[Jeff Higgins]

Coming home from an AOG somewhere in Central America, I had to make a stop in Houston, or Dallas. In Texas at any rate. I was on the left hand side of a 737, three seats, and I was in the middle seat. And, lo and behold, this chick's big brother is coming down the aisle, in the coach cabin. He had to waddle sideways to fit down the aisle. I couldn't believe the flight crew even let him into coach.

And yes, sure as hell, he stops at my row, checking his ticket. He had the window seat to my left. I stand up, get out into the aisle to let him in, and the first thing he does is flip up the arm rest separating our seats. I saw it coming, of course, and was able to quickly put the arm rest back down and get seated before he could position himself. Boy did he ever raise a ruckus...

I didn't even acknowledge him. I looked at the flight attendant and very firmly, very politely asserted my right to my seat, as delineated by the arm rest. She made him stay in his seat, which meant he had his left butt cheek up in the window for the next six hours, all the way to Seattle.

This was the only time in all of my flying that this directly affected me, but I sure did see a lot of it. Much of it was not resolved nearly as well, with the normal sized passenger involved winding up on the losing end. Airlines could do a better job. They should worry less about these peoples' feelings and more about flight safety and comfort for their more disciplined passengers. People like this should not even be allowed on board, posing as they do a safety risk to others in the event of the need to evacuate.