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Airline weight based fares
Topic Started: Apr 10 2013, 11:38 AM (379 Views)
Pasta
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I have been following this a bit. From the BBC:

http://www.bbc.com/travel/blog/20130409-sh...ellers-pay-more

The article, in full below, says one of the reasons a policy such as this might not be widespreadly adopted is the potential legal problems, as people might sue for discrimination under the Americans With Disability Act.

This point is nonsense as presumably the super fat must be able prove that they are somehow disabled due to their obeseness and as such entitled to a handicapped fare. What a croc.

As an aside, why can't we discriminate against the obese but we can against the smokers and the alcoholics?

Being completely serious, as a person who has in his adult life ranged from 145 to 185 lbs I have often felt that I have unfairly been subsidizing fat people respecting air fare. I travel light, I don't carry frozen hams in my luggage and yet I pay the same as some 400lb bubba. Even more silly is they will charge me for extra luggage weight but will not charge someone extra who weighs more than me and my overweight luggage combined.

Beyond that, I hate sitting next to a fat person. They take up have my seat space. Being politically correct I don't say anything about having to contort my body to accommodate their overflow.

I should say it is not just fat people, but large people as well. They may also be large and fat.

Rest assured I hate it. I am now starting to demand a seat that is not next to a fat person. The only problem, of course, is I may have to leave the plane and wait for another flight. Might just do that and demand free hotel accomodation.

I was once kicked off a flight from Chicago to Wichitaw because I was the lightest person they could kick off to keep the plane under weight limit. After much protestation they finally removed someone else's luggage or added more fuel or did something to let me on. There were about six big beef eaters of more than 300 lbs on that flight. None of them were threatened - just the little guy.

This policy adopted by Samoa airlines is long over due. Nothing personal against larger people, but you have had your way long enough. Time for you to pay your fair share and time for guys like me to stop subsidizing you.

I believe an airline offering discounts for underweight passengers might just "take off".

The article:

Quote:
 
Imagine this: next time you book a plane ticket, you might have to pay according to how much you weigh. That’s if a controversial proposal circulating the airline community ever becomes mainstream practice.

Earlier this month Samoa Air made headlines for becoming the first carrier to charge passengers according to their weight. The small South Pacific carrier, which flies mostly domestic routes, charges passengers between 2.12 Samoa tala and 2.41 Samoa tala per kilogram, depending on flight length.

Its policy coincided with the publication of a report by Norwegian economist Dr Bharat Bhatta of Sogn og Fjordane University College, that suggests that airlines should charge obese passengers more.

The reasoning behind the so-called “fat tax” is that jet fuel, the price of which has skyrocketed in recent years, comprises the single largest cost for all major airlines. And one of the biggest gas-guzzling factors is in-flight weight. As both jet fuel prices and average weight have increased over the last few decades, airlines are largely stuck paying the price.

As such, the industry is buzzing about whether it can recoup costs by charging passengers according to weight. It’s a move that would reward surprise winners – women, families travelling with children, shorter people – and penalise others, including tall men, and of course, obese passengers.

However, according to industry experts, it’s unlikely that this controversial policy will become standard practice.

For starters, the practice poses a logistical problem. Airlines would need to keep scales at ticketing counters and weigh customers at check-in, a procedural change that would require extra time and personnel, likely causing delays. Airlines would also need to factor passenger weight into their ticket pricing schemes, which would make an already-complex algorithm even more complicated.

“It would be a logistical nightmare,” said George Hobica, founder of Airfarewatchdog.com, a low airfare alert website. “It wouldn't be cost effective.”

Perhaps more importantly however, the policy would face certain resistance among outraged flyers, some of whom would likely be irate enough to boycott any airlines that took up such a practice. Things could get even uglier if the move spawned legal problems, with some passengers likely to sue for discrimination, possibly under the Americans with Disabilities Act.

So why did Samoa Air get away with the move? Hobica suggested it was successful because the South Pacific carrier is a very small, regional airline that typically carries fewer than 30 people per flight, making weigh-ins logistically possible. Customers of this airline also have few, if any, other flight options, making Samoa Air well poised to adopt the policy.

“Perhaps a very small airline, such as [Wyoming-based] Great Lakes Aviation or [New England-based] Cape Air, could make it work,” said Hobica. Nonetheless, he added, “I think we'll see airlines charging by the pound for bags, as they already do for cargo, before we see them charging by the pound for passengers.”
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Rob
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I would love for my airline tickets to be based on my weight.

Hell Mrs. Rob could fly anywhere for $50.
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