However, being overweight or obese by the CDC definition does not necessarily mean being unable to sit in an airline seat with the armrests down.
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No reason to doubt you but there is a pretty large correlation between weight and waist. Thus at the population level a lot (though not all) of those with a high BMI will be oversized (to use your term.) That was the point I was making. I have no interest in a debate of healthy/unhealthy.
My oldest son is a 6ā3ā 275 lb strongman athlete. Heās overweight by bmi standards and heās all muscle. I wouldnāt want to sit next to him on a plane though, the width of his shoulders is ridiculous, and the manspreadingā¦ 
I do think bmi canāt account for muscular people as well as other body types.
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This. My dad is 5-10 and overweight by the BMI. I can guarantee you itās not muscle either. Heās never lifted a weight in his almost 80 years. And heās never had a problem fitting in a seat and never complains about it being tight nor uncomfortable.
I would guess there are plenty of morbidly obese people by the BMI standard - not even counting muscled athletes - who would be able to fit in the seat with the armrests down. I think not being able to do so is a whole different level of morbidly obese.
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If the weight is all in the ābeer belly,ā the person can likely easily fit in the seat.
Weāve come a long way since the Golden Age of flying (the period from the 50s to the 70s):
https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/golden-age-flying-really-like/index.html
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That page suggests that even the cheap tickets then were like first class (in both amenities and price) today. Today, you could still spend extra for a bigger seat and amenities in first or business class, but you do not have to.
It also in passing mentions the smoking (with secondhand smoke being a major negative amenity to some), higher airplane crash and fatality rate, and far more frequent hijackings.
Right. Thereāre always tradeoffs. Flying today, at least in the back of the plane, isnāt meant to be a luxury. Itās just a necessity (or even a torture you have to put up with) to get from point A to point B.
Yes, but I just want to be guaranteed I will from point A to B. I donāt think thatās asking too much.
I guess Iām confused over how airlines determine when to charge for two tickets now. And also how theyāll charge people who use more than one seat into the future. Iām not debating healthy or unhealthy. Shoot, you SURELY can be TOFI (thin outside, fat inside) and be unhealthy.
If the airlines are using physical appearance to determine the extra seat charge, then seems a better method than using BMI. Because I know a lot of people who have a 25-30 BMI, but would fit in seats and arenāt overweight. What is the methodology?
I have a friend with a BMI of 28+ who is not even close to being overweight and would fit into an airline seat, but his life insurance company didnāt care about anything other than the BMI and charged him a lerger premium because of the 28+ BMI.
I just calculated my sonās BMI- 34.4, lol
Heās a highly trained, high performance athlete.
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He is an outlier. BMI works fine on a population-wide basis; when it comes to individuals, all bets can be off. Since airplane seats are individual, use of BMI to determine who needs to buy 2 seats is useless.
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It appears that fitting into the seat with the armrests down is the most significant criterion for determing whether the customer is a customer of size, although some airlines also add conditions regarding the use of seat belt extensions. This avoids any need for anyone to make a judgement call, or use any other form of measuring or weighing. However, there are typically no example airline seats in the departure lobby or gate area, so first time customers at the margin may not be able to test-fit themselves like they can with their carry-on baggage. But they can look up the width of the seats (17" is typical) and estimate from there.
Although the armrest down criterion is simple and effective in many cases, it is still possible for someone to overflow across the seat boundary above the armrest (whether it is body fat or broad shoulders and muscle).
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So, when you reserve your plane ticket online, most people who are āoversizedā will know ahead of time that they donāt fit and thus purchase two tickets? Dumb question, but can you reserve two seats online with the same name now?
The Southwest Airlines policy linked in post #10 of this thread contains instructions on how a customer of size should reserve the extra seat, check in, etcā¦ Not being anywhere close to being a customer of size, I have not tested the customer of size procedure on Southwest Airlines or any other airline.
I was on a flight with my kids who I think were 3 and 4 and the guy in front of them leaned over to talk to THEM before he even sat down and said something like āNow I donāt want you two kicking my seat or tugging on the tray tables.ā I didnāt say anything but did give him the evil eye. About half way through the flight a game boy came flying at me (I was in the aisle). Whose? Oh, HIS kidsā, who were seated several rows in front on the other side of the aisle (he didnāt even want to sit with them). I did not return it immediately and made them come ask for it. No apology from Mr. Meanie. At the end of the flight he looked at my kids and said āNice job girls.ā Again, I said nothing but did glare at him.
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You should have let your kids play with it and thanked him for providing something that kept them from kicking his seat! 
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Weāre at the mercy of the airlines. Thereās really no high speed rail as an alternative in this country, as there are in much of Europe and some parts of Asia.
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Do people recommend getting an airline credit card? My BOA CC costs $99/y, which would be the same price as the JetBlue card.
Depends on the benefits I would think. We never previously paid for the āprivilegeā of owning a credit card, but the benefits of the delta platinum SkyMiles card, with the medallion miles boosts, the extra SkyMiles for shop ping, dining, etc and most importantly the free companion ticket made it worth it for us since the companion ticket cost more than the credit card.