Airline to increase fares for overweight passengers

BlahISuck said:

Airplanes have to be lightweight in order to achieve lift.

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If they're so heavy that it puts the ability to fly in jeopardy like you say, I'd much rather they just not allow that person to board than have them pay more to board and be like "meh, we'll risk it".

So, I don't buy that argument

I don't think its discrimination at all. You're paying for a service that costs the company money. They're not saying "you're fat, so you must pay more", they're saying "more weight costs us more to transport and these excess costs must come from somewhere other than our employees paychecks". Air flight ticket prices should have always been this way.

Not everything is an attack on certain groups of people. We shouldn't forget that in this era of social justice.

Raising awareness of the obesity epidemic isn't a bad thing, either...

TRIFORCE89 said:

If they're so heavy that it puts the ability to fly in jeopardy like you say, I'd much rather they just not allow that person to board than have them pay more to board and be like "meh, we'll risk it".

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Okay, so I think the order I presented my argument misconstrued what I intended to say. By arguing that aircraft rely on a lift force to keep them in the air, and arguing to hyperbole that they might fall out of the air, I meant to emphasize that the aircraft is more sensitive to its weight than other forms of transport. So it's not so much that an extra 1000 kg here or there more will put the ability to fly at jeopardy, but that extra weight translates into fuel costs that have to be paid by somebody. Realistically, some extra human weight on a plane comes nowhere close to threatening its airworthiness, I agree with you there for sure. But that, let's say 1%, increase in weight requires a corresponding amount of fuel that adds up over time on the company's income statements. This the company pushes on to consumers based on their weight - how much fuel they actually use - and I have no problem with that. Also, Samoa Air don't use jet planes, they have these smaller 10 or less seater planes and they only have three of them in their fleet. So the weight difference of any one passenger matters a lot more, and fuel costs are a significantly larger part of their expenses. In this context, their pricing scheme makes a lot more sense.

Okay, I did my own math. Looking quickly with google it seems a plan like a 747 might weigh around 800,00 lbs and might carry up to 400-500 people depending on the type. So lets say we've got 450 people, each 150 lbs and carrying 50 lbs of luggage (which is a lot of luggage, more than I think people normally bring) so 450 person/luggage units each 200 lbs is 90,000, which is a little over 10% of the weight of the plane. To me that says that the difference between one person being 120 lbs and one being 190 lbs isn't that much. If the plane were transporting a team of sumo wrestlers I could see a need to charge by weight, but since there are already weight limits on luggage and people don't vary so dramatically in weight it doesn't make much sense to me to price things based on weight.

AND how would you even buy a ticket when your weight could change by the day of your flight? I can just imagine making everyone wait (ha!) to pay on the day of the flight, standing in even longer lines to get properly weighed in front of everyone. I mean, the time wasted doing that probably would negate any extra money the airlines would make, and it would piss off a lot of people.

You're leaving out the fact that the airline companies have to pay for fuel. And you haven't read my post about the context in which Samoa air is changing its pricing model.

Airline companies aren't responsible for how one lives their life. Think of it more like a contract: I predict myself to be X weight by Y day. If I break the contract, I pay a little more. I don't think it's difficult for somebody to stop their weight increasing, for the same reason it's difficult for somebody to lose weight quickly as well.

Waiting isn't terrible when Samoa Air planes only carry 10 or less people. Although it may make you feel more self-conscious.

Does that mean people underweight get discounts? How about the little kids who way next to nothing?

This is kind of silly, in my opinion. Taking weight into account of ticket price is being very specific. Not to mention time consuming. You mean people are going to have to get themselves weighed when checking in their luggage? That's going to anger a lot of people waiting in line and is just going to take up unnecessary time.

Gosh, I hope this isn't something that catches on between other airlines. You know airline companies will look for any new way to get more money and this could be the start of a new fad for them.

I guess there is a bright side to this though. If people start to realize their weight is costing them more money that they don't otherwise need to be spending, then perhaps they will become more aware of their own personal health and obesity issues and work to lose a few pounds.

I still think this is a silly policy though.

This is just plain asking for a discrimination lawsuit from a customer. It's basically profiling.

I think price discrimination is usually legal in most places though. And it's clear in the business's policy and they're a private entity, so I don't think you can force them to change their policy.

BlahISuck said:

I think price discrimination is usually legal in most places though. And it's clear in the business's policy and they're a private entity, so I don't think you can force them to change their policy.

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Maybe in Samoa. In the US, it is illegal. Putting something in a "policy" doesn't make you immune from US anti-discrimination law. I can't start a business with a sign that says "company policy is blacks pay double." It just doesn't work that way.

I think this is unfair because weight is not always something that you can control. Sometimes it is, sometimes it isn't. It's unfair to ask someone to pay more for identical service for something they quite possibly don't have any control over. What about tall people? There's a direct correlation between height and weight; this sort of thing would punish you for being taller. That's absurd.