Fat People Make Terrible Travellers

My flight from London to Bangkok last month was not pleasant.

As a football supporter I have made enough long journeys to know that fat people make the worst possible travelling companions. They react badly to being in a confined space, take up more room than their share, and often develop either breathing problems or a terrible desire to fidget as the journey wears on.

Given all this, my heart sank when I saw the size of the man taking the inner seat on my flight. A good 3-4 stone overweight, his beer belly regularly jabbed the seat in front. Worse, he declared his intention to "get his money's worth" from his flight ticket, by drinking as much airline beer as possible. Whilst this is perhaps laudable it meant that he took every opportunity to not only harangue the stewardesses for more beer, but he also needed to squeeze past everyone else in the row at regular intervals to put out what he had put in.

We read a lot about customer care policies. Perhaps the airlines could show some radical thinking on this issue, and put all the fat people together on long-haul flights?