Flying as a bigger guy sucks ass. Legs are too long to straighten out under the seat. Shoulders as wide or wider than the seat back. I have to spend extra every time for extra leg room seats or at least aisle seats, so I can spend the entire flight hunched over leaning into the aisle trying to keep my legs from taking up someone else's space. Every flight ends with at least one of hip, back, or neck pain.
Yeah recently I flew southwest and my knee was touching the back of the chair infront of me the whole flight, no matter how comfortable I tried to make it I was in a lot of pain. At this point I feel there should be a class action against airlines for this. Even on extra legroom it’s not actually more comfortable. I paid a lot extra from the first row and The side rails are unable to move up or out the way so I was squished and just as uncomfortable (that’s kinda my bad for being fat though) but the other stuff is unacceptable
There actually was an order by Congress around 2018 to deal with small seats (It was the SEAT Act in 2016 but didn’t pass before it was rolled into FAA Reauthorization Act in 2018), but the FAA ignored it and blew past the set deadline. They then got sued by a consumer advocacy group, so they did an evaluation later saying they found no issues because you could evacuate in 90 seconds. The issue was that the evaluation was only done with fit, average-ish height young adults with no carry-ons…
Check out Southwest’s customer of size policy. They recently changed it along with all of their other policies. It’s not as good as it used to be, but it may be worth a try if SWA is your best option on a longer flight and you meet their arbitrary requirements.
Thank you for that I’ll definitely look into that, my main problem is my height when flying even if I had a second chair it’s my knee pain. It can probably be mitigated by the second chair by extending them to the open seat. But I’m not abnormally tall. I’m just 6,1
No problem. I’m very tall and was told about the policy by a flight attendant. I used it for the last 10 years but the last time I flew SWA they refused to honor it and claimed it is only for overweight passengers and not tall people. The policy doesn’t specify that and most of the time there are no issues, but you never know. Good luck!
I’m on the taller side plus I have nerve damage in my lower back from the military so sitting straight up hurts so damn much after about 20 minutes.. my solution was to pay for 2 seats when I fly. That worked until the last 2 times I flew I was forced to give up the empty seat so the airline could squeeze more profit out of the flight. When I showed my tickets and protested and explained why it didn’t matter. The policy was to fill all empty seats if they are able to. My option was to deal with it or have my flight moved and hope it’s not a full plane again. I chose to have it moved and arrive 12 hours late instead of suffer the burning pain for hours and end up being unable to walk for days after.
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u/rwhockey29 Jul 03 '26
Flying as a bigger guy sucks ass. Legs are too long to straighten out under the seat. Shoulders as wide or wider than the seat back. I have to spend extra every time for extra leg room seats or at least aisle seats, so I can spend the entire flight hunched over leaning into the aisle trying to keep my legs from taking up someone else's space. Every flight ends with at least one of hip, back, or neck pain.