Posted on 04/15/2009 7:22:32 AM PDT by tlb
Airline Says Overweight Travelers Will Need To Buy Extra Seats Or Be Denied Entry To Planes.
Chicago-based United has instructed its customer service representatives at O'Hare International Airport ticket counters and gates to be extra vigilant beginning Wednesday for passengers they deem to be overweight. Those unable to comfortably fasten a safety belt with one extension or sit comfortably with armrests down will be denied boarding unless they purchase an extra seat, even if they can be placed elsewhere in the aircraft next to an empty seat.
If no empty seat exists, the passenger will be forced to take a later flight.
(Excerpt) Read more at cbs2chicago.com ...
Well, now we know what the topic is of Meg’s next column.
No problem from my prospective as long as this is not a government mandate.
Fine, this is perfectly reasonable.
All kinds of people will scream about
it, but that is to be expected.
Smelly ones too, lets not forget the smelly ones that forgot what a shower is for.
Can we double-charge the Hollywood liberals who said they would move out of this country if GW Bush was elected anytime they are passing through customs? I mean, they never DID stay away those 8 years.
And what gauge do we have to measure the odor on?
Hey, take a vote of the five closest passengers to the odor emitter. Five rather than four to auto tie break.
How much to we get to charge for crying babies and stinky hippies on flights?
I know many skinny people, and I know many heavy people. Appearance wise, they are about euqally distributed as to who is "attractive" and not, but I'd have to say the majority of those with unattractive attitudes towards others are skinny. I'd rather squish a little than sit next to a jerk.
Someone who can't fasten a seatbelt even with an extension has a serious, serious problem.
Good for them! I’ll go out of my way to choose United from now on.
A 250# person with 50# free checked baggage plus 25# carryon = 275#.
My wife can barely carryon 15#. That makes her total about 190# but she pays the same.
I wonder when they’ll start charging me because my shoulders extend well into the seats on either side of me. It’s not that I’m a giant; it’s that their seats are like 15 inches wide.
I can’t say I disagree with this. If you can’t fit into one seat and take up two, then you should have to pay for it or fly first class. Why should the person sitting next to the fatty have to suffer and be denied their fair share of space?
Yes there is, being in the middle seat between two of them, as has happened to me.
Airline Says Overweight Travelers Will Need To Buy Extra Seats Or Be Denied Entry To Planes.....
Bout time!.....
I fit nicely into the middle seat without elbowing anyone. I should get a discount, right?
Hope this causes United to go bankrupt. They have the nastiest flight attendents in the sky.
My wife would kill me if I made the same calculation of her traveling weight in a public forum.
I wish you well. :)
I sympathize, empathize, and have been there also.
Those unable to comfortably fasten a safety belt with one extension or sit comfortably with armrests down will be denied boarding unless they purchase an extra seat, even if they can be placed elsewhere in the aircraft next to an empty seat.
ROTFLMAO. Are there seriously people that need an additional extension????? Sheesh. I approve this too. I mean this is not government nanny crap. This is a private airline who says get on a dang eliptical or pay more...another extension...holy cow. lol.
Or worse yet, so fat, they can't reach their crack.
I'm OK with that as long as they don't start weighing people next or charge by the pound. If they went that way, only five year olds, dwarves, midgets and asians will be able to fly.
90% of the time, the airlines upgrades me to business at
no charge. Not a question of weight, but height.
And if the little crying, spoiled-rotten, whiny brat with the a “best friend” for a parent sitting behind me wants to scream and kick my seat for the entire 2 hour ride, he should have to pay extra as well.
Ticket prices should be a factor of
1) Distance travelled
and
2) Weight hauled
I once ran into a fellow who told a tale of sitting in an aisle seat with a really big guy next to him who had purchased two tickets/two seats.
The problem was that Mr. Big Guy needed two-and-a-half seats.
And if the little crying, spoiled-rotten, whiny brat with a “best friend” for a parent sitting behind me wants to scream and kick my seat for the entire 2 hour ride, he should have to pay extra as well.
Perhaps all some need is a seat and a quarter. Perhaps a few seats that wide could be installed, and sold at a premium?
As someone with an infant, I never understood why businesses, including airlines, have separate sections for families with small children so that other people are not bothered when they make use of the services for which they paid.
Heck, with an airplane, you could just stick all of the families with small children in the back of the plane and all the people traveling without children in the front or something like that.
Yes... because when they sit around the plane, they really sit AROUND the plane.
you write: “I’m OK with that as long as they don’t start weighing people next or charge by the pound. If they went that way, only five year olds, dwarves, midgets and asians will be able to fly.”
Yes, but we will fly CHEAP.
Airline ticket prices should be like almost any other energy intensive transportation charge: a product of distance & weight. Try calling up a trucking company to ship yourself in a box and see if they don’t ask for your weight......LOL.
I never in my life had any sort of anxiety attack or claustrophobic feeling until that day. It came on me suddenly and unexpectedly. I felt like I was gasping for air. I had to get up a number of times through the flight to go to the rest room to calm down, which I'm sure, drove the aisle seated guy near nuts also.
From then on, I always chose an aisle seat.
Back in the old days they did that with smokers. Many smokers would come forward to sit in empty seats after smoking in order to get away from the smoke!
Reminds me of the time I asked a Stew for a seat extension. At 6’2”, 175 pounds, I certainly didn’t need one, and the stew expressed that opinion. She asked why I wanted one, and I told her, “To tie up that little jerky kid behind me who’s been kickin’ the bottom of my seat for the last 15 minutes.” Kids mother finally got control of the little bas****!
Experienced travelers usually learn, from bitter experience, to always request an aisle seat.
I think United is marketing this all wrong. PAY BY THE POUND! Have a sliding scale ticket where the less you weigh the less you pay. Super Jumbo seating in cargo hold! The possibilities are endless.
Where’s that freeper who always posts the picture of the morbidly obese Code Pink woman with her stomach hanging out below her hemline?
so this will become like that planet in “the hitchhiker’s guide to the galaxy”?
next we are going to have a “fat in public” crime.
I politely placed my hand on the armrest and declared that he prefers to have the armrest down. What a cold hard look I received. The airlines give so little room in their seats that I wasn't about to make my son take the grief of dealing with the rude passenger. My son and I switched seats so he wouldn't have to deal with the unreasonable man and the armrest remained down to guard against posterior intrusion.
Free checked baggage? What's that?
The headline’s use of “heavier” is deceiving. This is not about weight, it’s about size.
It should have referred to “wide-body” passengers if they wanted to be both clever and accurate.
And to this plan, I offer my APPLAUSE!
Flight attendent = flying waitress
And yes, I agree with your assessment. We flew United back from China into Chicago and I was so close to klocking out our seat-belt nazi attendent. We had an almost 3 year old we just adopted, he had never been on a plane, spoke no english, knew us for all of 4 days and was scared and this stupid woman made our trip hell. We complained loud and long and received zero response from United Corporate. We flew Northwest with our first adoption, flew home with 52 other adopted babies (yes - 52!) and we were treated great.
It started to come back on some airlines this year.
Bad math.
“How much to we get to charge for crying babies and stinky hippies on flights?”....
When in hell will they stop serving peanuts in those little bags?...Everytime they get passed out I get passed out from someone who farted peanuts!
Ticket prices should be a factor of
1) Distance travelled
and
2) Weight hauled
it is a quandry for airlines what to do with America’s grotesque fatty population
young women have gotten ridiculously obese early on
and yet all we hear about is Bulemia..
my daughter is in a sorority in college and half the girls are 20% overweight
when I was at Ole Miss, 2% were truly fat....no hot sorority babe was fat....zero...big framed maybe but not fat
Good one!
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