Forced To Share An Airline Seat

Sunday, March 17, 2013 was St. Patrick's Day. A day of jolly, a day of fun. It was also the flight of USAirways EXPRESS-PSA AIRLINES flight # 2524 leaving from Washington National Airport (DCA) at 8:55 a.m. bound for Manchester, NH (MCT).

When a customer buys a ticket, it is assumed said customer has ONE (1) seat,  that seat is rented to the customer for the duration of the flight.  However, this was not the case on this flight. 

Being FORCED by the airline to share one's seat with an obese individual is anything but pleasant. Not only would the center arm rest not go down, it was a sentence to the seat - sardine style.  



 Apparently she wasn't interested in reading my note which fully explained that I had already spoken with the flight attendant.
 
Had the flight attendant been in the least bit interested instead of commenting, "the plane is full" the passenger could have been comfortable.  They could even have enjoyed the seat for which they paid.  Clearly, this is theft of services allowed by this airline.   It was definitely a day of green, greenbacks, that is, for US Airways.

In fairness, this is their reply:

Thank you for writing to US. I’m happy to have the chance to respond to your concerns.

I’m sorry you were faced with an uncomfortable situation when you were seated next to a person whose size exceeded the width of their seat. As you may know, carriers are not required to provide two seats to a large individual if only one seat is purchased. A second seat may be purchased by our customers for their and your comfort. If such a situation should occur on a future flight, please speak with your Flight Attendant.

...we appreciate the time you took to contact us regarding this matter. Above all, we appreciate your business and look forward to serving you on a future US Airways flight.

Sincerely,


Tiffany Whitt
Representative, Customer Relations
US Airways Corporate Office

Like I said, it was definitely a day of green... greenbacks, that is, for this airline.