quintessence wrote:The website is seatguru.com.
I have a very large friend (500+ lbs) who only flies Southwest. She pays for two seats right off and gets a refund if the flight isn't full. She says they handle the whole thing matter-of-factly and that she gets her refund back pretty quickly.
I was very nervous the last time I flew. I was about 430 lbs. and I bought two seats. I pre-boarded and asked the flight attendant as I went by for a seat belt extender. Most didn't blink an eye. All in all it was pretty okay and not nearly as traumatic as I had made it out to be.
I would never fly without buying two seats; a different friend of mine had the person in the seat next to her cause a huge fuss and ask for a different seat in front of the whole plane. I'd rather avoid something like that if I could.
I bet it won't be as hard as you're fearing. Good luck!