Airline to charge overweight passengers more
smh.com.au
smh.com.au
The truth is that it doesn't work because the bag restrictions are there for reasons unrelated to the weight of passengers.
Firstly there's the baggage handlers. Some airports charge the airlines extra for heavier bags so it's a way to discourage a charge to the airline. But far more than that, even in the olden days before most airlines charged for checked baggage, it's a great way to extract additional revenue from the customers in a context of it being the customers' fault.
The truth is that a big proportion of the cost of a flight is fuel, and therefore weight.
I wish the poll had been made with a question of body mass adjacent; I expect the average weight of nay-sayers would be greater than that of aye-sayers.
Uh, Ok, good luck with that :-)
I don't even own a scale. I can estimate my own weight, but not the weight of a bag whose contents have yet to be determined.
As it stands, small and light people are being discriminated against: they are subsidising the large heavy people. People just don't talk about it that way, normally.
E.g. you might want to discriminate between smokers and non smokers in assigning health insurance premiums. This would be fair, but it would still be discrimination. Not discriminating would be unfair in that smokers are more likely to have health problems.
If nothing else I think they should charge more by the horizontal area you take up.
Ideally, we could computer model our desired seating arrangement and pay accordingly. If you don't want to pay for your waist-line, you don't travel.
The nice thing about this method is that business travellers could get lower pricing because they generally travel without much luggage. Plus my wife and I are generally 10kg under the allowance when we travel, so it could work out economical for me if bought to Europe.
But in general, airlines like tighter seat pitch as it lets them (perhaps) get another row into the cabin, and that's another 4-9 passengers per flight.
Seatguru has a sortable grid of seat layout. I won't be on airberlin anytime soon (29" seat pitch, no way!)
I wanted to try that last December, traveling with Delta from AMS to TPA. Turns out, it was $120 more for each leg of the trip. So no, I chose not to, even though I'm 6'1". Instead, I got a seat at one of the emergency exits.
Also, I only snagged the exit row seat for the return flight. I don't qualify for Diamond level with Delta, as I fly with several different airlines (non-Skyteam). With Delta, I do qualify for 50% discount on upgrades, I listed the fees that basic members would pay.
But when you are charged extra because your weight is above X, it is discriminatory. So airlines should not charge extra but should charge by kilo-distance.
Weight distribution matters, particularly when you're in a single prop 8 seater. If some dude rocks up on the tarmac expecting to fly, but weighs as much as four other passengers combined, you'll have a hard time distributing that mass. Also, with light aircraft, your incremental fuel cost per pound of fat is that much more noticeable.
For the record, I'm both a pilot and a, um, Rubenesque, fellow.
I'm a little ambivalent about this. On one hand, obese people have enough of a hard time just getting by without the extra burden of social commentary and (let's face it) the "look at that guy" sentiment. On the other hand the airlines are having to spend more in fuel when prices are already high.
Do they really? Especially in the US and UK, where obesity has really gotten out of hand, people don't even recognize it anymore. Only the super obese (BMI >45) get the “look at that guy” comments. In reality, obese is BMI >30. For instance, if you're 5'10" and you weigh 210 lbs, you're obese.
Most people with BMI over 30 are not olympic athletes or professional rugby players.
[NB A couple of hours ago I was watching professional rugby players train - so that's my excuse for mentioning this] :-)
“Airbus recently said in a press release it will offer extra-wide seats on its A320 planes, "providing adequate space for those who need it, while giving airline operators a new method to generate additional revenue." Instead of having three 18-inch seats in a row, the new arrangement will have one 20-inch and two 17-inch seats.”