Should fat people pay more?

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.