pay for one seat but use an entire row so I can throw my legs across it after tucking a pillow under my head. I am going to start a petition.
Stop siding with the airlines. They are discriminating against big and heavy people. Will is not enough to lose weight. As time went by and the average weight and size of people went up, the size of the seats and leg room have gone down. Today you can’t even have a laptop on the table in most airplanes. I have wide shoulders, and not big, i have to travel with arms crossed to not boder my neighbors. It is getting dangerous, the seats are so packed that it take several minutes for people to abandone the plane. If more than 50% of the passengers don’t fit in a seat, something should be done. After the big and heavy they the next group are the claustrophobic… Look for the next generation of seats and you’ll see what i mean.
I say free seat for families with children so they can sleep better.
It just makes sense
Is she also demanding extra meals to keep up her weight?
I’m a BWW but not by bad choices or bad eating habits. I’m 5’8″ at 220lbs ( also go to the gym 3x a wk for exercise)so yes I’m large and I know there’s plenty larger than myself. There’s actual medical reasons why some people are larger. For some folks it’s a disability. I believe the seats are a tight fit for me, I have never bought an extra seat nor am I saying the airlines owes larger people a free seat, but I am saying instead of criticizing maybe stop and think why some folks are larger ……its not always because they are lazy or have bad habits. Rant over
Most people who are overweight, including myself, are personally responsible for their obesity. Why should the airline bear the cost for passengers lifestyle choices? One could argue that disabled passengers and families with young children are even more deserving of free seating than overweight passengers. Let’s carry our own weight rather than expect others to shoulder our burdens.
I weigh 170, but I identify as someone who weighs 655. I also demand a free second seat to accommodate my weight. Do it or I’ll stomp my feet and call you a racist, body shaming, fat-phobic nazi.
I work in airfreight. I demand I pay the same price to the airlines for a 300 kilo shipment as a 100 kilo shipment
Acquiescing to these insanely entitled demands isn’t “siding with the airlines,” it’s merely being aligned with common sense and reason.
Not only will this further inconvenience those of us who aren’t vaguely planet-shaped, because we’re the ones who would invariably bare the burden of your defacto first class accommodations, but because this will continue the pernicious societal trend of making your problems everybody else’s.
Oh wow. I think we fit folk should be refunded for being impeded upon by the obscenely robust. I like my flights without the sweat, snorting, and faint smell of old cheeseburger.
How does that rub ya?
Dumb,dumb,dumb
The money has to come from somewhere to accommodate these larger people and supply them with free seats, which means air travel costs will be increased for everybody else, maybe they should just charge travellers by bodyweight?
How about airlines have an area of business class with “plus size seating” for a weight over a certain range? One set fee. I saw this on another flight forum and honestly I think this would be a better proposal. I’ve been on several flights now where the economy seat was broken down to the metal of the chair due to over weight passengers repeatedly being seated there. Not only is this uncomfortable it’s also not fair to the individuals who fit those seats and also not safe as the floatation devices in planes are under the seats and most definitely broken.
I have been on planes that hosted plus size passengers and as they complain to the flight attendants how small the chair is they were bragging about all the money they saved not upgrading to business class when about half the bc seats were empty and made to accommodate much larger individuals.
Honestly I do agree airline companies need to address the subject of plus size passengers but not hand outs especially because if they aren’t able or willing to float money back into fixing the planes i e those broken seats I mentioned, they will start to lose regular fliers.
I’m not a plus size flier but my partner is and he is well aware of the seat sizing and we have agreed to do the larger seating even though it’s more so we aren’t part of the issue.
And as for her priority boarding request…..again upgrade to business class.
Can understand if airlines are being asked to treat
medically certified extreme morbid obesity as a disability.
Special accommodation Should be made to someone with a medically certified disability in that case. Why? Just like as a society and the businesses that operate within that society accomodate and support the physically disabled – with redesigned entrances, buildings and facilities access, public transport access.
(I hope) nobody here would vehemently oppose Those measures, but I suspect 40 years ago they’d have written in and attacked those w equal vehemence, citing the cost to businesses to make structural alterations, or how loading/unloading and carrying a wheelchair-bound passenger on a train/bus, eg “would slow down everybody else trying to get to work, and they take up twice the space of a Standing person, which means someone might have to wait for the next bus and be late for work – F them I gotta feed my family” etc etc and etc. 60 years ago they might have written in opposing sitting next to a minority citizen on public transport. 100 years ago it’d been dangerously licentious unchaperoned women being the imagined bane of their lives.
But for those passengers who are just delightfully oversized, airlines already have policies in place, with additional seat purchases possible.
With the price of food skyrocketing, I do not know how obese people can afford to swallow all that food and still fly. She must be very rich. Can she even fit in the toilet?
Southwest airlines refunds the second seat whether or not the flight is full. In fact, you can show up at the gate without having purchased a second seat in advance and still be given one.
Cut back on the Slurpies and you’ll have the money for an extra seat. Better yet …. walk.
As someone who has been in the airline industry most of my life, the way these people feel they’re entitled to Fortune 500 companies giving them whatever makes them comfortable. They don’t realize THEY ARE NOT ENTITLED TO ANYTHING! Other “fluffy passengers” have no issue buying a second seat to ensure their comfort! She’s an influencer not anyone important! Come back to reality people!! ♀️♀️♀️
I have social phobia and don’t like being near other people. Give me a free extra seat too
This comment section is extremely hateful.
What no one had pointed out is that airline seat sizes have shrunk 40% since the 80s. The size of today’s domestic first class seat is what the size EVERY seat was on planes in the 80s.
If airlines worked to make their customer more safe (good luck evacuating a plane during an emergency with today’s ultra tiny seats) and more comfortable, we probably wouldn’t have as many plus size customers asking for bigger seats. I am 6’0″, 190 lbs and I struggle to fit comfortably in a regular economy seat. Forget about “putting my smaller bag under the seat in front of me”. My legs have to squeeze in their somehow.
@Denise R – “What no one had pointed out is that airline seat sizes have shrunk 40% since the 80s. The size of today’s domestic first class seat is what the size EVERY seat was on planes in the 80s.”
That is simply not true. Take a Boeing 737, it was 3 seats on each side of the aisle in the 1980s as it is today. Seat width really hasn’t changed. 777s which came out three decades ago are perhaps 10% narrower. Meanwhile seat pitch (legroom) is ~ 6% less than it used to be.
Peoples asses are a lot bigger as well. Have noticed the popular ass implants and the fact girls want to look like Lizzo?
Yes, some of these comments are rather nasty. And yes, seats are too small given the reality of the population. But what bothers me — and I suspect most of the critical contributors — is the position “give ME something at the expense of everyone else”. A free seat for wide people (because it’s never gonna happen for tall people) will be paid for by higher costs for everyone else — and everyone else won’t benefit. I would be more sympathetic, and even supportive, of a campaign to pressure airlines to make ALL seats wider with more legroom — again recognizing that the cost of flying will go up. But at least EVERYONE who flies will benefit.
Of course lower income folk will feel the pinch of higher costs, but any solution that involves more room for anyone will mean higher costs.
Growing up poor in the 60’s and 70’s the poor didn’t fly. Also 20 year old kids were not jetting off to Mexico and Vegas for the weekend. We don’t know what poor is anymore. I fly weekly and can’t believe some of the people flying. It really got bad with the stimulus checks during COVID. People spent that money on vacations. Kids are using student loans to finance glorious weekends for their Facebook and twitter accounts.
Thing 1; yes! Also, airlines could keep a few rows with narrow seats and short leg room in the back at a lower fare for those who prefer that, perhaps college kids on break and other smaller size people who don’t care about the tight space. That would be fair/fare for all.
I’m 6’4 and “demand” more legroom. So th airlines need to push the seat forward to accommodate my long legs.
If they dont, their Tallphobic, and I’ll sue them for being heightists……
And yes, that’s exactly as rediculous as this whale of a person is making this sound.
Get a grip lady, you’re bot special. Its absurd to think you deserve anything special just because your obese.
Suck it up buttercup, grow thicker skin and suffer like the rest of us.
There should be weight limits on passengers. 225 lbs for men and 175 lbs for women. If you weigh more then that you pay extra. If my bag weighs more then 50 lbs I’m required to pay extra so why not also the passenger.
More weight = more fuel
If the seat in the plane isn’t big enough take a bus, train or automobile……. Problem solved!
I’m a large person myself, and I think she is being ridiculous, not to mention encouraging some of the hateful rhetoric I have seen just in this comment section. Even though some of it is regulated by the government, the airline industry is a for profit entity, and telling them to take a loss on an extra seat is a non-starter. Why do you think they jam people together like that in the first place? Personally, I think the loss of legroom is more troubling from a comfort and especially safety standpoint. I also use a cane, and my ability to get out of my row could mean life or death. Anyway, if I have to fly, it’s going to be two seats. The biggest fear I have with that is the airline may get stupid, bump my extra seat and put someone in it anyway, kicking off two people’s worst nightmare. I haven’t tried it yet, I prefer the train or driving. But since my friend moved overseas, trying to fly somewhere is becoming a real possibility. Oh, and quit telling everyone to just take Wegovy. Not everyone can or should. Thanks to the few who actually read this whole rant…
I agree with most of the comments on Supper Plus size passengers, as well as the extra long legged. I am larger than I was in my 40s and do not have long legs 30″ inseam and I have problems withe the newer seat pitch (the proper term for seat closeness). However, being a retired engineer from Boeing, I know a thing or two about airplanes and the airlines. Boeing, Airbus, etc. design airplanes and build them to satisfy “Their Customer” (the airlines) and Not the Airline’s Customers! So, the persons to contact are the airlines that you fly with and not bad mouth the manufacturer. Airplanes are not the same as the Auto industry, so do others a favor, study a bit before you spout off things you have no clue about.
Why does being an “influencer” matter? That does not allow any privilege.
What the heck is plus-sized? I am 5 ft 9 and 300 lbs. I am fat. There is no getting around it. The idea that some entitled fat broad wants a free seat makes me sick. When I fly I either fly first class where the seats are bigger, I may buy a second seat if I’m not going far, or I just suck it up and be uncomfortable for the duration of the flight. This entitled attitude of gimme gimme gimme is really bringing our country down! Get over yourself.
Wait a second, I need to pay money for oversized luggage but oversized person gets free upgrade??
Don’t like airline sonditions and policies? Tough luck. They are ‘for profit’ businesses and as long as people accept what they offer (maximize profit for shareholders) they have no reason to change. Since government regulators won’t help all you can do is complain, take your business elsewhere, and maybe generate some sympathy (or discussion if there is no sympathy) by starting a petition.
I believe her petition is not demanding a free seat, she is asking that all airlines have the same rule for very big people in regards to what they have to do as far as extra seat purchasing and refunds.
That said, I went to her Instagram page and she has to be well over 400 pounds. Humans are not supposed to be this big! Her comment sections are full of large people complaining about having to buy extra seats. Um, they fn better buy an extra seat! I have a 12 hour flight to Hawaii next month and if someone her size thinks they’re gonna sit next to me in 1 seat I’ll lose my freaking mind. The entire world cannot change to accommodate people who eat to the point of disability.
These people are not a plus size, they’re just fat, plain and simple. To have the gall to think they should get an extra free seat or two. Not everyone who is that large has a medical condition that makes them so.
So, if I don”t fill up a whole set, do I get it at half price? Same thing?
Yeah, maybe they can make seats easily adjustable and we can pay by the inch (width), and maybe leg room/pitch also!
But what will these people say when the airlines ask for “proof of size”. Sorta like seat template at the gate. If your ass can’t fit you get your free seat. Every large person knows if you fly coach chances are it will be a tight fit.
I am 6′ 200lbs with 8% bodyfat. In would love a free extra seat on my way to my physique competitions.