Sorry Troy but that is just not good enough. Southwest has a perfectly reasonable criteria for this, (armrest can go fully down) and the airline could have a print out which explains their policy which could be handed to the obese passenger. This would de-personalise the issue and make it less difficult for the staff to explain the process. This would allow it to be dealt with at the check in desk.
This is only an issue on completely full flights. In flights with some empty seats (the vast majority), it can be resolved simply by leaving the middle seat for the obese passenger vacant. However, when a passenger is faced with this problem, the FA, and Gate Agent have a responsibility to help and their failure to do so, even if they are paid "peanuts" or don't work directly for the airline is not a reason for not doing so.
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