The fingers you have used to dial are too fat.
http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2011/05/18/another-too-fat-to-fly-controversy-hits-southwest-airlines/
This is kind of a tricky issue. But i have to side with the flyers. Southwest shouldn't be allowed to let people fly one way at a given price and then for the return be allowed to double the price on them. If you weren't required to buy 2 seats on the way out, you shouldn't be required to buy 2 on the way back. That is of course assuming it was a short trip during which you couldn't have put on that much weight (2 weeks or less.) But in general fat people should absolutely be required to buy 2 seats. They cost more to transport because of their added weight, and they make people they are sitting next uncomfortable by taking up so much room. The difficulty is that it's a judgement call. There is no easy way to say who should be required to buy an extra ticket and who shouldn't, so you'll naturally have discrepancies.
I'm personally also in favor of requiring all people to step on a scale with their bags and carry ons and have the total weight determine the cost. There would have to be some base cost so that small kids weren't flying basically for free, but a flight that costs say 200 dollars now could instead cost 100 dollars plus 50 cents a pound. That way everyone whose weight plus luggage at up to more than 200 pounds pays more, everyone else less. This idea that it is wrong to require people who use more of a service to pay more is just stupid. (and i say this despite the fact that as a relatively large person, i would probably end up paying more.)
This is kind of a tricky issue. But i have to side with the flyers. Southwest shouldn't be allowed to let people fly one way at a given price and then for the return be allowed to double the price on them. If you weren't required to buy 2 seats on the way out, you shouldn't be required to buy 2 on the way back. That is of course assuming it was a short trip during which you couldn't have put on that much weight (2 weeks or less.) But in general fat people should absolutely be required to buy 2 seats. They cost more to transport because of their added weight, and they make people they are sitting next uncomfortable by taking up so much room. The difficulty is that it's a judgement call. There is no easy way to say who should be required to buy an extra ticket and who shouldn't, so you'll naturally have discrepancies.
I'm personally also in favor of requiring all people to step on a scale with their bags and carry ons and have the total weight determine the cost. There would have to be some base cost so that small kids weren't flying basically for free, but a flight that costs say 200 dollars now could instead cost 100 dollars plus 50 cents a pound. That way everyone whose weight plus luggage at up to more than 200 pounds pays more, everyone else less. This idea that it is wrong to require people who use more of a service to pay more is just stupid. (and i say this despite the fact that as a relatively large person, i would probably end up paying more.)
posted by Trashcan at 5/19/2011 12:56:00 AM
2 Comments:
"They cost more to transport because of their added weight,"
Yes, but "they make people they are sitting next uncomfortable by taking up so much room."
Not necessarily. Muscular people can easily weigh 262 lbs. and not take up that much additional room, at least horizontally.
Your idea is interesting, but I don't think the savings would be great enough to justify the costs. Indeed, Ryanair is making a killing speeding people through with less checks, less paperwork (though the fines for overweight baggage are stiff). The weigh in would take extra time and personnel, not to mention employing an entirely new system of payment. I mean, what, nobody pays for his ticket until boarding time? Or everybody gets part of the price refunded if he lost weight, or has to pull out his wallet and pay the difference if he's fatter than he estimated? The trouble defeats the purpose, which is reducing costs, any way I can imagine it.
You are probably right, it's not worth the effort right now, and that the mostly likely immediate impact of trying to start such a policy would be to alienate flyers and lose business. But given all the checks the TSA is putting people through now adays, weighing yourself+baggage would be a pretty minor inconvenience. Likewise a lot of people now a days use E-tickets where you walk up to a machine putting in your credit card and it prints out your tickets, it could easily charge you for the flight/baggage at the same time.
Not viable right now, but maybe sometime in the future. Plus i wasn't really advocating a business plan so much as pointing out there is nothing wrong/immoral with asking overweight people to pay more.
In terms of the weight, yes the weight itself is not automatically tell you how much extra room a person is going to take up. Not just if they are muscular vs fat, but more importantly how tall are they. A 5 foot 2 inch woman weighing 262 is going to take up more of other people's room than a 6 foot 6 inch guy who will just have cramped legs.
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