Should the overweight pay more for airfare?

[Petromir]

Crap. The weight of the passengers is minimal when compared to the weight of the luggage and the plane itself. I mean, a passanger 747 takes 200,000 tons of fuel to get to altitude and back. That's half the fuel tank. A few hundred extra pounds will make such a small difference to that usage of fuel that any "surcharge" is just a crap excuse to charge more money without raising your ticket price.

200,000 TONS!!! Bloody hell thats what twice the displacement of a fully loaded Nimitz Class super carrier. You may want to check your maths a second there.......

Max takeoff weight of a 757 depending on Variants between about 330 tons and 450 tons....

sorry about that, it was something a prof once told me in aero engineering, and I couldn't remember if it was 200,000 pounds or 200,000 tons, or now that I think about it, it was gallons. Sorry, I've been pretty exhausted lately and wasn't thinking clearly.

Fair enough, yeh as gallons or pounds it sounds closer to the right ball park.

 

[bioshockedcriticjrr]

wow, and I didn't think our culture could reenforce eating disorders any more.

 

[Dejawesp]

I say each passenger should be charged based on weight purely. That includes luggage.

Say a fixed rate per seat and then a formula based on weight counted together with that

Airplane tickets are not expensive because the companies try to rip you off. They're expensive because having air planes fly around is pretty fucking expensive.

Weight is directly related to fuel costs.

Nobody reaches 260 pounds from swimming. You're a fatty MC fat fat.

Wow that would suck for my family.
All the men are over 6'6" with large builds. Most of us aren't even considered overweight on a BMI scale and we weigh pretty close to, or more than 260. If we are considered overweight it's just barely.

My brother sued an airline years ago because the took his money for a ticket and refused to seat him or upgrade him he's a little more than 7 ft tall. The issue occurred because the plane listed was a certain model which he had been able to ride comfortably in before on that airline. The airline had changed their seating arrangements putting more rows in their planes, he was unaware of this and could not reasonably sit in a seat. They also would not refund him, upgrade him to more comfortable seats (he was willing to pay the difference) or let him take a similar flight on a different style plane.

Anyway he won the lawsuit because they don't state the dimensions of the seats (airlines still don't usually) nor had restrictions listed. He got the price of his ticket and the projected money he would've made on business that week.

The short of it is. Airlines need to give more information if they expect people to know when they will need more than 1 seat. I think it's fair if you occupy more SPACE that you pay more but not based solely on weight.

I love how this post about weight is 90% about height and as such irrelevant.

Your weight is directly related to how much it costs the company to haul your ass around the world. Demanding that travel agencies disregard weight is like demanding that the post office does as well. Letting you ship a 500 pound crate around the globe with a 25 cent stamp on it.

Or you could just replace smaller seats with larger ones.

Then you can fit less people in the plane and you have to charge *everyone* more money to travel

 

[Rblade]

Yes, no, yes, and hell-fucking-no, respectively.

Just read my post right after yours. If you charge people for extra bags (ie: taking up space and weighing the plane down), then you should charge for physical weight too. That's it. Why should suitcases be treated differently than large people? If you can save money by not bringing luggage (costing the airline less), why shouldn't you be able to save money by losing some weight (also costing the airline less)?

what about dudes? a perfectly healthy, fit, human male would probably weigh in at about 80 or so kilograms.
Where the average female could easily weigh 10 to 15 kg less. Thats upto 20%, thats the weight of an extra set of luggage.

Ofcourse this is silly, that would be straight up sexcism and discrimination. But the point is still the same.

you can't compare how many pants a person decides to take on his journey, with the way he is build and or his life choices. You have immediate and direct controll over how much you pack, how much you weigh can have a stagering number of terrible reasons, almost nobody choose to grow excessivly big. with the exception of really needing 2 seats, but thats very uncommon.

You pay for your seat and the service and everything. Safe your plans for when we invent teleportation and you get charged per atom.

So what if its not a choice? It still costs the company more to transport a fat person than a thin one.

so you do want to charge north europeans more then asians and males more then females. kk, sounds like a swell plan.

 

[ace_of_something]

I say each passenger should be charged based on weight purely. That includes luggage.

Say a fixed rate per seat and then a formula based on weight counted together with that

Airplane tickets are not expensive because the companies try to rip you off. They're expensive because having air planes fly around is pretty fucking expensive.

Weight is directly related to fuel costs.

Nobody reaches 260 pounds from swimming. You're a fatty MC fat fat.

Wow that would suck for my family.
All the men are over 6'6" with large builds. Most of us aren't even considered overweight on a BMI scale and we weigh pretty close to, or more than 260. If we are considered overweight it's just barely.

My brother sued an airline years ago because the took his money for a ticket and refused to seat him or upgrade him he's a little more than 7 ft tall. The issue occurred because the plane listed was a certain model which he had been able to ride comfortably in before on that airline. The airline had changed their seating arrangements putting more rows in their planes, he was unaware of this and could not reasonably sit in a seat. They also would not refund him, upgrade him to more comfortable seats (he was willing to pay the difference) or let him take a similar flight on a different style plane.

Anyway he won the lawsuit because they don't state the dimensions of the seats (airlines still don't usually) nor had restrictions listed. He got the price of his ticket and the projected money he would've made on business that week.

The short of it is. Airlines need to give more information if they expect people to know when they will need more than 1 seat. I think it's fair if you occupy more SPACE that you pay more but not based solely on weight.

I love how this post about weight is 90% about height and as such irrelevant.

Your weight is directly related to how much it costs the company to haul your ass around the world. Demanding that travel agencies disregard weight is like demanding that the post office does as well. Letting you ship a 500 pound crate around the globe with a 25 cent stamp on it.

Or you could just replace smaller seats with larger ones.

Then you can fit less people in the plane and you have to charge *everyone* more money to travel

I'm saying not everyone that is heavy is 'fat'. For those of us that aren't it feels like you're being punished for something you absolutely can't help.

 

[Dejawesp]

I'm saying not everyone that is heavy is 'fat'. For those of us that aren't it feels like you're being punished for something you absolutely can't help.

Hey the travel agency absolutely cannot help that it takes more fuel to transport more weight. That's just physics. And three-dimensional physics as that since fuel has weight as well.

In the end someone has to pay and as the travellers are the only source of revenue then it means that all the lighter people end up paying for the heavier people.

 

[ace_of_something]

I'm saying not everyone that is heavy is 'fat'. For those of us that aren't it feels like you're being punished for something you absolutely can't help.

Hey the travel agency absolutely cannot help that it takes more fuel to transport more weight. That's just physics. And three-dimensional physics as that since fuel has weight as well.

In the end someone has to pay and as the travellers are the only source of revenue then it means that all the lighter people end up paying for the heavier people.

If that were true than why do the keep putting more and more seats in? surely that will effect the weight load? I postulate that an added row of six seats and thus six people will weight significantly more than all but the heaviest of people.

 

[Dejawesp]

I'm saying not everyone that is heavy is 'fat'. For those of us that aren't it feels like you're being punished for something you absolutely can't help.

Hey the travel agency absolutely cannot help that it takes more fuel to transport more weight. That's just physics. And three-dimensional physics as that since fuel has weight as well.

In the end someone has to pay and as the travellers are the only source of revenue then it means that all the lighter people end up paying for the heavier people.

If that were true than why do the keep putting more and more seats in? surely that will effect the weight load? I postulate that an added row of six seats and thus six people will weight significantly more than all but the heaviest of people.

Because with the current system they charge per seat and not for weight. Hence more seats means more seats sold and more money.

 

[ace_of_something]

I'm saying not everyone that is heavy is 'fat'. For those of us that aren't it feels like you're being punished for something you absolutely can't help.

Hey the travel agency absolutely cannot help that it takes more fuel to transport more weight. That's just physics. And three-dimensional physics as that since fuel has weight as well.

In the end someone has to pay and as the travellers are the only source of revenue then it means that all the lighter people end up paying for the heavier people.

If that were true than why do the keep putting more and more seats in? surely that will effect the weight load? I postulate that an added row of six seats and thus six people will weight significantly more than all but the heaviest of people.

Because with the current system they charge per seat and not for weight. Hence more seats means more seats sold and more money.

So when they charge by seat they don't get weighed down? But when they charge by weight suddenly they can only carry so much weight or they'll run out of fuel midflight.

 

[galdon2004]

when you're like 300+ pounds, that's your fault, you're a fat slob and should get some god damned exercise.

http://a1.ec-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/89/4e183d644ea70f6b980643a5b6fcc884/l.jpg

Yeah! Just look at this fat 300 pound slob! He can only bench press 550 pounds, the lazy jerk, he needs to get more damn exercise!

You know, this is why BMI is the absolute worst model for measuring a person's health. Muscle mass has a gigantic impact on your body's total weight.

 

[Dejawesp]

So when they charge by seat they don't get weighed down? But when they charge by weight suddenly they can only carry so much weight or they'll run out of fuel midflight.

No plane is going to run out of fuel mid air. Its about how much fuel the plane has to use to get there. Every single pound transported means extra fuel used up. A 300 pound passenger costs the travel agency nearly twice as much to transport as a 150 pound passenger yet both passengers pay the same amount because the prices are standardized. If they could charge based on the weight of each individual passenger then they wouldn't have to do any guess work on the prices. Lighter people who cost less to transport would pay less and heavier people would pay more.

People who cost more, pay more. People who cost less, pay less. Makes sense doesn't it?

http://a1.ec-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/89/4e183d644ea70f6b980643a5b6fcc884/l.jpg

Yeah! Just look at this fat 300 pound slob! He can only bench press 550 pounds, the lazy jerk, he needs to get more damn exercise!

You know, this is why BMI is the absolute worst model for measuring a person's health. Muscle mass has a gigantic impact on your body's total weight.

BMI does not have anything to do with what it costs to transport a person. Its weight that matters and a 300 pound person weighs 300 pounds regardless of BMI.

 

[FoolKiller]

when you're like 300+ pounds, that's your fault, you're a fat slob and should get some god damned exercise.

http://a1.ec-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/89/4e183d644ea70f6b980643a5b6fcc884/l.jpg

Yeah! Just look at this fat 300 pound slob! He can only bench press 550 pounds, the lazy jerk, he needs to get more damn exercise!

You know, this is why BMI is the absolute worst model for measuring a person's health. Muscle mass has a gigantic impact on your body's total weight.

Thank you. I fall into the category. When I am my fittest I tend to weigh around 230. When I let myself go I drop to about 195 to 200. This is a terrible idea.

Also, why doesn't any one mention the reason for the weight limit of the luggage isn't that the plane can't handle it or because of more fuel. It's because the unionized baggage handlers don't want to deal with your crap. The plane is not going to fall out of the sky or anything stupid like that.

 

[ace_of_something]

So when they charge by seat they don't get weighed down? But when they charge by weight suddenly they can only carry so much weight or they'll run out of fuel midflight.

No plane is going to run out of fuel mid air. Its about how much fuel the plane has to use to get there. Every single pound transported means extra fuel used up. A 300 pound passenger costs the travel agency nearly twice as much to transport as a 150 pound passenger yet both passengers pay the same amount because the prices are standardized. If they could charge based on the weight of each individual passenger then they wouldn't have to do any guess work on the prices. Lighter people who cost less to transport would pay less and heavier people would pay more.

People who cost more, pay more. People who cost less, pay less. Makes sense doesn't it?

Spoiler: i didn't actually say this just who quoted me fails at tags

http://a1.ec-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/89/4e183d644ea70f6b980643a5b6fcc884/l.jpg

Yeah! Just look at this fat 300 pound slob! He can only bench press 550 pounds, the lazy jerk, he needs to get more damn exercise!

You know, this is why BMI is the absolute worst model for measuring a person's health. Muscle mass has a gigantic impact on your body's total weight.

BMI does not have anything to do with what it costs to transport a person. Its weight that matters and a 300 pound person weighs 300 pounds regardless of BMI.

Well, I brought it up because you were calling people fat. The tone came across throughout your posts as if those people 'deserve' what they get. I disagree.

It's all moot. The first airline that actually implements this would face such a shit-storm no one will ever take the first step. If they all do at the same time the first airline to stick with the 'old ways' is the first to get my and I imagine many others' business.

It's a terrible business strategy to make you customers feel like shit before they even buy your product.

 

[sky14kemea]

no you cant call it out for lacking content, and the reason i say it is because... why are fat people fat? because they are greedy lazy gluttonous people.

Good sir, let me introduce you to a new, interesting fact: Some people are obese due to a legitimate medical condition. No, really, it's true!

Also, you could've added why all fat people deserve it in your original post, because it's still lacking content.

yes its true! 1% of people diagnosed with obesity have a medical condition causing it! wow 1 fucking percent! and about 50% of them SAY they have a condition but dont. so to hell with your stupid argument.

Citation for your 1% doctor.

google, all knowing and never wrong
www.webmd.com/diet/medical-reasons-obesity
19 Sep 2009 ? About 1% of the cases of obesity have medical causes, including thyroid problems or Cushin's syndrome. Learn more.

said it in the description and the figure makes sense when you think about how many fat fuckers their are out there.

Funny, but your link doesn't back you up about that 1%. In fact the listed causes clearly apply to more than 1% of the population based on anti-depressant effects alone.

You have misquoted me, fix it.

ask nicely

You have misquoted him, please fix it.

Or I will. o_o and I don't fix things nicely.