yes when my son was little, he was the buffer between me and other people. Once he was grown and gone.... I needed to buy 2 seats.

Do you know TALL people have a similar problem.

I am now "normal" size in terms of width.

I was at Fenway park (i.e. a super old stadium) in the older smaller seats from when it was first made. This giant of a man gets in teh seat next to me. His knees uncomfortable squished against the seat ahead of him so of course he decides to put them sideways into MY SPACE rather than into his wifes (because she brought no less than 3 bags/purses with her).

If that werent bad enough, when he decides to eat/split a meal iwth her, his tower of a torso is weaving, jostling, and bumping into me. I have a bad back, so I get nervous when kids, dogs, giant men, hockey players, football players, rugby players or anyone kamikaze looks like they are going to crash into my shoulders or torso. It is a protective thing. 

After asking nicely 3 times for him not to invade my space, and kindly pointing out he is putting his arm in my mustard pile, I had to throw down the Minnesota mean.

My point is...greed runs amuck. Everyone is crammed in everywhere, people are taller and bigger than they used to be in the 40s (on average), and not only do the obese have issue but so do the talls

If the airline was willing to let the complainer sit in the two empty seats in the middle why did they not allow the passenger being kick off the plane sit in them?   That makes no sense. 

I read it that the were in different rows - like a 2/3/2 plane configuration - so the complainer didn't want to give up his aisle or window seat to sit in the middle of the middle row.

The article didn't say the seats were together.

Looks like I miss read the article.  I thought the 2 seats were together. 

Do airlines have anything that states if you are over x amount of weight you are required to purchase 2 seats?  I don't fly so I know if there is a disclaimer like that.  If not they should have one so things like this don't happen. 

Laura In Texas posted the guideline above.

Oh, this is complete bull****  I'm thinking I won't be flying United Airlines anytime soon.  

Was the second passenger right to complain? I think so. Airline policy is that someone must purchase two seats if they take up more than one, and someone who bought ONE seat should be entitled to the full seat, even if they're small to begin with.

Here's a list of various airlines' different policies. This passenger was on United, which requires a person to buy an extra ticket if they "encroach on the adjacent seat." They will not board someone who only buys one ticket. So the airline was operating well within established policies.

Yes, they could have handled it better. They could have noticed the man when he prepared to board and figured something out. The man who complained could have been willing to shuffle (though I don't blame him for wanting to keep his original seat). I dunno. But I don't think it's the airline's fault for following their rules.

Just realized the guy was in New Jersey and flying home to Las Vegas.  How did he get out there in first place?  Did he purchase an extra seat the first time, but tried to sneak by without one on the way back? 

Yea the whole ordeal sucks, but since there are guidelines in place he should have know better. 

Good point.  Well, one thing that complicates the matter is that seat size varies somewhat from airline to airline (and from one model of airliner to another) ..     If a person has never flown before (as was my case, when I flew for my WLS) or even if they have and never flown that particular airline and/or model plane before, they might not realize they would "encroach" on another seat until after they have bought their (single) ticket and tried to sit down in the seat at the of boarding.  I remember sometime back there was one airline co. that actually had a "sample" row of seats out of one of their planes mounted on the floor near their reservation counter, so that a prospective passenger could actually sit in one and see how well they "fit" beforehand.  I don't know if that co. still does that, though, as some uproar was made over the fact that the row of seats was not in a private area so that a person who didn't fit wouldn't be embarrassed in front of other people.  Further, the airline was actually making passengers who appeared that they might not fit in one seat but claimed otherwise to sit down in the sample seats to prove the co.'s point, which ticked some of them off.