[STORMCLOUD]

My partner and I traveled from Florida to California. It was a 6 hour flight. We had also just completed a 48 hour series of flights to get from Ireland to Florida. We had been traveling for some quick interviews and a speaking engagement for a film we are producing. We were exhausted by the time we made that last flight home.

I sat at window, my partner in middle and a very large woman who could hardly walk or lift herself in and out of the seat sat on the aisle. It was a full flight. My partner, fortunately is very thin - or the problem would have been a lot worse. So the large woman was so large the arm rest could not come down between her and my partner. She also smelled very bad. We did not complain because we did not want to cause a scene and being a full flight nothing could have been done anyway.

It was a nightmare. We could not get out at all to use the bathroom or stretch and my partner did not have the use of about 30% of her seat. I lost the use of about 20% of my seat as my partner leaned over to join me on mine, rather than share with the very very large smelly stranger.

Well about half way into the flight the woman was able to get herself up to go to the toilet, so we seized the opportunity and also both went at that time.

Afterwards we were both very cramped and uncomfortable. During the course of the flight my partner started to feel nauseous. There were no "barf" bags. So we pressed the service button and the steward who could easily see the discomfort - though we said nothing- gave my partner the barf bag.

Eventually we landed. As the plane landed my partner started to heave and vomit and she vomited non stop for about five minutes to the point where it overflowed the bag and hit me - I was covered in barf. I honestly wish she would have barfed over the fat (I used non pc word fat for tags) lady.

So I wrote to United and complained that not only was our comfort disturbed, but our safety was severely compromised. What if we would have had to make an emergency escape? What about the arm rest being up? What about the fact that my partner - who was perfectly healthy before th flight - was so cramped she got physically ill.

United apologized and sent us a $50 travel voucher. I told them to stick it where the sun no longer shines. I told them that I plan to never use United again, as that should not have been allowed in the first place.

Surely passengers should not have to police issues of safety and basic comfort? I was so angry that we suffered for 6 hours and were trapped - there was nothing we could do and then at the end of the ordeal we were not compensated.

So here is the solution. No Very large people should not have to buy 2 tickets - that is too much. But there should be at least 4 special seats on an aircraft that travels long distance and it should cost at least 20% more and if those seats are full per flight, then very large people should have to book a different flight. Why should a stranger passenger have to put up with discomfort? It is the responsibility of the airline to accommodate us all and appropriately.

United should have given us a refund or 2 free tickets. But they offered a token and sent me packing looking to be a loyal rewards customer of Virgin... they also had the audacity to ask us to sign a waiver of our rights. no way United....