Solving the wrong problem
According to the Supreme Court of Canada, people who are "functionally disabled by obesity" have the right to two airline seats for the price of one.
You know, I really don't care how many seats you take up on an airline, or how much you paid for them. Chances are, the person sitting next to me paid a different price for their ticket than I did anyway. The pricing scheme of airline tickets is a mystery mere mortals will never understand. But I would like to point out that even my size 6 butt, and non-statuesque 67 inches of height, find air travel uncomfortable and airline seats way too small.
Capt Mike is a tall, gangly fellow. When he travels by air, he must sit sideways in an aisle seat and stick his knees out into the aisle to accomodate his lengthy stems. Sadly, though being tall is entirely beyond his control, it is not considered a disability. As such, he cannot ask the airline to take the financial hit of removing the seat in front of him so he can sit normally and comfortably. Were he to ask, he would be told he was being unreasonable. And he likely would be being unreasonable. But height is a genetic condition, and many would argue so too is obesity. In modern Canadian society, are we not all supposed to be able to enjoy the same rights and priveleges, whether we need two seats to accomodate length or girth?
Comments
As always you make a good point.
Have you ever tried the Emergency Exit rows? As Mike's mother, I suffer from the same problem as he does. If you check in early enough,and can answer the skill testing question for which the answer is yes, you can have lots of legroom. We have discovered this in our trips back and forth. We're too tight-fisted to pay for anything more than economy but this helps alleviate the cramposity factor.
Posted by: Dee at November 24, 2008 05:25 PM