General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsAcademic calls for pay-as-you-weigh flight fares
Source: The Telegraph (UK)
Charging overweight fliers more would help carriers recoup the cost of the extra fuel required to carry them.
The idea has been floated in the Journal of Revenue and Pricing Management publication, by Bharat P Bhatta, an academic in Norway.
He suggests three methods of implementing the scheme. A straightforward price per kilogram, a fixed low fare with heavier passengers paying a surcharge and lighter passengers being offered a discount.
The third option would see passengers divided into three bands heavy, normal and light and being charged accordingly.
Read more: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/aviation/9950911/Academic-calls-for-pay-as-you-weigh-flight-fares.html
Cirque du So-What
(25,941 posts)southernyankeebelle
(11,304 posts)long hair or brown eyes. Then maybe it will be all women on flights only. Then only americans can fly on this flight. So on, so on, and so on. This my friends is a slipper slop. It isn't right. Heavy people already have to pay more money for cloths and I'm not saying we shouldn't. But flying is another thing. Gas prices change all the time to fill a plane up. Maybe people should try to hurt businesses in their pocket books for a change. Just like african-american communities did that to businesses that weren't treating them right. This isn't right.
msongs
(67,417 posts)duffyduff
(3,251 posts)ZOB
(151 posts)Fares would be posted per pound and each person would step into a booth with their luggage. They'd be weighed privately and get a receipt for the fare.
Sounds like a great idea to me...and I'm no longer the slim 20-year-old that I was 25 years ago.
northoftheborder
(7,572 posts)cthulu2016
(10,960 posts)southernyankeebelle
(11,304 posts)I even step a foot on the plane.
randome
(34,845 posts)mrsadm
(1,198 posts)Skittles
(153,169 posts)anyone with B.O.
madmom
(9,681 posts)Skittles
(153,169 posts)Union Scribe
(7,099 posts)I think some of those folks burn out their olfactory sense and can't tell how intense their scent is.
timdog44
(1,388 posts)people with stinky feet that are size 13 to boot
duffyduff
(3,251 posts)You have to be almost anorexic to fit comfortably in those seats; I am not kidding.
NWHarkness
(3,290 posts)lynne
(3,118 posts)- if they want extra room to move those long legs, they pay to get bumped up. Otherwise they must cram their frame into the same size space allotted for everyone else, including children.
Tall people are likely to be heavier, too, just because there's so much more to them. This would be discriminatory to many tall people, too.
Or you plan ahead and pay extra to get the bulkhead seats only to have a steward/ess give it away to someone with a baby, child, extra luggage because you know their unplanned needs take precedent over your planned and pre-purchased ones.
Honeycombe8
(37,648 posts)Or black people? We can separate people into all sorts of categories, making some categories "better" than others.
Nye Bevan
(25,406 posts)It does, however, cost the airline more to fly a 200 lb white person somewhere than a 150 lb black person.
Just like it costs more to send a package weighing 200 lb via FedEx than a package weighing 150 lb.
So the analogies people have raised about race, religious, or even "ugliness" discrimination are red herrings. Going strictly by economics, the Norwegian professor is correct. However, I do hasten to add that I personally do not endorse this, as obviously people who weigh more would find it embarrassing and offensive. Also, some people might be tempted to try unhealthy starvation diets in the run-up to their flight, which is obviously not a healthy thing to do.
Honeycombe8
(37,648 posts)smell, religious beliefs. At one time or other, people have thought such reasons were very good reasons to segregate people. It's either money or some other reason.
That's the point.
If someone wanted to make black people sit in a different room at work because they smell different, and someone pointed out that's like paying fat people less because they take up more office space, someone could've logically responded that a fat person didn't smell bad, so the analogy is incorrect.
(Smell different...true enough, that was a stereotype I heard about minorities when I was growing up.)
The point being....it's not a good idea to segregate a group of people in such a way as to make them feel less than others, even if on the surface, it makes sense to some at the time.
cthulu2016
(10,960 posts)Honeycombe8
(37,648 posts)cthulu2016
(10,960 posts)Since flight cost is weight sensitive, when pricing an airfare one would expect to see a flat fee per seat and a weight charge for everything the passenger is putting on the plane -- checked luggage, hand luggage and passenger.
We do not, probably because ships and trains are not so weight sensitive, and flying started as a luxury.
Honeycombe8
(37,648 posts)rest of the group, for any reason at all.....that is not common sense. That is immoral. Even if at the time, it makes sense to some who don't see the cruelty of it.
Should chubby kids at school be pulled out of the lunch line and made to go to lunch in their own line, where they pay more than the other kids? Should skinny kids at school be forced to be in their own lunch line, called the skinny line, where they pay less for lunch?
If we want to go that route, there's all sorts of ways we can segregate people by weight, like cattle.
People are not cattle. The airlines should have one fare for a seat, and that's it.
Evoman
(8,040 posts)Is it really THAT much. Should a man who weighs twice as much as a woman really pay double the ticket? How much does it cost to run the plane empty as opposed to filled with people? I really wonder.
2ndAmForComputers
(3,527 posts)Wikipedia says an Airbus A320 weighs 42,600 kg and can hold 180 people. For a 70 kg average, they weigh 12,600 kg. So the average person's weight contribution to total weight is 29.6%.
A person who weighs twice as much would have to pay 29.6% more then. But that's an upper bound, because there are so many other costs that don't depend on weight.
Blue_Tires
(55,445 posts)Honeycombe8
(37,648 posts)A plane full of people brings in a certain amount of money for the airline, and the fare should be the same, except for children and if certain people get a discount.
Until recently it was legal to charge women more for an ins. policy than a man, for the same policy. It is now illegal, as it should be.
Costs for a company are costs. If someone is 6'4", it is discriminatory to charge him more than the other passengers.
It makes sense at first blush. That's how it starts....discrimination. There is ALWAYS some reason for it at the time. And others go along with it, because, after all...."it's not me."
It's just a ruse to get more money. If they need to raise rates, they should raise them, and not try to pit people against each other or make some feel less than others. What are they going to do...have a weight scale by the checkin desk? Or have a "tall" line and a "fat" line and a "skinny" line? Might as well have a "Jewish" line.
BTW...black people will disproportionately be affected by a weight surcharge, IMO.
GaYellowDawg
(4,447 posts)I hope Bharat Bhatta loses 90% of his thyroid function, gains 300 pounds, and never manages to take more than 5-6 pounds of it off. Fucker.
distantearlywarning
(4,475 posts)Also the very athletic will be punished. Just for example, I have a husband who only has 14% body fat, but has a BMI that puts him into the overweight category, because he works out a lot and builds muscle easily. He'd for sure be one of the people paying more for the "privilege" of flying, even though he's not fat at all.
And I say this as someone who is overweight (but also short and female).
So bring it on, I guess. It would be quite a change to have something happen in this country that was systemically and disproportionately bad for men. Might be a learning experience or something.
Personally, I would happily pay a little extra for my fat ass, just as long as I was able to watch the all the discussions between the airline people and 6'5" guys and weightlifters who are very proud of their gym-going, etc etc, also have to pay the FATTIE tax to get on the airplane.
Arcanetrance
(2,670 posts)I used to play football but still workout regularly and am built like a wall my body is fit and fits in the seats fine but my shoulders go over into the other seat or seats. I'm considered over weight when you do the whole weight height thing but have little actual fat
Floyd_Gondolli
(1,277 posts)I can see it now at the gate or baggage check in: "Okay everyone step up on the scales one at a time."
And people think airports are a pain in the ass now...
Tommy_Carcetti
(43,182 posts)Cali_Democrat
(30,439 posts)British news outlets are known for exaggeration and sensationalism.
This will never happen.
Blue_Tires
(55,445 posts)Who has taken "Pass every conceivable cost along to the customer in exchange for the rock bottom fare" to incredibly imaginative levels...
If there is ANY airline who would switch to this model first, it's RyanAir...
jmowreader
(50,559 posts)In the 1970s they ran an article detailing ways airlines could make more money, including selling ads on flight attendants' uniforms and using aircraft only large enough to hold the people who paid to fly. One of their ideas was to weigh the passengers.
Blue_Tires
(55,445 posts)sibelian
(7,804 posts)Just sayin'.
n2doc
(47,953 posts)Should make families with lots of small kids happy to fly again.
And will people resort to fasting/throwing up prior to their check in to save weight?
tabasco
(22,974 posts)Why should I pay more to subsidize the flight of someone who weighs twice as much?
Liberal In Texas
(13,556 posts)From a 2009 article: http://www.witness.co.za/index.php?showcontent&global[_id]=32804
I could see this happening someday.
The only time I was ever asked my weight before a flight was when I flew in a blimp.
gollygee
(22,336 posts)So women would generally pay less than men? And kids would be really cheap, right? They'll never let me pay that little to fly my kids somewhere, and I don't think it costs THAT much less to fly a 150 pound person than a 200 pound person. Not enough to make it worth embarrassing their customers, and to deal with the headache of having to weigh people before charging them for their ticket. (Goodbye, internet sales.)
I don't think this idea would ever fly. (lol)