Weighting for the backlash

[quisensoucie]

Weighing aeroplane passengers is not a new phenomenon, so the 'fat-shaming' trope is rather misplaced
'In the early days of air travel, Airlines frequently weighed passengers and even crew to properly balance the smaller, less sophisticated aircraft, according to the Smithsonian.

Passenger weight can have an impact on another aspect of flying: seat size.'
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=www.smithsonianmag.com/air-space-magazine/then-amp-now-a-weighty-matter-46320857/&ved=2ahUKEwi8--2O452EAxU2a0EAHa-9B8sQFnoECCsQAQ&usg=AOvVaw36nIvu41LW3mTW1jC32O9v

https://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/airlines-weigh-passengers-check-in-baggage-cargo-balance-a8860071.html

This is a safety issue, not about making larger people pay more. But again, the science and physics are dismissed because 'feelings'

‘For those asking about mention of feelings, in Daily M today’

ah! Of course, this non-issue is from the Daily Fail!

Daily Fail - Fat people are too embarrassed to get weighed before getting in the plane!
Airlines - we aren’t weighing anyone. We don’t need to.
DF - their feelings will get hurt! The snowflake fat people
Airlines- we don’t need to weight people. And we can’t anyway, no infrastructure to do so.
DF - where do YOU stand in this ‘debate’ ? Should fatties lose weight or pay more?
Airlines - there is no debate.

Where is personal responsibility? I am very claustrophobic so pay extra for seats that have more space. No way I'd try and cram myself into a seat I didn't fit in, that's way more embarrassing than being discretely weighed with my luggage at checkin. it's nothing to do with fat shaming, it's physics. Tall family members have to pay for extra legroom seats because they cant phsically fold their legs into the space of a normal economy seat. Why should wide people be any different to long people?

It's no different to travelling with small children, everyone is side eyeing you at the gate thinking God I hope I'm not sat next to them. I've been on both sides of that equation. if you're very obese people are going to be thinking that at the gate, irrespective of whether you've been discretely weighed at checkin or not.

Yes, but I believe the OP is talking about enforced charging, not optional.

Why on earth would raising the arm rest on a seat be of benefit to the person who is already being squished though?

Blimey there are some weird ideas being put around about fuel (I'll get back to weight).

Dumping at the end of a flight is definitely not done as a matter as routine...

General policy (as agreed with the regulator) is carry enough for flight from departure to destination plus enough for a diversion to a nominated airport, plus some other buffers. The aircraft commander can opt to put even more on if for example the weather forecast is crappy but you shouldn't get to destination above maximum landing weight...there's no point.

Also maybe worth pointing out that putting lots of extra fuel over above what is needed for a flight makes the aircraft less efficient, you burn some of the extra fuel carrying the extra fuel which is not a good thing, especially for those who are fans of cheap flights.

As for passenger weighing..I suspect the outage bus in the MSM started rolling on this a few days ago when Finnair announced they were doing a survey to check their assumed weights were still correct...most airlines do similar at intervals over the years but nobody in the media could be bothered to read and understand what Finnair were up to:

https://www.finnair.com/fr-en/frequently-asked-questions/airport-and-flights/why-is-finnair-weighing-passengers-before-flying3267140

Not just fat people - taller people weigh more, as on average do Men.

Agreed.
I didn't restrict my original comment to weight, hence use of the word size.

Tall people should pay extra due to their height?

Have you actually read your own links?
No airline is suggesting such a thing, just another fat bashing thread

If their tallness/long legs causes their legs to intrude in the leg space of the neighbouring seats then perhaps yes.

I like the idea of everyone having an allowance, which includes weight of person + baggage, and anything over and above = charge.

Surely it can’t be just weight as a 6ft person will weigh a bit more than a 5ft person!

If their tallness/long legs causes their legs to intrude in the leg space of the neighbouring seats then perhaps yes.

😆

@Pandadunks others have reported similar reactions, but you can find them for yourself

The Mail certainly led with the story a few days back in the context of the Finnair survey (TBF they mentioned the reasons for it eventually, but probably well past the point most people had stopped reading).

From the airlines' POV weighing all passengers plus hand baggage would be a logistical nightmare ....just one of many reasons would be that many passengers these days don't use airport check in, they check in on line and are often HBO.

That would mean weighing would have to be done at the gate and that would really slow the whole loading and boarding process down to more of a crawl than it is now.

I didn't suggest it would. The point was if someone purchases 2 seats as they won't fit into 1, it only works if the armrest between their seats lifts up completely.

They're purchasing the other seat so that the only seat they spill into isn't occupied.

I take it you've never been unfortunate enough to sit beside someone who sits effectively diagonally in their seat and protrudes their legs in front of your seat as well as their own?

Except often when they do, it's because they don't physically fit into the seat. How comfortable do you expect you'd be with an arm rest cutting into your torso for however many hours? And that would be assuming the airline have the good grace not to assign your extra seat to someone else.

If someone is paying for more room, they should have full unobstructed use of it.

They're not paying for more room, as it stands, they're being charged not to inconvenience those around them.

I’m not even going to get het up about the weight-shaming part of the OP.
This is one of those hare-brained schemes where someone with no knowledge of aeronautics is given column inches to explain his “fuel-economy” theory to try to persuade the airline’s accountants and shareholders to install a policy that could lead to a potential reduction in passenger safety.
Aircraft are not the safest form of transport, but airlines currently operate above the minimum standards required to make the risk of, say, running out of fuel, an unlikely event.
Bits can break on them while they are in the air - they can keep flying. Fuel can suddenly start to leak while they are in the air - they can shut an engine down and keep flying.
Any rush to load the aircraft to near-perfect theoretical level of cargo vs. Fuel will inevitably lead to more frequent catastrophic events in flight. Commercial aircraft are, in some cases, over 30 years old: they do have a number of flight hours after which minor and major overhauls are mandatory, and carried out by aircraft engineers, but during my relative’s 40-year long career in aircraft engineering, there were a regular number of ad-hoc repairs to do between these checks, as well as the scheduled work - and most of that emergency repair work was fuel-leak related!
If this were introduced, I, for one, wouldn’t be setting foot on any flight…

@Anyotherdude where is the weight shaming in the OP?

@Spagb0l the OP seemed to be anticipating that their post would get people emotive about their choice of words in that way…

I agree with a PP that said that passengers who need more than one seat due to size, pay for one seat. I don't see how that's unfair.

And agree there are many many reasons for being overweight. But by far the most common is eating too much or too much of the wrong food.

Also it seems unfair to get charged a fortune for being a kilos over on a 15kg baggage limit, when someone else can literally be 30kg over a healthy weight.

I do understand the practicalities though of why weighing everyone and charging or allocating seats accordingly may not work

@DRS1970 the OP says in her opening post that it is NOT about charging people extra......

They are paying for more room. The reason may be so as to not inconvenience people but the tangible thing they pay their money for is more room.

I don't like to fly economy because I like more space and find it inconvenient to either have to get up to let someone out or to have someone have to get up to let me out. But I pay for a complete service, not just the bit that prevents inconvenience to me and others. The same is true of people who pay for an additional seat.