[trp]

Two weeks ago, I was on a United flight to Shanghi, China. As I approached my window seat, I could see that the passanger in the middle seat was an extremely large man. As he struggled to let me into the window seat, I told myself that it won't be that bad....I'll just cozy up to the window and not make a big deal (no pun intended) of the situation. Once seated, I realized that that wasn't going to be so easy. After a few minutes a flight attendant brought the man a seat-belt extender. I was immediately aware that the man's body was about 35% of the way into my seat area. His left arm was completely covering my entire right arm and shoulder. I had to lean forward to turn the page of my book, and the tray-table wouldn't go all the way down.

Thirty minutes into the flight, I had to ask the man to let me out of the seat. I went to the flight attendant and asked if I could move to another seat. I was told that there were no open seats in coach, but I could to ask the captain of the flight crew (stationed in 1st class) about sitting in business or 1st class. As the flight attendant accompanied me to 1st class, I noticed at least two empty seats with the pillows and blankets still nice and neatly folded. I explained the situation to the crew captain and asked if either I, or the large man could sit in one of those empty seats. He told me that the folks assigned to those seats were in the bathroom and that there weren't any open seats on the entire flight. He said that the only thing that I could do was to look around the plane and find someone who was smaller than me to switch seats with. I was shocked!! I'm a smaller than average person...and his suggestion was to go up and down the aisles on the lookout for a smaller person who would want to give up their (relativly) comfortable seat for only a fraction of a seat. I couldn't believe my ears!

I went back to my seat and endured the most uncomfortable 15-hours in my life....outside of childbirth! Because it was so difficult for the large man to get our of his seat, I only got up one other time....just before the flight was preparing to land. I got up to check if those 1st class seats were ever occupied...and indeed....those pillows and blankets had never been touched. I quickly questioned another flight attendant (very nice woman) who confirmed that there were available seats up front, but it was totally the decision of the crew captain if he would allow someone to move up from coach to sit in them.

I'm not angry that I was randomly seated next to a large person. I'm angry because one of those empty seats could have been used to relieve the extreme discomfort of a passenger. Frankly, it would have made sense to simply have the large man move up front where the seats are so much bigger.

I have spoken to a United Customer Care supervisor who said that United will never release an open seat in business or 1st class to a coach customer in any situation. She apologized for my any inconvenience I MAY have experienced and offered me a $400 travel voucher. I declined the voucher, as I could never consider flying on United again. I wonder about the empathy of the crew captain on the flight, who had the power to easily fix a problem that caused considerable discomfort to a passanger for this long flight, but decided to do nothing. What kind of human being is he? I'm no saint, but I couldn't imagine treating a customer of a fellow human being this way.

I know that United (and all the other airlines) value the business and 1st class flyers. However, without the huge numbers of passangers flying in the coach section of the plane, there wouldn't be enough revenue for the airlines to exist. Thanks for reading and I appreciate your thoughts.