In a turn of events that I think would be totally awesome for both our Country and Health Care costs. A group of American Airlines are considering breaching the taboo of embarrassing passengers by charging extra for obesity. Not sure how this would work but I for one would be a ethusiastic supporter of such a change…just because of the reduced medical costs that a reduction in obesity would give the average joe in the United States.
At any rate, I would also be curious what such a change would mean for Amtrak ridership. Would it mean yet another segment of the population be limited to buses and Amtrak or would we not see much of a bump in ridership (ie would most folks choose to lose weight).
I don’t know what it will do for Amtrak, but a proposal like this one sounds like guaranteed full employment for attorneys. Any number of discrimination suits will be filed if the airlines decide to act on this proposal.
In a way the railroads did use to charge for weight. A slumbercoach was a very good deal vs a roomette but it was only suitable for the younger or more agile passenger. How you feel about charging for weight depends on where you fall on the scale so to speak. It bothers me to pay $25 extra charge for a bag that is two pounds overweight and have the person sitting in the seat paying the same fare I do weighing 100 pounds more than I do.
Overweight people get discriminated against and are not covered by the ADA. Its one group that gets frequently put down without recourse and as a current weight watcher with about another 70 pounds to loose, I can understand the emnity expressed by some as I have had some of the same emotions about overweight people as others. I will always remember a NEW YORKER cartoon with a carny worker on a boardwalk standing next to a scale and a GUESS YOUR WEIGHT sign saying to another person looking down at a big hole under the scale “Fatest g–d–m woman I ever saw” and laughing. And when much younger, remembering siding in the longitudinal seat over the curbside front wheel seat (4 passenger seat) on a transit bus and a lady getting on (having to turn sideways to get through the front door) and sitting down alongside me and taking the three other spaces on the seat. I understand the disconnect between baggage fees and passenger weight but where do you draw the line. Airlines have gone IM not so HO overboard on fees. I love Southwest Airlines for their sane policies and have never had a bad experience on them. And I used slumbercoaches while overweight and had no problems with them. They were superior to riding overnight in a coach seat.
Someone is a little behind on the times here, airlines already make obese people either pay for a second seat, or are charged the same day booking fair for their tickets. Even Southwest Airlines will charge a person for a second seat, I know, I have had to check someones boarding pass and wondered why they had two of them, until I realized why, and was appalled at the gall, but business is business, even if you find it personally objectionable.
You realize we aren’t talking about a little overweight. We are referring to grossly obese folks, weighing 300+ pounds. Try having one of those seated next to yourself on a long flight.
I must say, as one who has had at least one beloved relative who was very much overweight, I find the entire discussion cruel, including my stupid, off-the-cuff comment above.
As a rule – there are exceptions – the problem on airplanes is not people who are too large but seats that are too small. In this age of large Americans, there are many passengers who are too big for their seats without being obese. Their legs are also too long for the space between seats.
Instead of dissing fat people, how about getting after the airlines for their contempt for the entire, including skinny, traveling public?
In a perverse way, I wouldn’t mind another business turndown, just to punish the arrogance of those (temporarily) high-flying SOBs.
Telecommunications will put the airlines out of business one day except for charter and international travel, and I can’t wait.
Everybody wants the seats and service that the various airlines provided to their passengers prior to de-regulation but nobody seems willing to pay the higher fares needed to cover the extra costs and lost capacity. As a rather simplistic example, if the 3-3 seating in the coach section of a 737 were to be replaced with 3-2 seating, that’s a loss of 30+ seats, the lost revenue from those seats has to come from somewhere. Same thing would happen with increased seat pitch, although not as drastic.
Yah, and another strategy would be SRO cabins, as proposed (but not implemented, so far) by Ryanair president Michael O’Leary. (Wall Street Journal, March 14, Page B7.) Or seats on the wings.
The real blockbuster would be an airTRAIN, with a second cabin towed by the first. I don’t assert ownership, confident somebody is already at work on this idea.
According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, a National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 2009–2010, found that:
· More than 2 in 3 adults are considered to be overweight or obese.
· More than 1 in 3 adults are considered to be obese.
· Mor
The same is true (with some on here at least) in regard to food services on Amtrak. Folks want the food and service as served on the CZ and other fine trains up through the early 1960s, but Amtrak would probably have to charge $30-50 to cover the above-the-rails costs.
I would be willing to pay $30-50 for a decent meal on Amtrak in the Dining Car. Not sure who else would. As far as the airlines are concerned former American Airlines Chairman Robert Crandall tried a lot when he ran American and even today in retirement he says: “What passengers want and what they are willing to pay for are two different things”. In the end “passengers want reliable and cheap transportation which runs counter to many of their other wants in regards to seat comfort and food”.
Perhaps you didn’t read my entire original post, and unlike most Americans, size is not something I pay attention to, but I do notice when passengers are grossly obese. Even someone that is only 40 - 50 lbs overweight is considered obese by the USCDC, so you have to distinguish between obese and grossly obese, there is a difference. Also, 300+ lbs is not necessarilly obese…there are athletes around that weight, perhaps you meant that they have a large girth of over 50 inches? That would probably be a better way to explain it, when the persons body is the size of two aircraft seats side by side.