Fair Is Fair: The Fat Will Have to Pay Extra
Some years ago, on a flight from Honolulu to the U.S. mainland, I was seated next to a woman who was – I can’t make my point and still describe her with any sensitivity – fat. Very fat. I was in Seat A, the window seat, and she was in Seat B on my right. The woman spilled so far over into my space that I had to eat my meal left-handed.
On another flight, a huge male passenger literally had to shuffle sideways down the aisle of the plane. Fortunately for the person seated next to him, the airline had put him in an aisle seat with a removable armrest. But that meant he bulged out so far into the aisle that passengers on the way to the lavetory had to do the sideways shuffle to get by him. And watching the crew maneuvering the beverage and food carts past his seat was more entertaining than the movie.
But this is a real problem and it’s getting worse, not better. More Americans are getting fat, the already-fat Americans are getting fatter, and airline seats are sure as hell not getting any wider!
Well, finally it appears that the airlines are going to do something about this. Apparently Southwest has been requiring obese passengers to purchase an additional seat for some time, although they provide a refund for the second seat if the plane is not full. (But why? After all, it take twice as much fuel to get a 300 pounder aloft as it does someone weighing half as much. Isn’t that the very same logic they use to charge us for extra baggage?)
And now United Airlines is following suit. A representative for that airline says they received more than 700 complaints about overweight passengers last year. Just imagine how many passengers suffered through a fat-seatmate experience and didn’t go to the trouble of complaining.
Come to think of it – and I’m sure you saw this coming – this is just one more reason to take the train, isn’t it! Big, wide seats, plenty of room for everyone. Oh … with one possible exception. I once had a car attendant describe in hilarious detail the time it took three of them to pull a seriously overweight woman out of one of the Amtrak lavatories. I’d love to believe it was the lady from Seat B!
Christ, this is one of the worst things I’ve ever read.
Nobody bats 1.000.
Gary, OK, now I see what you’re saying and, at 6’1″ and 240, I absolutely agree. A 17″ wide seat on a 31″ row pitch just doesn’t cut it.
So, yeah, we should have as much room as we’re paying for for our mass.
But back to Jim’s point: Amtrak seats seem twice as wide and the row pitch seems to be a good 60″.
Plus how can you not like train travel anyway?
I agree with weighing the entire load of PAX, I work in the aviation industry and loaded commuter aircraft. The baggage has a average weight used to calculate the total weight of baggage while loaded, as for a larger bag, we are supposed to count it as an over-sized bag which increases the weight to about 2 times the average for that bag. So maybe passengers should be checked and input into the computer based on a speculated weight (larger people more weight) The person (PSA) checking you in, should be able to do this.
I do not agree with passenger size charged as much as freight, I weigh 265 pounds and I am 6’5, why should I have to pay more then a lighter person? I may be proper weight at 265lbs, so why discriminate against me? If I pay more for a seat I want a bigger seat, a freight box gets as much room as it needs to fit in the plane comfortably, so I want my room, especially if I have to pay more.
At the end of the day, pax are one variety of freight, and freight tariffs have always been a function of weight and distance.
The NTSB found two causes for the crash of US Airways 5481 in Charlotte five years ago. One was a misrigged elevator control cable; the other was the use of estimated pax weights – I believe 150 pounds was the figure employed – that resulted in the aircraft being 600 pounds over max gross weight for condition.
So there are physical and safety aspects to this issue. The only sane way to assess fares would be to have the passenger and all his or her luggage weighed at the ticket counter.
Long overdue measure – glad to hear it’s being implemented.
This is a dilemma for both types of passengers. There is a related post at http://iamsoannoyed.com/?p=1961
Bigger people pay the same ticket price for seats but in relation get less space on an airplane, train or bus or anything seat for that matter. Why don’t we get a discount for the discomfort? My Knees should extend to where the person-in-front of-me’s thighs are. That is way more uncomfortable then the slight pressure in their back from my legs. Some people have a genetic disorder to make them obese, why should they have to pay more for their condition? I do have an article about how bigger people consistently have to pay more or suffer discomfort and it is not always fair on my blog
(This is not spam, but I thought it might be a fair debate to this post)
http://www.opinionnoted.com/fair-bigger-people-have-higher-cost-of-living/