Hannah Sampson
Appearances
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What’s it like to fly when you’re fat?
People talk about like the cattle car experience or being in the Greyhound bus of the sky. And I think that's how a lot of people feel when they're flying. They're just kind of being marched onto the plane and forced into their little pens and then marched off and barked at. And nobody loves that. It's not a great time.
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What’s it like to fly when you’re fat?
and I've been writing about travel in general for about 14 years.
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What’s it like to fly when you’re fat?
What it's like to fly right now is cramped, busy, crowded. It's generally safe, but it is not, in many cases, a pleasant experience. Airlines have been cramming more people onto flights. So the chances of getting, you know, an empty seat next to you when you fly or stretching out with extra legroom are pretty low.
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What’s it like to fly when you’re fat?
They came in and competed with these very low prices and that forced the bigger airlines like Delta and American to carve out like a bottom, bottom rung for passengers of kind of a basic economy experience where you get like, no, no perks whatsoever. You just, you get a ticket and you get to bring a personal item and everything else is just like, be glad that we saved a space for you.
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What’s it like to fly when you’re fat?
If you're paying the cheapest $150 round trip ticket, You're not the comfort passenger in that case. You're the bare bones passenger and you're going to pay for your cheap flight with a lack of comfort and a lack of amenities.
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What’s it like to fly when you’re fat?
I mean, so airlines are really focusing on revenue because they're publicly traded companies. Like their duty is to their shareholders and they are held accountable by Wall Street. So, I mean, that's kind of top of mind in all of their business decisions. And I would agree that it's good business decision for customers to be happy and comfortable and to want to fly their airline. But really...
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What’s it like to fly when you’re fat?
I would say the way that they've been thinking about comfort is how can we make a more comfortable experience that you will then pay more money for?
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What’s it like to fly when you’re fat?
They started to give hints a few months back. And sure enough, they announced just recently that that process, that whole wild boarding position, grab the seat that you want process is going away. And they're going to assign seats and also have certain seats that they will consider premium that you have to pay extra for. So a total vibe shift in the Southwest offering.