It must be very different in the US... I often got put in places I simply cannot physically sit: I'm tall, have a lot of muscle and am overweight. All three not to the extreme, but i'm taller than most (I'm Dutch, close to 2m), my shoulders are wider than most and my lower body is large enough to fit 'snug' in a seat (but not hanging (over)). The tall part is the biggest issue here. In 'middle seats' on most airlines, I simply cannot fit; I cannot possibly sit there without putting my legs at both my neighbors. The normal response of the attendents usually was to move someone smaller from exit seats to mine. As I cannot sit and next to that I will cause discomfort to both my neighbors.

That said, now I just book exit seats or comfort seats, but when those are full this still happens. Some airlines, like Vueling, I just don't fly with anymore as they made the seats so small that most seats are too small to fit tall people in at all. But they also moved me to exit seats when that was the only flight I could take.

When there are obese people, they are routinely moved to business class (on inter europe flights; never saw it on an international flight) or exit seats; I saw this on Easyjet, Ryanair and BA. I haven't seen your situation occur here; I would refuse to fly to be honest. Just get the pilot out and ask his opinion; they have the last say. If you cannot sit (and if a quarter of your space is filled with someone else, for me that means I cannot sit), the pilot will agree it's not a safe situation for you.

There's no guarantee anymore that if the person bought two seats, that they would be together. A basic economy ticket won't even let you pick a seat in advance on some carriers anymore.

I really dislike flying and I avoid it since it's a miserable experience. And I'm not willing to pay 5-8x the economy rates for what I'd consider a tolerable experience in first class.

Yep, last Delta domestic flight I booked together with my girlfriend, we checked in a few hours before we got to the airport and got "see attendant" seats. We had to beg at the gate for two seats together. The ones they gave us were both middle seats in different rows. Pretty ridiculous for how expensive these were, and how Delta is now the exclusive non-stop service for the route we were taking.

It seems all airlines are starting to get on this. Emirates this year decides to bite the dust and charge fees for seat selection.

I really hope someone makes a website that reflects the true cost of using an airline. So many hidden fees and gotchas. It's a race to the bottom.

Even if you pay for specific seats you are not guaranteed those seats. http://www.farecompare.com/news/airline-seat-assignments-not...

Maybe, but in 30+ years of flying I've never didn't have the seats. Or is this a US specific thing?

I think it's a US thing. I've never not got the seats I'd reserved either.

I've only done two domestic flights inside the US, one from JFK to Miami, and one from Minneapolis to Seattle, and both of them were utterly awful when compared to intra-europe flights I've done (so similar distances).

If it's a code share with Qantas, you can book through them and get free selection. I hope Qantas won't follow with that idea.

They're starting to, by charging for premium seat selection.

Nor is there any guarantee that they won't make someone else sit in your second seat if the flight is overbooked.

The thing is that airlines don't always honour it if a big person buys two seats. They might admit another passenger last-minute, and then you paid for two full-price tickets and still have only one seat. It's not like big people enjoy the experience any more than you do. I'm thin myself, but blaming overweight people for terrible airline policies and other things beyond their control is not cool.

See https://twitter.com/i/moments/887384300081098752 for an account of what it's like.

heh, brings back memories - I once spent a flight from Houston to Rio like this (~10 hours). There really should be a rule, that if you can't fit into your seat with the arm rests down, you don't get to flight.