Should obese people have to pay for an extra airplane seat?

I kind of remember that someone told me that in the very beginning of passengers´flight person plus luggage were weighed together.
Of course in those days planes were smaller and the amount of weight carried had to be much more controlled.
I would like this even today. I have a suitcase under 20 kilos and no handluggage. The next person brings everything into the cabin and fill up every space they can find.
A very skinny person can also be handicapped and really need their whole seat for comfort. Why should then an obese person have more right than a skinny person?
Let us pay a fixed amount for a flight ticket, when checking in we will be weighed including all luggage and we will either have to pay more or we will get money back.

Cargo costing is always quoted by weight or volume, whichever is higher. Goes for ships, planes, trains, trucks, everything. However all companies can adjust their own policies depending on market conditions and applicable law, eg hazardous cargoes cost extra.

And all I can say in reference to seat size and leg room is I feel uncomfortable and squeezed in and I am 5'2" and 108 lbs. So I can't imagine how an average size man would feel - actually I can my husband is one - probably why he sits in the aisle and dangles his legs in it.

I posted it as an example of the ADA applying to people who are obese, which Linkat had questioned.

The ADA does not just cover employment:



http://www.ada.gov/publicat.htm

The comment was about your link - which does just cover employment - not the ADA legislation as a whole.

Yes, I know.

It went like this:

Does the ADA ever apply to individuals who are obese?

Yes, it does.



This means that it's very possible that if airlines made a practice of charging people extra simply if they're over a certain weight limit, that could be considered discrimination, especially if (as per what I quoted re: a previous case) the obesity was due to a "physiological disorder" that was "permanent" and that the person's weight gain was "not meaningfully voluntary."

And when had people been weight and price in the same manner as cargo in the history of the human race?

You missed the part about charging for cargo by weight or volume. Discrimination issues cannot apply, since both weight and volume are easily measurable.

Heh... of course discrimination issues can apply.

Obese people don't have to pay more than thin people if the total weight on an elevator goes over the limit.

Every time they get into an elevator, for starters - read the safety instructions "maximum weight", "maximum number of persons", they're posted right inside every elevator. Get a grip, Bill, you don't make sense.

The operator has to pay, not the passengers, in the form of adjusting number of persons maximum in each elevator car, or by having to order stronger machinery for new elevators. Both these things cost money - what's the matter with you, Sozobe, you usually catch on faster than that.

imo the problem started with the de-regulation of airline fares . when fares were regulated , carriers had to compete by providing "comfort" to passengers ; now most flyers look at the "end price " .
i remember the days when KLM provided a complete hot breakfast on oversears flights - served on china , real cutlery , linen napkins - the washrooms stocked with the finest soaps and even cologne !
nowadays most people really just want to get from A to B - at the lowest cost - and airlines have the shelflife of fresh fish - hardly a month goes by without another airline going belly-up ... and service ? what service ?
but we get what we pay for !
hbg

last time we flew to europe , we flew "club class" on a charter airline - just like in the good old days . yes , it did cost more than cattle-class , but we rather fly less often and fly in comfort when we do .
hbg

If the operator has to pay, and not the riders, there is no discrimination between obese and thin people.

Yeah but cargo is just loaded into the plane and adjusted to fit. A seat is fixed as to the amount of room it takes. So whether you weigh 40 pounds or 240 pounds, you take one seat and therefore one ticket.

Well, we can and do cry discrimination on just about anything these days. I don't care if they pay by weight or by seat. My issue is safety: If the person cannot fit into one seat, then it stands to reason if they're crammed into it, they'll have a hard time getting out of it. That's not safe.

I don't care why they're obese - it's completely irrelevant. If you take your infant on an airplane and book a seat for them, you pay. They usually sit on mom or dad's lap. If you are overweight and need two seats to fit comfortably, you should pay. And the safety protocols should be followed, ie., armrests should be down, seatbelts should be buckle-able. If they can't do that, then take the train or bus.

The last plane I was on was very small and I don't think an overweight person could have gotten into the aisle, much less the space (between the seat chair and seat back in front of them) even to get into a seat. I also would not like to pay for being squashed because of someone else's size. Like Linkat said, we paid for the seat we're in, not 3/4 of it.

And overweight people should sit by the window so they don't impede their row-mates in case of an emergency.

Just my 2 cents' worth.

Edit: Oh, and I just watched a show on airline crashes - it seems they used a 175 lb average for each passenger and they've had to revise it to 200 lbs. A considerably overweight person could be as much as double that - might seem insignificant, but if you had a few of these, it would throw all their numbers out, so they should definitely weigh people as they check in. Some airlines are doing this as a case study so we'll see what happens with that.

linkat wrote :



what if ... airlines would seat two 240 pound passengers next to each other , would that constitute "cruel and unusual punishment" ?
hbg

When you mention sit by the window, the airlines require babies in car seats to be by the window for safety reasons in an emergency as the car seat sticks out a bit and would block you from trying to get out of the row. So it actually makes sense.

If obesity is a protected group then yes we would need to relook at the situation, however, safety should come before a protected group. For the safety of the obese individual as well as any other passenagers.

Nah as they would just bother each other. Maybe that is what should be done - have different areas of plane to accomodate all sorts of annoyances.

Heavy people have to sit next to each so all are uncomfortable, but only to each other. People with babies and small children need to sit together. And smelly people need another section. Then all would be happy.

What if you're a smelly overweight person with a baby?

You are to screw with my good idea didn't you---

Ah - brillance - they could sit on the fringes of the various groups!