Should only thin people fly then?

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   Silverspeederposted 11 years ago

   After reading this article http://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/why-ai … 03449.html i was wondering should airlines be offering larger seating for those who have to pay more?
   I believe it raises many questions and should other forms of public transport start charging people for their journeys by weight?
   Is it a question of discrimination or just plain business sense?

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      wildernessposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Not an easy question.  Is it "discrimination" to charge smokers more for health insurance?  To charge someone with 5 accidents this year more for car insurance?  To charge the same price for an airline seat for a 5 year old as an adult?  For a restaurant to charge more for an adult than a child?
      
      When prices charged reflect costs incurred it's pretty tough to claim discrimination, and increased weight most definitely increases airline costs just as adults eat more than children do in a restaurant.

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         habeeposted 11 years agoin reply to this

         I agree.

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      2. 61

         Silverspeederposted 11 years agoin reply to this

         I am 6'3" tall and 280lbs i would not consider myself to be obese its just my natural build, my partner is 5'2" and 125lbs (she says). The world is made up of different sized people and i had to get down to a weight acceptable to what companies see as their ideal wouldn't it be a dangerous place?
         Would it be fair for instance if a taxi charged you double the fare because you were bigger than the average customer?
         If airlines want to charge more for bigger people then surely they should cater for them with bigger seats and larger leg room.

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            IzzyMposted 11 years agoin reply to this

            Taxis do charge more according to number of passengers. Only the first two are included in the basic fare, with extras added for the rest.
            When I was driving taxis, you knew when you were carrying fat passengers. You could feel the extra drag their weight put on the suspension.
            
            I often wished I could charge extra for weight, because I knew my fuel bill at the end of my shift was going to be higher because of the loads I had been carrying.
            
            I think this is a great idea and hope it catches on for all public transport.
            
            What a brilliant motivation for personal weight loss, as well as being fairer to slimmer passengers.

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      moneyfairyposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      silverspeeder: I think if overweight passagers are to pay more that they should definitely have larger seats. I think it is really unfair to discriminate against a persons weight. What if the person is disabled and can't lose the weight because of health problems? What about pregnant woman? A huge portion of americans are large but not nessisarily obese. So what now? You have to be a size 0-2 (with no disabilities or health problems and weigh under 130lbs. or less???) in order to fit onto these plane seats? I for one think that the airlines will lose alot of money if they become sizest.

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   Healthy Pursuitsposted 11 years ago

   Wilderness, you covered it well. Just as if a child takes up a seat, which they should have for safety, If someone needs two seats, or a bigger seat, they should pay for it. A friend of many years is very overweight. She won't fly unless she has to, because she does need more than the average seat. However, she has no problem understanding that she pays for two seats.
   
   I don't think of that as discrimination. However, I do think that we are all treated in a pretty shabby way by the airlines these days.

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   Sherry Hewinsposted 11 years ago

   I think all airline seats should be a bit bigger, I'm 130 pounds so I fit OK but it doesn't seem like you have to be morbidly obese before those seats are a bit tight.

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      Zsuzsiposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      I am lucky that I have average height and weight, but I always feel bad for those who are tall and have to squeeze into a tiny seat. They could be thin and still have problems when sitting in the same chair for hours.

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   paradigmsearchposted 11 years ago

   Just add a 10% disassembly/assembly fee and put the extra pieces in the overhead compartments.

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   ocbillposted 11 years ago

   I think it is perfectly fine and acceptable. movers charge more to ship your stuff across country according to weight or how much space it occupies. The less weight or space you take up, the less cost.

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      Silverspeederposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      I think it's a dangerous game as airlines will see fat people as their cash cow and maybe even start to refuse thin people a seat if a fatty wants it!

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         wildernessposted 11 years agoin reply to this

         If (IF) the additional price is the same as the additional cost then there would be no benefit to that.

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            Silverspeederposted 11 years agoin reply to this

            Flying fat people only could be seen as specialised travel and charged at a premium. Airline companies will never do anything unless items increased profits, charging people more because they are fat seems a good way of earning more money.

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            Silverspeederposted 11 years agoin reply to this

            Profits are calculated on maximum payload not minimum payloads therefor having a plane load of fat people only reduces the airlines profit it does not increase their costs.

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   Maria Ceciliaposted 11 years ago

   This is making  me feel nervous and conscious of my weight,  so there are situation like this really...

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   mistyhorizon2003posted 11 years ago

   I think it would a good idea if luggage allowances were increased proportionately for people who don't weigh much. It annoys me that as a slim woman I am still restricted to 20 kilos of luggage on our local airline (23 kilos in the UK) when I see extremely overweight people who have the same luggage allowance, yet it is obvious they weigh at least three times what I do. It would seem more fair for there to an 'overall' weight allowance that included your luggage, therefore larger people could either take less luggage, or pay the extra cost for taking more. Obviously if medical conditions were involved then those people could carry a doctor's certificate that gave them an exemption to this penalty.

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      calculus-geometryposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Passenger mass and baggage mass are handled differently, so it doesn't make sense to let light people have more bags to equal the weight of  a heavier passenger. When you pay baggage fees, you're paying for airport employees to lift the bags onto the cart, lift them off the cart, lift them into the plane, arrange them in the plane, take them off the plane, lift them onto the carousel, etc.  There's a lot of labor involved in moving bags, whereas passengers can (usually) move themselves.

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         mistyhorizon2003posted 11 years agoin reply to this

         Interesting thoughts, although looking at how our baggage in the UK gets hurled all over the place by the baggage handlers does not seem to justify the costs (nearly always something gets broken, whether it is the suitcase itself or the contents, and this is on more than one airline). At least one of our local small airlines does distribute the passengers based on their size because the aircraft are light aircraft and this is important. There was a UK airline some years back that did work on the human weight costing, but from what I remember reading they stopped it because so many overweight people took it personally and behaved like they were being victimised (I wish I could recall which airline it was because I was only reading about it a month or so back). Must ask my friend about this as he is actually a flying instructor so I am sure he will have an opinion on the subject.

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         moneyfairyposted 11 years agoin reply to this

         calculus-geometry: Loved your answer , it is so spot on!!!!

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