Should fatties pay more for flights?

[Spudders]

Story on sky news today, I agree with this, I think fatties should pay more on flights. I recently went on a flight with only hand luggage, but I went slightly over the allowable weight so had to pay a £40 additional charge each way. Had the extra weight been on my fat man tits rather than an extra laptop, that weight would have been fine, this seems a bit unfair in my opinion, what are your thoughts?

 

http://news.sky.com/story/1069283/fat-chance-of-pay-what-you-weigh-airfares

 

Fat Chance Of Pay-What-You-Weigh Airfares?

 

The controversial pay-as-you-weigh pricing scheme has been mooted by a Norwegian professor who argues that weight and space should be taken into account by airlines pricing their tickets.

Writing in this month's Journal of Revenue and Pricing Management, Dr Bharat P Bhatta has put forward three proposals.

:: Fare according to actual weight: Charging passengers according to how much they and their belongings weigh, fixing a rate for kilograms per passenger so that a person weighing 60kg (132lbs or nine stone 6lbs) pays half the airfare of a 120kg (264lbs or 18 stone 12lbs) person;

:: Base fare minus or plus an extra charge: This option involves charging a fixed base rate, with an additional charge for heavier passengers to cover the extra costs. Every passenger could have a different fare according to this option;

:: Same fare if the passenger has an average weight, but discounted/extra fare for low/excess weight below/above a certain limit. This option results in three types of fares: high fares, average fares and low fares.

Dr Bhatta, of the Sogn og Fjordane University College in Norway, thinks the third option is most suitable for implementation.

"Charging according to weight and space is a universally accepted principle, not only in transportation, but also in other services," he said.

"As weight and space are far more important in aviation than other modes of transport, airlines should take this into account when pricing their tickets."

Dr Ian Yeoman, editor of the Journal of Revenue and Pricing Management, threw his weight behind the suggestion.

"For airlines, every extra kilogram means more expensive jet fuel must be burned, which leads to CO2 emissions and financial cost," he said.

"As the airline industry is fraught with financial difficulties, marginally profitable and has seen exponential growth in the last decade, maybe they should be looking to introduce scales at the check-in."

[pap]

Not that I normally give a crap about the concerns of the longshank crowd, but doesn't this discriminate against tall people?

[Turkish]

If this means that tourist destinations around the world are no longer full of fat, stupid, scruffy, drunken sunburnt people making arses of themselves then I am all for it.

[Whitey Grandad]

Not that I normally give a crap about the concerns of the longshank crowd, but doesn't this discriminate against tall people?

 

And fat ones.

[pap]

And fat ones.

 

Actually pretty good financial news for me. I'm just over 10 stone

[Kingsland Codger]

Alternatively, could it be argued if a chubby traveller has difficulty fitting into the airline seat then he is receiving a faulty product and therefore entitled to a refund?

[dubai_phil]

Not that I normally give a crap about the concerns of the longshank crowd, but doesn't this discriminate against tall people?

 

Tall people are already discriminated against.

 

You should try sitting in a Ryan Air seat for two hours and being 6ft tall...

 

In respect of the OP fatties are now being told to buy two seats on many airlines, especially in the US. The favourite ruse is "On Safety Grounds" ie they do not fit between the armrests..

 

It's one of those negative parts of an expats' life that Turks never gets to read about. 8+ hours flying home in economy with a drunk, loud, obese Jock/Scouser/Yank next to you.........

[JackFrost]

Not that I normally give a crap about the concerns of the longshank crowd, but doesn't this discriminate against tall people?

 

and bodybuilders.

 

This guy is well over 18 stone but I'd challenge anyone to go up to him and call him fat

 

[Turkish]

and bodybuilders.

 

This guy is well over 18 stone but I'd challenge anyone to go up to him and call him fat

 

 

He'd move like a bear with a dislocated shoulder. Granted, you'd be in trouble if he got hold of you, but fight him from distance, a few kicks to the knees and groin and follow up with a smash into the throat, back of the head and knee into the nose as he falls forward will do for him. Then scan for any of his mates before making your exit.

[pap]

Tall people are already discriminated against.

 

You should try sitting in a Ryan Air seat for two hours and being 6ft tall...

 

In respect of the OP fatties are now being told to buy two seats on many airlines, especially in the US. The favourite ruse is "On Safety Grounds" ie they do not fit between the armrests..

 

It's one of those negative parts of an expats' life that Turks never gets to read about. 8+ hours flying home in economy with a drunk, loud, obese Jock/Scouser/Yank next to you.........

 

Ah, quit your bleating.

 

"Mwah mwah! I'm tall. I live in paradise where I am attended to by modern-day serfs. I spend all my time with celebrities. And yet, I have to sit next to people I wouldn't necessarily want to on airplanes!"

 

Wha', you think none of us has ever taken long-haul before?

 

[jjsaint]

It's discriminatory against men.

 

My penis alone weighs 30 kilos.

[Tokyo-Saint]

He'd move like a bear with a dislocated shoulder. Granted, you'd be in trouble if he got hold of you, but fight him from distance, a few kicks to the knees and groin and follow up with a smash into the throat, back of the head and knee into the nose as he falls forward will do for him. Then scan for any of his mates before making your exit.

 

And shoot and move, and shoot and move.

 

[hypochondriac]

It's move and fire...

[pap]

And shoot and move, and shoot and move.

 

 

The rubber has perished, apparently.

[dubai_phil]

Ah, quit your bleating.

 

"Mwah mwah! I'm tall. I live in paradise where I am attended to by modern-day serfs. I spend all my time with celebrities. And yet, I have to sit next to people I wouldn't necessarily want to on airplanes!"

 

Wha', you think none of us has ever taken long-haul before?

 

 

 

I actually only have one beef about airplanes at the moment and that is the nonsensical APD that the Brits decided to put on the cost of flights.

I'm all in favour of taxing flying, no problem with that BUT FFS if you are in a "Common Market" and you are "Competing" for business, then FFS make the tax the same as it is in each of your competitors.

 

I used to fly back home while travelling to work or hols in Europe & always route through blighty on a stop over to see friends family and cricket/footie, but nowadays it costs me almost 200 quid in extra taxes to do that rather than connecting through Munich or Frankfurt.

So instead of sitting next to p1ssed Glaswegians for 8 hours I get the joy of sitting next to German Tourists or Businessmen. Now THEY can take obnoxiousness to an almost mountainous level. And a lot of them are quite rotund as well

[buctootim]

 

I actually only have one beef about airplanes at the moment and that is the nonsensical APD that the Brits decided to put on the cost of flights.

I'm all in favour of taxing flying, no problem with that BUT FFS if you are in a "Common Market" and you are "Competing" for business, then FFS make the tax the same as it is in each of your competitors.

 

I used to fly back home while travelling to work or hols in Europe & always route through blighty on a stop over to see friends family and cricket/footie, but nowadays it costs me almost 200 quid in extra taxes to do that rather than connecting through Munich or Frankfurt.

So instead of sitting next to p1ssed Glaswegians for 8 hours I get the joy of sitting next to German Tourists or Businessmen. Now THEY can take obnoxiousness to an almost mountainous level. And a lot of them are quite rotund as well

 

The capacity of people to moan about things they havent understood is breathtaking.

 

1. fly from Dubai to work in Europe but taking a stopover for a few days in UK = 2 separate journeys flights = 2 x tax.

2. fly from Dubai to work in Europe via Frankfurt on a connecting flight = 1 journey and 1 tax.

 

 

Now Im just waiting for the complaints about the unfair 'government tax' fuel surcharge that is actually charged by the airlines but designed to make it look like their prices are lower and the taxes are lower.

[Tokyo-Saint]

It's move and fire...

 

Turkish can you confirm. If you were attacking a terrorist from behind would you move until you shot or would you just unload your weapon as soon as you saw him?

[pap]

I'm not really for any of this weight-based stuff. I can see how, scientifically, it makes a certain degree of sense. It works on a fuel-cost-per-kg level, at least.

 

However, as we've already discussed, there are plenty of factors that go into determining a person's mass, including height and the ol' fat-to-muscle ratio.

 

The annoyance for the fellow passenger is actually your obese passenger; the sort that have rolls of flab that occupy adjacent tea tables. The in-flight attendants are normally good enough at sorting upgrades to help the perpetually crushed, but it can be a p!sser on a fully booked flight.

 

If airlines are going to discriminate, then they should take a stand and ban obese people entirely. They could call the campaign "Pigs Won't Fly" or something. They're not really interested in that though. This is just a ruse to trouser more cash from people who probably feel pretty crappy about being portly anyway.

[Barry Sanchez]

They could do it on bmi, I am all for it, no shame these fat bastards.

[Barry Sanchez]

The capacity of people to moan about things they havent understood is breathtaking.

 

1. fly from Dubai to work in Europe but taking a stopover for a few days in UK = 2 separate journeys flights = 2 x tax.

2. fly from Dubai to work in Europe via Frankfurt on a connecting flight = 1 journey and 1 tax.

 

 

Now Im just waiting for the complaints about the unfair 'government tax' fuel surcharge that is actually charged by the airlines but designed to make it look like their prices are lower and the taxes are lower.

 

Not neccessarily as if you book a break of journey its only one ticket but you are using it twice so only one tax.

[Hockey_saint]

To be honest, a person's weight when you take into all the other things that weigh a plane down is tiny so I don't see the point unless the plane is full of morbidly obese people who probably are not fit enough to fly in the first place. I used to be quite fat but am now a bit worryingly thin and I'm placing money the person that wrote this report is also slim so they really have no idea.

 

It's just a load of nonsense and a way for people to be subjected to yet more discrimination.

[tony13579]

You have to be thin to fit in an airline 17" seat. Thier customer base who pay the fares, are generaly older and have more money than the skinny ones who moan. No car manufacturer would sell a car for the general market with 17" seats.

 

Its easy to start threads like this when you are under 25.

I wonder what weight the OP will be at 45???

Edited 25 March, 2013 by tony13579

[JPTCount]

fat people should pay more for everything, the don't pay nearly as much tax as they have spent upon them

 

saw a fat ***** with her arm in a cast in Eastleigh, bet that fat botch just fell over

 

lulz

[Tokyo-Saint]

Spudders aint 25 Tone, full information can be found here: http://www.saintsweb.co.uk/showthread.php?43892-Pictures-of-posters

[St Jim]

I think flight costs should be reduced at purchase and additional costs applied at the airport based on a direct correlation of the weight of the person travelling plus their baggage.

[Dibden Purlieu Saint]

And shoot and move, and shoot and move.

 

 

Stop getting Partridge wrong...

[Spudders]

Its easy to start threads like this when you are under 25.

I wonder what weight the OP will be at 45???

Hi tony, I'm very aware of my weight and how easily it fluctuates. Unfortunately I love eating & I do eat a lot. I am also a fatist, I can't & won't deny that I find fat people disgusting. However my feelings do ensure that once I get to a certain point in weight I do something about myself and I'll put in the effort to get back in shape.

 

I'll put money on me being around the same weight when I'm 45 as I am now, hopefully I'll be a bit lighter as I'm actually close to my cutoff point now as I've had a tough few months & taken comfort from my good friends Ben & Jerry a lot recently.

 

My point is that if airlines are so strict with the weight of people's hand luggage (basically an extra laptop put mine over the limit) why are people's weight not taken into consideration?

[suewhistle]

There usd to be a rather fat Jersey senator called Le Mesurier (IIRC) who used to take the biplane Dragon Rapide flight from Southampton airport. When he was booked to fly they used to ask for one of the lighter pilots, restricted crew luggage and tried to upload a little less fuel, depending on the winds. All true, courtesy of my Dad who used to do the load sheets!

[Chez]

If this means that tourist destinations around the world are no longer full of fat, stupid, scruffy, drunken sunburnt people making arses of themselves then I am all for it.

 

is there some correlation between then between weight, stupidity, scruffiness and drunkeness?

[Barry Sanchez]

To be honest, a person's weight when you take into all the other things that weigh a plane down is tiny so I don't see the point unless the plane is full of morbidly obese people who probably are not fit enough to fly in the first place. I used to be quite fat but am now a bit worryingly thin and I'm placing money the person that wrote this report is also slim so they really have no idea.

 

It's just a load of nonsense and a way for people to be subjected to yet more discrimination.

 

Who cares, if they eat too much and are fat I have no sympathy.

[Barry Sanchez]

is there some correlation between then between weight, stupidity, scruffiness and drunkeness?

 

Most certainly.

[swannymere]

fat people should pay more for everything, the don't pay nearly as much tax as they have spent upon them

 

You could argue that us fatties die younger and don't incur the cost that being unable to dress or bathe yourself for the last 20 years of our lives, surely sitting in a seat drooling for 20 years is more of a drain on resources than a fatty working and paying taxes?

[Barry Sanchez]

You could argue that us fatties die younger and don't incur the cost that being unable to dress or bathe yourself for the last 20 years of our lives, surely sitting in a seat drooling for 20 years is more of a drain on resources than a fatty working and paying taxes?

 

Clothing is subsidised as well, you should pay for the amount of material used.

[CB Saint]

You could argue that us fatties die younger and don't incur the cost that being unable to dress or bathe yourself for the last 20 years of our lives, surely sitting in a seat drooling for 20 years is more of a drain on resources than a fatty working and paying taxes?

 

Sounds like we should force feed anyone over the age of 60 a high transfat, high salt diet and solve the pension crisis at the same time.

[LVSaint]

Had the extra weight been on my fat man tits rather than an extra laptop, that weight would have been fine, this seems a bit unfair in my opinion, what are your thoughts?

 

[mcjwills]

Is this going to have the effect of causing even more young ladies turning anorexic or bulimic to try and reduce the cost of their air fare?

[mcjwills]

Who cares, if they eat too much and are fat I have no sympathy.

 

When you reach your fifties and that middle aged spread appears and gets more difficult to shift, then tell me that you have no sympathy and its down to eating too much, I eat less than 2000 calories a day, but still find the spare tyre hard to shift. As you get older your metabolism changes and it its harder to keep the weight off, and health issues make it harder to do as much exercise as you would like.

[CB Saint]

Just marry a tiny bird then you can offset your extra pounds. Problem solved

[Bearsy]

i was on plane one time & this indian dude was complaining bout having to sit next to mega-fat american cos his thighs was totally encroaching on indian's airspace. Indian demanded to be reseated but there weren't no spare seats so he ended up standing at back of plane for whole flight. It was long haul to americas.

[SuperMikey]

I'm a larger gent (as i'm sure Turkish will verify) and I think this is a decent idea. However, it will never happen because people will say it's discriminatory.

[Turkish]

is there some correlation between then between weight, stupidity, scruffiness and drunkeness?

 

They are intrinsically linked. Generally people that are fat are also stupid as they are too thick to realise their gluttony and lack of pride is destroying them, they don't care of their appearance so are invariably scruffy and to overcome the disgust they feel when they look in the mirror they resort to drinking copious amounts. This is in an attempt to be either the fat, funny one or for false confidence to overcome deep seated insecurity due to their vile appearance and stupidity.

[Turkish]

I'm a larger gent (as i'm sure Turkish will verify) and I think this is a decent idea. However, it will never happen because people will say it's discriminatory.

 

Lets just say super Mikey doesn't appear to be making things up so he seem interesting when he lists 'eating' as a hobby on his twitter profile.

[captainchris]

I have to say that having a large person sat next to me on a plane and 'overflowing' into my seat is not acceptable - charge em more - but give a bigger seat too meaning they pay lots more......

To be frank 'sharing' my seat with someone else is not what I'm looking to buy in my ticket price.

The point the person makes about being only just over weight on luggage but being charged £40.00 is valid too...

[SuperMikey]

Lets just say super Mikey doesn't appear to be making things up so he seem interesting when he lists 'eating' as a hobby on his twitter profile.

 

Lies!

 

"This is the official Twitter page for [NAME WITHHELD FOR LEGAL REASONS]. Stay tuned for all the latest news on his thoughts, feelings and bowel movements."

[Turkish]

Lies!

 

"This is the official Twitter page for [NAME WITHHELD FOR LEGAL REASONS]. Stay tuned for all the latest news on his thoughts, feelings and bowel movements."

 

Ha! You've changed it then. It used to list 'eating' as one of your hobbies.

[SuperMikey]

Ha! You've changed it then. It used to list 'eating' as one of your hobbies.

 

Changed it a while ago.

 

 

.....hang on a second, are you stalking me?!

[Turkish]

Changed it a while ago.

 

 

.....hang on a second, are you stalking me?!

 

I know where you work, I know your twitter profile, I know the view from your bedroom window.....be afraid.

[GAS]

Why don't the airlines just seat a fat person next to a skiny person. So it would be fat, skinny, fat, skiny... you get the picture. Then eventually you would get to the regular sizes who could sit where they want. This way those rich airline types don't get to make more money.

[SuperMikey]

I know where you work, I know your twitter profile, I know the view from your bedroom window.....be afraid.

 

And yet I know nothing about you, my internet arch-nemesis. This simply won't stand.

 

If you see an unmarked van following you around for the next few days, don't worry about it. It's nothing.

[Hockey_saint]

When you reach your fifties and that middle aged spread appears and gets more difficult to shift, then tell me that you have no sympathy and its down to eating too much, I eat less than 2000 calories a day, but still find the spare tyre hard to shift. As you get older your metabolism changes and it its harder to keep the weight off, and health issues make it harder to do as much exercise as you would like.

 

Completely agree. I was once very fat and the reason for this was complex....essentially I had a mechanical device inside me keeping me alive that was coated in a material I (the doctors thought at the time) was allergic to and they couldn't possibly remove it until a new one without said material was made and shipped, so the docs pumped with full of medical steroids for months and whilst being sick *ipso not weightlifting...I became incredibly fat....ok, so it all went very quickly when it was all done but I know I came across a large number of ignorant pr!ck5 who made statements like that Barry Sanchez so, seriously, maybe think about the next fat person you see.

 

pretty narrow-minded view I'm afraid.