Man charges obese passenger $150 for taking up his seat space

04.03.2019 at 17:19

Travel news

A man has taken to online forum Reddit to ask fellow users if he was in the wrong for charging an obese passenger $150 for taking up some of his seat on a flight.

Reddit user BigBawluh took to the online forum on Sunday, February 24, to seek the opinions of others, after he revealed that he ‘compensated’ for the discomfort when an obese man took up ‘one third’ of his seat on a five-hour flight by charging him money.

Mixed opinions have flooded the comment section on the most, as while many users agree that the man was right for making the overweight passenger pay up for making his flight uncomfortable, others thought it was an unfair solution.

His post, which has since gone viral, detailed the different stages of the awkward incident. In the post, the user said: ‘So this month I was flying across the country on a long 5 hour flight, which I had booked and seats selected for.

‘I specifically chose an aisle seat in a row of two, so no middle seat – just the aisle and window.

‘Well, a very obese man boards and I can tell instantly he is going to have a tough time fitting in any of the seats. I assume maybe he bought two hence why he’s even attempting to board.

‘I’m mentally crossing my fingers he’s not next to me, but sure enough he ends up pointing to the window seat next to me to let him in,’ he added.

The user went on to reveal that when the passenger went to move in beside him, he politely let him into the seat.

He said: ‘I get up and let him in politely, wanting to at least give him a chance. Well, he sits down and is easily seeping into about 1/3 of my seat.  ‘I sit down and am pressed up against him, making me uncomfortable. After a minute, I decided to be upfront and tell him: “Sir, I’m sorry but this situation is not working for me, you’re taking up quite a bit of my seat”.

The Reddit user added that, although the passenger wasn’t rude to him, the overweight man gave him a ‘look’ that showed that there ‘was nothing he could do’ about the situation.

He continued: ‘He wasn’t rude, but sort of gave me a shrug as if there’s not nothing he can do – although he did sort of tighten his arms in to try and be narrower. It just wasn’t enough, though.  ‘He still was overhanging over the armrest about 1/4th into my seat even when squeezing his arms in. I’m talking about fully hanging over the armrest into my seat.

‘I end up stopping a flight attendant and ask her what can be done about the situation. She instantly tells him that he is likely going to need to purchase another seat.  ‘She goes to the front and comes back saying that there aren’t any open seats on this flight, so there wasn’t a way to move people so he could have two. This causes a very awkward silence,’ he added.

Next, the Reddit user said the passenger seemed ’embarrassed’ and seemed like he didn’t want to get up.  ‘I felt bad for him but I was also thinking about my own comfort on the long flight – the comfort I paid for,’ he said.

The flight attendant then told the overweight passenger that, unless someone on the flight allowed him to take up part of their seat, he would have to book another flight.

However, the passenger seemed ‘frustrated’ at the option given to him.

In order to help the situation, the Reddit user decided to offer for the passenger to pay him in order to allow him to remain in the seat.

He said: I told the guy, “Look, I’ll put up with this if you give me $150 – that’s half the cost of this flight and that would compensate me enough for the circumstances”.

He instantly agrees, pulls out cash and pays me. He even told me he appreciated it,’ the user added.

Despite the overweight passenger seeming to be okay with paying the man, other people on the flight weren’t as impressed.

He said: ‘Well the people sitting behind me (who keep in mind didn’t volunteer to sit by him) were making under their breath comments about me being an a**hole for doing that. I just ignored them and put the cash in my wallet.

‘A win-win. He wasn’t angry at all, if anything he seemed quite relieved we could work it out privately.

‘After the flight, the couple behind me glared at me but I ignored them. This leads me to beg the question, AITA (am I the a**hole)?’ he added.

Since the user posted about the incident on Reddit, it has received roughly 1,500 comments, and mixed opinions have been flooding in.

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