[nagdu] Air Charters and the extra seat

[Peter Donahue]

Hello Dar and listers,

        We're leaving for our chapter meeting in a bit so I'll be brief. 
Fortunately the flight to Detroit wasn't full so I was able to fly courtesy 
of Southwest but was required to purchess the extra seat to come home. And 
interestingly enough the flights back to San Antonio weren't completely 
full. Southwest refunded the extra seat amount, but this is an embarassing, 
patronizing, and one more way the airlines "Flex their muscles" to clean out 
the pockets of the flying publics. Installing extra-wide seats and selling 
them for a slightly higher fare would be a far better alternative than 
insulting someone in front of a plane full of passengers. There is a move a 
foot to urge airlines to install extra-wide seats to better acommodate large 
passengers without their being subject to such disgusting treatment. NAGDU 
and the NFB may want to jump on this move as extra-wide seats would mean 
more room for large dogs to occupy. Mr. President I believe this is food for 
thought.

    One more thing I find unfortunate is that the obeas are the "Scapegoats" 
that get the worst insults. The attitude of the ignorant and the uninformed 
is that the way to not having to buy an extra seat when you fly is to lose 
weight. Their are individuals whose body structure or who have other medical 
conditions that make the need for additional seat space necessary.

    I've heard that on many charter flights this is less of a problem as 
seating is far more luxurius and they tend to be wider. The standard seat 
width in coach on a commercial airliner is 17 inches. Basically the policy 
is that if you can't fit in that amount of space with both seat arms down 
you must purchess an additional seat. Oh yes. And the airlines say it's FAA 
policy and a matter of safety. Sound familliar? I checked both the FAA and 
DOT Web Sites and did not find any such seating criteria on either one. 
Again doesn't this sound familliar? These Passenger of Size, (POS) policies 
are set by individual airlines and not the FAA as the airlines want you to 
believe.

    If the move to require airlines to install extra-wide seating to better 
accommodate passengers of size gathers momentum this could benefit guide dog 
users as such seating would enable large dogs to fit under them more 
comfortably hence something for us to consider and to possibly take a 
position on in the future. Now I gotta go.

Peter Donahue