'The bigger you are the higher the cost of a plane ticket' AIBU to think that this is ridiculous?

[Poppet48]

I have just heard the debate of should a plane ticket cost more for obese people.

I think that this is ridiculous, not only is it discriminating it is highly embarrassing to have to get weighed at the airport check in, Where have the human rights gone?

AIBU to feel this way?

I would love to hear what others think of this.

[TheOriginalSteamingNit]

I don't think it could ever be fairly implemented, but it has struck me before that it is an odd contradiction that apparently how much my bag weighs is of paramount importance, and yet the pilot has no way of knowing whether he/she will be transporting a plane full of people weighing 20 stone each or 8 stone each!

Either weight at take-off matters, or it doesn't! But I suppose it's precisely because they could end up with a heavy plane that they have to take control of baggage weights.

[nancy75]

Sally of course they would need more staff, the average family of 4 probably take 2 cases, which can be weighed together, if everyone has to be weighed they have to weigh the cases and the people so they are weighing 6 things not 2, that is going to take longer. Unless they just weigh those that look slightly tubby? They would also need new scales, they can't put us all on the luggage belt

[nancy75]

Would they have different limits for men & women? I'm quite tubby, but as I'm only 5 foot 1 my actual weight is probably the same as an average man, so would that matter? There would be so many arguments about this!

[Bananasinfadedpjs]

Combined weight, luggage plus person seems like a good idea.

But in practice it just seems really unfair. Overweight people are likely to need just as much luggage as lighter people - more, if anything, because their clothes are likely to be larger. Excess baggage charges are often very steep.

I know that one some planes, the armrests rows of three seats can be adjusted by the cabin crew with some sort of tool, so that they move outwards, so that the middle seat is made far too narrow to sit in, and you end up with two wider seats, instead of three standard sized ones - I think this is what counts as "First Class" on some flights.

I think that these seats should be made available as standard on some flights. They could cost 1 and a half times the cost of a narrow seat, and you could get 30kg luggage allowance with them instead of 20.

You should have to specifically ask to "downgrade" your seat to a narrow one, and pay less, and get a lower luggage allowance, and they should put a warning that if you do downgrade to a narrow seat and then can't fit into it, then you will have to pay to upgrade (plus admin fee), and if there isn't a standard (ie, wide) seat available, then you won't be able to fly.

[mirry2]

I'm classified as obese but I'm short and small so never overspill into another seat-so would I still have to pay extra?

[MoreBeta]

Installing a big flat scale in front of every check in desk so a whole family could stand on it with bags would not be discriminatory. A family with a big bloke, an average woman and two small DCs and a couple of decent sized suitcases and maybe a folding pushchair is pretty much an 'average' family going on holiday.

A team of rugby players on tour with a whole load of kit bags is not.

[Sallyingforth]

It would take very little extra effort. You have to stand in front of the ticket desk already, and the weight platform would be in the floor where you stand now. The only difference would be that in a group each passenger would have to stand there in turn, so the machine can add up the total weight. It wouldn't take long to arrange that.
If the group includes children, their lower weight will actually balance out the heavier adults.

[Sallyingforth]

MoreBeta - we think alike!

[nancy75]

Very little extra effort? A jumbo hold 500 people. You seriously think weighing 500 people would take very little extra effort? Ok then!

[MoreBeta]

Sallying - yes indeed we do.

In fact, we used to weigh our cattle that way at the market. They don't call it 'cattle class' for nothing.

[MoreBeta]

nancy - they could easily do family groups while they were stood queuing.

[PureQuintessence]

I quite like the idea of a joining a fat farm, wear a stripy Pyjamas, and do gardening or other similar work for a week or two to trim me down.

People pay a lot of money for that. And they call it Spa Break!

Just add a swimming pool for exercise, a one off back and buttocks pummeling, some guinoa and a bathrobe, and we are there!

[PureQuintessence]

[EggsitPursuedByAChocolateBunny]

Good grief.

[MoreBeta]

Honestly, this is not about fat people as long as the ticket price is not purely based on weight. It is about fat, thin, short, tall people all sharing a physical volume and weight limit in an equitable way.

To some extent people in club/business class already pay more because of the amount of space and weight they take up.

[ChaoticisasChaoticdoes]

Two issues on this thread are

A) should passengers pay for total weight, eg, themselves and their luggage.
B) the problem of obese people spilling over into the seats of the passengers next to them.

Some previous posters seem to support issue A because of issue B. The problem is that implementing issue A will not solve issue B. I can't see any airline putting in different size seats, it would be cost prohibitive and they're there to make a profit, airlines don't give a damn how comfortable, or not, their customers are. The better option seems to be to implement a rule that any passenger over a certain weight has to buy a comfort seat but how they would enforce this rule I don't know.

I personally don't have any objection to issue A despite being a bigger person myself but then again maybe that's because I can't afford to fly full stop atm If it did affect me then maybe I would feel differently or maybe it would be the incentive I need to lose the weight...who knows.

[woozlebear]

It's fairer than the current system. DH recently had to spend a 10 hour flight next to someone whose upper body spilled over so much it took up literally half of DH's space. DH had paid the same as him for the same sized seat, but was unable to use all of it. I felt like asking the bloke to pay for some of DH's seat that he was using. Plus he was so tightly stuck in his seat he refused to get out fully to let me pass to go to the toilet and make me rub right up against him . Meanwhile we'd been weighing and re-weighing our luggage and fretting about being bang on the weight limit, even though me and DH combined probably didn't weight as much as this guy.

[ChaoticisasChaoticdoes]

I should add that although overweight I can still fit into one seat without overspill.

[lainiekazan]

The problem with providing "comfort" seats is on-line check-in. Plenty of people who were not obese would select these in order to give themselves more room.

If a plane is full there's no point weighing people or getting them to sit in tester seats - there would be no spare seats available to put them next to.

I think there should be in the first instance a suggestion by airlines when you buy your ticket that if you are over a certain weight or dimension, you should consider purchasing two seats for your comfort and the consideration of those next to you. Then if you willingly flout that, you may not be permitted to fly.

[Chandon]

Russiansonaspree, you keep reiterating that airplane seats ar e not tiny.

That surely depends on one's size? how can you state that for a fact! Wlak a mile in another person's shoes, if you can fit your tiny petite feet nto my size 8 pumps...

I have a Dutch mum, and I am over 6 ft, which in some countries ( like Holland, Germany, Sweden) is quite a normal height.

I am a size 12 and not fat, yet I do not fit the seats of most planes, as soon as the person in front of me reclines their seat, I need to sit with my legs wide apart, which infringes the leg room of the person next to me.

No amount of exercise can my make my legs shorter.

Also want to add, I find the attitude of lots of people on this thread disgusting, I cannot believe Westiemum had justify her size.

It is up to te airlines to provide a service to people.

There is a much better way of doing this, adding wider seats to the planes and upping all fares. Also leave small seats for the petite tiny people. They can then get a discount, ie, only tiny people get measured, and the default seat is the wider more expensive seat.

Now is that a solution, or what?

[Nancy66]

I have refused to sit next to a hugely overweight passenger before.

It was a flight to Australia with a 2 hour stop off in Hong Kong. I would have been horribly uncomfortable for 22 hours. I'd paid £800 for my seat - and it wasn't fair to put me in that position.

In the end they moved me into business class.

The fact is that in some cases passengers need two seats - and I don't think it's the responsibility of anyone other than the overweight passenger to pick up the bill.

[RussiansOnTheSpree]

Chandon I've said it twice. Other people have said they are tiny as fact more than twice. My truth is JUST as valid as their truth, thanks very much. Especially since they are wrong and I am right. I fly every month, my job involves significant international travel and I am therefore easily experienced enough at frequent long distance travel to say that the seats aren't tiny, the problem lies with some of the passengers.

[SirChenjin]

I quite like the idea of paying less for my tiny seat Chandon . Only problem is that you can't actually move the tiny seats around the plane, so families/couple/groups would be split up

[Chandon]

What is the big deal about sitting together? Unless there is an infant. It is hardly quality time, you eat nasty meal, you doze, you watch a film.

There was this couple last time we flew, kicking up an almighty stink about sitting two rows apart, they hurled abuse at staff and the manager, it was pathetic. A two hour flight, wtf.

Anyway, let us just put all the tiny people together, we can call it Smug Class, and they can have a discount.