Should fat people pay more?

[chrisinhouston]

Found this on a travel blog. Makes you wonder if they can pass rules for fees for first and second checked bags why they don't have a fee for oversized people?

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Passenger creates big debate at American - I mean big!

This is sent to me with the absolute assurance that it's a genuine picture taken by a flight attendant at American Airlines. The F/A took it to show her manager what was happening on the aircraft (757???) and why she was unhappy about it. Seems the guy paid for only one seat and the gate staff let him board.

You can see the F/A's point of view - how the heck is s(he) supposed to deal with it. Sympathise with the guy or not, he's a major safety hazard in an evacuation, a gross inconvenience for the cabin crew, and I would suggest a totally unacceptable travelling companion for the guy next to him.

I don't know what the actual outcome was but it seems unimaginable that he was allowed to fly in the end. Not that anything on a commercial airline is actually unimaginable, but close anyway.

[squirell nutkin]

That person left the realm of fat a long, long time ago. He needs a new category that sums up his state succinctly. Fat, as large as it is, doesn't cover it.

I remember a bogus ad campaign by a PR company to test the power of internet sites/ads.

They announced a new airline that priced tickets by the passenger pound....and it was carbon neutral...the heavier you and your luggage are, the more trees they would plant.

Fly Derrie-Air -- "Pack Less, Weigh Less, Pay Less"

It goes on to explain how Dick Derrie, the founder, came up with the idea:

Dick's longing to plunge into Derrie-Air began in 1994, when he sent his first express package. "Heck," he reasoned to himself. "These sons-of-a-gun are making me pay by the pound! Now what if we ran an airline the same way..." The idea lay dormant until 2005, when Dick saw a popular film on global warming. He began to worry that if he didn't do something to cool off the planet, his grandchildren might never know the joy of hunting alligators on his marshy wetlands from the back of a two-ton truck. He called a meeting of Derrie Corp's board of directors the next day, and Derrie-Air was born.

Some people loved it and were ready to book their next flight on Derrie-Air...others were outraged.

Derrie-Air My Derriere

[richlevy]

While I'm not as fat as that guy I have to admit that I need a seatbelt extension.

In the end, paying for an extra seat doesn't work a lot ot the time because on many airlines the passenger is forced to give up the extra seat or can't get two assigned together. This means the extra seat is another fee with no benefit to the the obese passenger or anyone else.

Some airlines won't let a passenger book two adjoining seats:

http://consumerist.com/2009/05/delta...ing-seats.html

Here's what happened to me. First, I try to order two tickets online, but it says tickets cannot be assigned the same name. So then I try to call customer services, where after many times on hold while he checks with another person, the agent said he could help me. Only he gave me a price of nearly double the online price. After I protested, he gave me several different prices, finally ending on one that was $200 more than what I was looking at in front of me online. I told him I'd have to think about it.
I called back and spoke to another customer service agent who tells me that it can be done, but I have to speak to the department who assists with online purchases and they can help me make my purchase. After one of the longest periods I have ever spent on hold, I spoke to yet another agent who told me that I could try putting in a middle initial on one of the names to purchase the two seats, however he said, just so I know, they will give my second seat away if they need it, even if I paid for it. At this point, I had spent 1.5 hours on the phone (most of it on hold) and I hung up in a rage.

BTW, if I pay for an extra seat and the stewardess gives it away, the first call I make is to my credit card company. If they only deliver one seat, I only pay for one seat.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Just travel with a very skinny person.

[Clodfobble]

I don't understand why they don't just force a ticket purchase in first class instead. Those seats are far larger.

[DanaC]

I'm not one of life's flyers, so forgive me if this is a dumb question: what happens when someone who has particular needs due to disablement (wheelchair and restricted mobility, fo example) books a flight?

[Clodfobble]

They are lifted into the airplane seat, and their (airport-issued) wheelchair is folded up and stored at the front of the aisle. Their own personal non-folding wheelchair gets checked and stored underneath the plane. At some point the airlines always have the "you're too unhealthy to fly" card they can play at their discretion. But so far they haven't been allowed to classify fat people as unhealthy.

[xoxoxoBruce]

I thought all wheelchairs fold??

[Clodfobble]

Not the fancy motorized ones. They're not as common, and the people who use them also tend to have lifts in their vehicles and everything--but I figured Dana was asking about a more severely disabled person.

[monster]

If you're so disabled you need an assistant to fly with you, their seat is not free. If your so big you need two seats, you should have to pay for it. And you should be able to use it. It's ridiculous that airlines should feel they can take the extra seat away or not put the large traveller's two seats together.

[squirell nutkin]

I was just thinking that since there is a stupid tax, there ought to be a fat tax. fair's fair.

[toranokaze]

You're wrong there should be a fair tax

[lumberjim]

I'm an extremely ambulatory big fat guy, and I'm here to tell you that I am just about as big as you can be and still fit in a regular coach seat.

at 6'2" ish and 290.....it would suck if I had to fly on a regular. I would probably get motivated to lose some fucking weight.

[glatt]

In the land of the airplanes, the short people are king.