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15 years ago I had a nasty experience with an airline seatmate.

I was in my center seat and the window seat was also occupied. The aisle seat was empty until about 10 minutes prior to departure, when a VERY large woman filled it.

She didn't raise the armrest between us, but it wouldn't have mattered. Once she got settled into her seat, no one could have located the armrest. This woman literally bulged out, over, under, and around BOTH armrests and a full 1/3 of the way into my seat, and fell the same distance on the other side into the aisle around THAT armrest. Honestly, the flight attendants could not get the cart past her without her physically lifting part of herself out of the way with her left hand - and even then the cart became WEDGED one time!! Besides the obvious safety issues (there was no way she was leaving her seat with less than a five-minute lead time), there were two other problems...

1. While we were taxiing out the runway, she began perspiring. Heavily. She perspired straight through her clothing all along where she was JAMMED up against my left side, and THROUGH MY CLOTHING within an hour of takeoff. It was disgusting. (I felt badly for her but there were no other seats available. I didn't feel badly enough, though, to avoid being extremely angry that she hadn't purchased an extra seat!) I didn't know the person in the window seat and he was adamant that I not raise the armrest between us or touch him in any way. My clothes were quite wet and less than halfway into the five hour flight I was reduced to being wedged, silently weeping, sideways in my center seat. I could not even hold a book.

2. When the meal/snack was served, this woman COULD NOT LOWER HER TRAY TABLE - seriously, it would not drop more than 8 inches down from the seatback. She requested an extra meal and ate both with the containers propped on her chest and belly. Food fell to both sides and I wore what she couldn't catch.

After landing, she asked me to help her get up...

The airline was apologetic but would not refund me any of my ticket price. I have never flown them again.

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