Before we start, check out Part II of Season of Ice over at Glibertarians!

Now then:  This has happened, to one extent or another, to everyone who (like me) has traveled a lot.  Excerpt:

My worst fear about flying isn’t crashing – it’s being stuck in a middle seat between two obese bodies. My nightmare happened to Sydney Watson. On an American Airlines flight from New York to Texas, Watson got stuck in the middle seat between two large bodies. She described it as being a human sardine. Instead of being encased in tin, Sydney was marinating in obesity.

Watson made the best of living my nightmare. She live-tweeted the experience. American Airlines was tagged by Sydney and it responded with a less-than-optimal answer.

Watson’s live-tweeting went viral. She was featured in several newspapers including the New York Post and The Guardian. Most of the journalists took the side of the unknown obese seat invaders. The Post described her comments as “offensive“. Apparently wanting to have 100% of the seat you purchased, is offensive.   She had her share of anonymous threats and haters too. She took the road everyone should take when making a valid point. She didn’t apologize. She said she meant every word. Never apologize. All your apology will do is embolden the haters who will demand more and more until you are “canceled” or fired. The left doesn’t really want an apology anyway. They want blood. They want your head on a stick.

Now, the thing Sydney Watson did wrong was to take to Twitter on this matter, which guaranteed a race to the rhetorical bottom.  Twitter is a snake pit that no sensible person should contemplate entering.

But her complaint is legitimate.  For a while, the airlines were requiring grossly obese passengers to buy two seats.  I’m not traveling as much as I did in the pre-‘vid days, but I’m still traveling some.  Even so it’s been a while since I’ve encountered a massive fatty on an airliner.  And my experience with airlines is almost wholly limited to United, with whom I have lifetime status.  If this has stopped being the practice, I’m not sure when that happened.

And American Airlines’ response is as inadequate as Sydney Watson’s claim is legitimate.  “Sorry, sucks to be you” is atrocious customer service.  A pox on American for that horrible, dismissive reply.

If I pay for an airline seat, I expect to have the use of the seat.  Not 50% of it, not 70% of it, all of it.  And if a fellow passenger is taking up 180% of a seat, then they need to be charged for two seats.  That’s all.