

Airline to charge overweight passengers more - suchabag
http://www.smh.com.au/travel/travel-news/airline-to-charge-overweight-passengers-more-20130402-2h495.html

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casca
This is a great marketing move as it tries something that many people who are
charged $/£/€/?50+ for an overweight kilogram will have muttered at checkin
desks.

The truth is that it doesn't work because the bag restrictions are there for
reasons unrelated to the weight of passengers.

Firstly there's the baggage handlers. Some airports charge the airlines extra
for heavier bags so it's a way to discourage a charge to the airline. But far
more than that, even in the olden days before most airlines charged for
checked baggage, it's a great way to extract additional revenue from the
customers in a context of it being the customers' fault.

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rlpb
> The truth is that it doesn't work because the bag restrictions are there for
> reasons unrelated to the weight of passengers.

The truth is that a big proportion of the cost of a flight is fuel, and
therefore weight.

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seanmcdirmid
Lets not forget the whole fuselage thingy.

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chrismorgan
Such a pity that it's so close to April 1. Unfortunately I think it's just too
sensible to be serious.

I wish the poll had been made with a question of body mass adjacent; I expect
the average weight of nay-sayers would be greater than that of aye-sayers.

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nakedrobot2
"Samoa Air passengers must type in their weight and the weight of their
baggage into the online booking section of the airline's website."

Uh, Ok, good luck with that :-)

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Samuel_Michon
_“Passengers are then weighed again on scales at the airport, to check that
they weren't fibbing online.”_

~~~
dfxm12
Why bother asking when reserving at all then? How do people even know how much
their bag is going to weigh before they pack?

I don't even own a scale. I can estimate my own weight, but not the weight of
a bag whose contents have yet to be determined.

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rextex
Please HN, I hear so many self righteous skinny people clammering over each
other about what a great idea it is. Great, please invest in this airline
then. That one that provides an unpleasant experience for obese people and is
operating in one of the most obese countries in the world. I'm sure it will be
super profitable and you can all use your dividends to not enjoy a sandwich
together.

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quasque
This seems unnecessarily discriminatory. It also means that taller people get
a worse deal - already having to deal with cramped seating, now there is a
premium on the extra body weight due to height.

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panacea
You're cargo on an airplane. I think it's fair for airlines to charge by
weight. My reasoning blurs a bit though when it comes to height. I'm tall and
skinny. I'd pay for extra leg room, but I don't cost the airline extra carbon
burning and neighbouring passenger discomfort to get me somewhere.

Ideally, we could computer model our desired seating arrangement and pay
accordingly. If you don't want to pay for your waist-line, you don't travel.

~~~
chiph
Pay for the "Economy Plus" seats. They're like $20 more on Delta, and you get
2-3" more legroom. Totally worth it.

But in general, airlines like tighter seat pitch as it lets them (perhaps) get
another row into the cabin, and that's another 4-9 passengers per flight.

Seatguru has a sortable grid of seat layout. I won't be on airberlin anytime
soon (29" seat pitch, no way!)

<http://www.seatguru.com/charts/longhaul_economy.php>

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Samuel_Michon
_“Pay for the "Economy Plus" seats. They're like $20 more on Delta, and you
get 2-3" more legroom.”_

I wanted to try that last December, traveling with Delta from AMS to TPA.
Turns out, it was $120 more for each leg of the trip. So no, I chose not to,
even though I'm 6'1". Instead, I got a seat at one of the emergency exits.

~~~
chiph
Ah, Amsterdam to Tampa -- that's why it was that much more. I'm surprised you
could get an exit-row seat. They're usually snapped-up by their diamond-level
frequent fliers.

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Samuel_Michon
Right, no doubt the prices you mentioned are valid, but for domestic flights.
I mostly fly transatlantic with Delta, that's why the upgrade (and its
associated costs) is not a no-brainer for me.

Also, I only snagged the exit row seat for the return flight. I don't qualify
for Diamond level with Delta, as I fly with several different airlines (non-
Skyteam). With Delta, I do qualify for 50% discount on upgrades, I listed the
fees that basic members would pay.

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eksith
For some reason Pulp Fiction popped into my head.

I'm a little ambivalent about this. On one hand, obese people have enough of a
hard time just getting by without the extra burden of social commentary and
(let's face it) the "look at that guy" sentiment. On the other hand the
airlines are having to spend more in fuel when prices are already high.

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Samuel_Michon
_“obese people have enough of a hard time just getting by”_

Do they really? Especially in the US and UK, where obesity has really gotten
out of hand, people don't even recognize it anymore. Only the super obese (BMI
>45) get the “look at that guy” comments. In reality, obese is BMI >30\. For
instance, if you're 5'10" and you weigh 210 lbs, you're obese.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classification_of_obesity>

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arethuza
BMI is a pretty silly measure - a professional rugby player could have a BMI
over 30 and be pure muscle - probably the same for American football players.

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DanBC
This is mentioned everytime BMI is mentioned.

Most people with BMI over 30 are not olympic athletes or professional rugby
players.

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arethuza
I didn't imply that they were - just meant that a simple rule that says "BMI
over 30 -> obese" needs to allow for the fact that there are a small number of
cases where this isn't true.

[NB A couple of hours ago I was watching professional rugby players train - so
that's my excuse for mentioning this] :-)

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camus
And if you're fat , do you get bigger seats ? lol ;) and when you make a
reservation do you need to enter your weight ?

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Samuel_Michon
Believe it or not, Airbus is working on it. Regular people will get smaller
seats than they do now, while fat people get wider seats.

 _“Airbus recently said in a press release it will offer extra-wide seats on
its A320 planes, "providing adequate space for those who need it, while giving
airline operators a new method to generate additional revenue." Instead of
having three 18-inch seats in a row, the new arrangement will have one 20-inch
and two 17-inch seats.”_

