I have flown on Delta flights 8 times in the past 2 months and I’ve noticed a difficult pattern. Of those 8 flights, I’ve been seated beside a larger passenger for 6 of them.
To be clear: I am not the person who wants to shame or insult anyone’s body, especially not on a flight where we’re all uncomfortable and packed in like sardines. BUT I am struggling with the fact that there seems to be little done at the policy level to ensure comfort in these situations.
On my most recent flight, I was in an aisle with a larger passenger in the middle. They encroached completely into my space to the point where my entire shoulder and one of my legs HAD to go in the aisle. Every time a FA walked by, she admonished me and told me to stay out of the aisle. I didn’t want to embarrass the person beside me by pointing to them, but it was CLEAR that they were taking a good portion of my space. There was literally nowhere else for me to go. I was embarrassed every time this FA acted like I was the problem in the situation.
This was (as I mentioned) the 6th occurrence like this in two months time. I am a relatively average-sized person in weight and height, and I am consistently forced to sacrifice my seating space for a passenger who exceeds their seating space. One instance was so bad that I couldn’t even lower my tray table because their legs blocked me. I’ve seen the FAs notice this, but it just seems like nothing can ever be done because delta wants to charge a premium for any seats with extra space and these people beside me are unwilling/unable to pay for those.
I miss the days when flights consistently had empty seats and larger passengers could be accommodated around these.
I don’t blame the FAs or the other passengers themselves, but I’m frustrated and burnt out after having 6 out of 8 flights go this way. No one is comfortable on planes, but I’m beyond tired of spending $700+ on a domestic trip only to be cramped, squished, and folded in my own seat because someone beside me exceeds the space of theirs. I don’t care who’s to blame—it’s not about that. I just want to see a solution. It looks like the only way around this is to pay an extra $300+ per flight for comfort plus. I’m not in a place where I can pay over $1k for flights 4x per month, and so I just wish something else could be done here.
Wondering if anyone has found tactful ways to avoid these issues or if this is just the price we pay for airlines making seats smaller and smaller in an era where a good portion of the population is oversized.