United Airlines bumping bigger passengers?
Staff Report
April 16, 2009
United Airlines may bump severely overweight passengers from sold-out flights.
Passengers who are too large to fit comfortably in a coach seat will be required to buy a second ticket or upgrade to business class, where seats are larger, if United's flight attendants can't find two open seats for them.
The Chicago-based carrier said it decided to adopt the tougher policy after receiving more than 700 complaints last year from passengers "who did not have a comfortable flight because the person next to them infringed on their seat," spokeswoman Robin Urbanski said.
Most airlines in the U.S. spell out similar rules in a legal document called the "contract of carriage" that establishes services and charges for flights, airline analysts said.
Southwest Airlines requires passengers who can't comfortably lower their armrests to purchase tickets for two adjacent seats. Southwest will refund the cost of the second seat if a flight isn't sold-out.
Although the policy has been on Southwest's books for a quarter-century, the low-cost carrier faced widespread backlash when it reminded consumers of its standards for larger passengers in 2002, as Southwest switched from plastic boarding cards to electronic tickets.
Passenger issues of weight and proximity have become more sensitive in recent years as flights have become fuller. But as airlines adopt or toughen policies for obese passengers, some question how they can enforce such measures fairly.
"How do you eyeball someone and decide they're not going to fit?" said aviation consultant Robert Mann, president of R.W. Mann & Co. "From a knees-to-seatback perspective, I don't fit. I'm 6 feet 4 inches.
"We'll first try to re-accomodate you on another seat on the flight," Urbanski said. "If the flight is full, and that's not often the case these days, you'll be bumped from the flight."
If this occurs, passengers will be forced to either find a flight with open seating or be required to buy two seats or an upgrade to a class of service with wide seats.
If seating is not available and a passenger decides not to travel, the ticket will be refunded without any penalty, even if it is a non-refundable ticket.
