To think travellers should be weighed WITH their luggage when travelling.

[Bakergram]

I'm prepared for backlash.

I was charged excess for my hand luggage as it was over a certain weight- that's absolutely fine. The combined total weight for myself and my cabin baggage was approx 69 kg. My friend wasn't charged because their luggage wasn't overweight yet the combined total for them and their luggage was over 90kg. My friend joked about how unfair it was.

Surely it would be fairer to use the combined weigh of traveller and cabin luggage to determine and excess fees due?

As you're so much slimmer than your friend surely your clothes are smaller, weigh less and you need less luggage weight allocated. I'd weight everyone and let you have a luggage weight proportional to your own.

wow, this kicked off.
I don't mind OP's suggestion.
I also don't mind status quo.

Although... I suspect there should be kg limit on who is allowed into regular size seats & larger people (> 100kg?) should be required to book larger seats. That would be to everyone's benefit.

So you want to charge fat people so much that they can't afford to travel in case one of them sits by you?

Hahaha! Top response, right there.

Another fatphobic thread suggesting we treat people as though they are objects. Because fat people we aren't worthy of humanity. Dehumanise us! Insist we do it to ourselves, that if we were better people we wouldn't be fat.

Tell you what, let's pay on ratio. I'll pay three times as much but I'll get 60kg luggage for my large clothes and my medicines, and I'll have a whole row of seats to myself. No? Didn't think so.

Yes, of course, or...

How is Fuel Calculated for Large Airplanes?
Airline pilots have it easy when it comes to calculating their fuel because it has been already done for them! Most large airlines have an entire flight planning department that looks at each flight, its route, forecasted weather, and previous flight data and completes the fuel required calculation for them.

pilotteacher.com/calculating-fuel-how-do-pilots-do-it/

Maybe OP just wants to see all those obese men in their thongs all holiday cos they can't fit anything else in.

How would weight even work?

So you're 50kg, you pay £50, I'm 100kg so I pay £100 and Dave is 200kg so he pays £200. Are you still limited to 20kg luggage or can you take 150kg so you equal Dave? Can he take nothing? If you get 20kg and I get 15kg and Dave gets 10kg,how is that calculated?

Well if they are weighing people at the gate I could see people stripping off to the aforementioned thongs to save a few quid 😂

If you want a whole row and pay for a whole row then enjoy it!

This is funny. Airlines are a business. If airlines get to charge people based on body mass for the same service, short skinny people won't be as financially valuable as tall heavy people. They'll then bring in a "teeny tiny person supplement", so smaller people will have to pay extra to make up for the money lost from that seat. Like hotels do with under occupied rooms.

That’s true, but there’s also usually requirement usually for the captain (ultimately, in law they are responsible) on every sector to do a gross check to ensure fuel loaded is adequate for the sector just in case the computer or planners have got it wrong - and it is rare but that does sometimes happen. So pilots do need a handle on the subject and quick rules of thumb tucked away in the memory banks to check the loading/fuel/penalties for weight increases.

With that in mind I get the impression some of the lighter people on the thread think they are going to be multiple pounds/dollars/euros better off every sector than the heavier amongst us if airlines charged by body weight - I’m afraid that’s not really the case, they might be a few cents/pence better off on shorthaul sector, occasionally maybe a few quid/dollars/euros on a Longhaul flight.

yes, OP you are very slim and tiny and your friend is a big fatty.

this is the best answer

Consider the excess charge you paid as a penalty fine for not being able to follow clear instructions.

I think smaller-sized clothes should be cheaper too, as they use less fabric
Now this I absolutely agree with.

but they're more fiddly to make so they should cost more (having said that, some manufacturers do charge more for larger sizes.)

Fat people shouldn't be allowed to go on holiday full stop

Taking up extra space on the beach/round the pool etc.

They should just sit in their houses and think about the consequences of their actions, whilst feeling shit about themselves.

Do fuck off OP.

I'm a pilot so I thought I'd run some numbers on this. On a typical one way flight from UK to Tenerife each extra 10kgs of weight requires an extra 1kg of fuel. So given cost of aviation fuel even if you priced for weight the difference would be less than £10 between the lightest and heaviest and for most people within say £2.

The limiting factor on nearly all flights is no. of seats not weight hence the ticket is based on seat cost.

That 1kg difference in the burn sounds entirely credible to me.

My former employer never told us exactly what they paid per kilo of fuel but I’d certainly say your numbers on cash value are also in the right ballpark…

😆and as goady as fuck with it.

He’s not fat and I’m not slim - that’s how people look, I’m only talking about weight.

That’s a really valid point and makes complete sense.

One hopes the pilots are double-checking.

Here's an interesting true story of what can happen when their maths are incorrect and the plane only has half the fuel its pilots thought it had.

The Gimli Glider en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gimli_Glider

I agree. In a similar vein, having just spent an extremely uncomfortable flight being sat on by the morbidly obese person next to me, I also think it's time wider seats were introduced on flights and people who don't fit in normal seats pay extra to sit in the wider ones.

Hence the suggestions that different sized seats should be offered.

Smaller seats for small people and children (double-stacked if possible for more efficient use of space). Then they could get a discount (don't children usually go full-fare once they're twelve?)

Personally I don't like sitting next to a mean spirited stupid person and everyone should take a morality and IQ test before travelling. If you don't meet the requirements you just get to stay the fuck at home

@DdraigGoch children go full fare once they are 2 years old and over. Me and DS have been travelling since he was 18months.... I pay full fare for him.

@Mojoj if people don't fit in a normal seat, how do they fly now?