It was a big, fat travel horror story.
A Pennsylvania businessman had to stand for an exhausting seven-hour, cross-country flight because a morbidly obese passenger’s blubber was spilling halfway across his seat.
“He was the last one to board, and as he walked down to me, he said, ‘I really want to apologize. I’m your worst nightmare,’” Arthur Berkowitz, 57, told The Post of the 400-pound man who squeezed next to him on an Anchorage-to-Philadelphia flight.
“He was a cordial person. But the facts are, he took half my seat, and half the seat of an exchange student who was pinned up against the window.”
Berkowitz said he wasn’t able to use his safety belt for takeoff and landing on US Airways Flight 901 — and spent the remainder of the flight on his feet.
“As the arm rests were up, and due to his girth, he covered about half my seat, and all of the seat-belt-holder attachment,” Berkowitz said.
“I notified the stewardess … that this is unacceptable and unsafe. Once the plane took off, I asked if I could talk to the captain, but I couldn’t.”
Berkowitz asked if he could move up to business class, but the plane was full, and he was denied use of a flight-attendant jump seat.
“So I walked up and down. I tell people I didn’t fly from Anchorage to Philadelphia — I walked there!” he said.
Berkowitz, who runs his family’s 91-year-old architectural-glass company in Pedricktown, NJ, believes the flabby flier should have been charged for two seats, as is policy with other airlines.
He is calling on US Airways to amend its rules.
“My first and foremost concern was the safety issue and need for formal procedures-protocol,” he said. “I have an obligation to make them aware there’s a problem here.”
Berkowitz said he tried for months to get a response from US Airways for the grueling $800 trip — and all he got was a lousy $200 voucher.
“[US Airways] stonewalled for months,” he added, “so then I went to the [Federal Aviation Administration] and [Department of Transportation]. They said they contacted US Airways, and that it considered it closed.”
An industry source said the flight crew apparently didn’t know Berkowitz was without a seat belt during takeoff and landing. The FAA said it’s a violation to fly without one.
A US Airways spokeswoman said the airline tries to take steps to accomodate passengers who need more room, including offering a different flight.
Travel blogger Christopher Elliott reported the airline had apologized to Berkowitz for “difficulties” it described as “regrettable.”