Posted on 02/22/2025 11:07:02 PM PST by Cronos
A debate is brewing over whether airlines should adopt weight-based pricing, charging passengers based on their weight to reduce fuel consumption and emissions.
This discussion follows a broader trend of U.S. airlines implementing fees for checked baggage, which began in 2008 with American Airlines, and has since become standard practice.
While Samoa Air's 2013 'fat tax' failed to gain traction, Finnair recently conducted a three-month voluntary data collection initiative, gathering passengers' weight along with their carry-on luggage.
This anonymized data — including age, gender and travel class — will be used to refine aircraft balance and loading calculations from 2025 to 2030.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
You can’t discount the switch from soda with cane sugar to corn syrup. That needs to change,
Speaking as a fat person, I agree. Also force anyone who occupies more than a seat to pay for two seats. I’m fat but at least it stays in the confines of my seat.
That would help especially since school meals are based on it and its high carb load.
I know a person who was obese and decided to lose weight and all he did was cut out soda, snack foods, and fast food, and in a year, he lost 60 pounds. And he’s still going. And he didn’t do anything like salads for ever meal or a 1,200 calorie a day diet. Just ate sensibly.
He also goes to the gym with a personal trainer once a week to build up muscle mass from what he lost in the weight loss.
Recently he said due to being on the road, he was hungry and stopped for an Egg McMuffin, which he loved, and said it as disgusting to him. His tastes had changed so much, they were no longer conditioned to crave that kind of food. So now it no longer has any appeal to him.
Air Freight cost is determined by volumetric weight......
Volumetric Weight: The space the shipment takes up, calculated using the formula:
Length (cm) x Width (cm) x Height (cm) ÷ 6,000
(The divisor 6,000 is an industry standard reflecting the typical density of air freight cargo, though it can vary slightly depending on the carrier or region.)
The carrier then compares the gross weight and the volumetric weight and charges based on whichever is higher. This ensures they account for both heavy shipments and bulky but lightweight ones that take up significant cargo space.
Well, then you’re stuck proving the skinny person shops more than the fat person or takes more trips through the store when they do.
Honestly, we probably shop less than fat people because we don’t eat as much food.
When I graduated high school I was 6’ 2” and 180 lbs. I wore 34/34 jeans. 160 lbs is much too low a threshold for charging people a surcharge due to their weight.
Not everyone who weighs a lot is fat.
I’m 2 inches shorter than 7 feet tall and very much a mesomorph. Body fat is about 15% probably lower — you can see my abs. All 8 of them.
To put this in perspective, Shaq is a couple inches taller than me, and (now) a lot fatter. He busted 300lbs playing and is probably 330 now.
I hover around 300lbs. Again, not fat, at all.
I do tend to get two seats or fly private, just out of necessity.
And in the grand scheme of things, an Egg McMuffin isn’t all that bad. Egg, Canadian bacon, cheese, no problem. And an English muffin, so there are your carbs.
“how about they make seats bigger like in the OLD DAYS”
I guess you haven’t traveled Business Class lately, or even Premium Economy. Us upper-crust types have and the thing is, it’s typically CHEAPER in those upgraded sections than it was to fly coach in the past*, due to order-of-magnitude improvements in lowering operating costs (and safer, by the way, at least before DEI infested their systems).
*obviously adjusted for inflation
In reality, the airlines now have added what would have been called a sub-economy class (aka, steerage class), that they could not do in the past, due to lack of engine power.
A simple plywood template such as used in amusement parks to measure height is all that is required. If your ass fits between the sides of the template without rubbing, you pay the regular fare. If it rubs, you pay for a wider seat.
Gravity does discriminate!
...and that is similar to charging for multiple seats but often in reverse. In the ‘width threshold’ model they could turn the 3 seats into 300 “seats”. Then the number of seats each person needs would be based on width across the hips with some otherwise very small women paying a lot more than a string bean male.
The point being that giving these companies other “reasonable” methods to abuse some passengers into paying more inevitably turns into a way to make almost everyone pay more.
I agree.
He said that was why he ordered it.
But it didn’t taste like he remembered and expected it to.
Fat women could pay more and slender women could get reduced fare for sitting on men’s laps who were willing to pay extra for it.
Economy seats in narrow-body mainline planes, which operate the vast majority of domestic seat-miles in the US, have been the same width for over 60 years now, since the Boeing 727 commenced commercial service. Leg room has definitely declined, though.
I’ve thought that for years. The reality is people are cargo like everything else.
I long ago quit thinking of air travel as fun or enjoyable. I decided it’s basically a flying bus.
The “Age of Aquarius” has given way to the “Age of Entitlement.”
Former neighbor was in charge of adding bench seats at a large university football stadium that has been around since the 1920s. I don’t recall the measurements but he stated that the space allocated for each bench seat in the 1920s was 15” and the new ones 20” or so and it was due to the increase in weight.
how about it. I don’t think about it on larger planes, but it it gets right in your face on the stump jumpers.
When we landed in Lake Havasu City, the pilot\copilot unloaded the baggage on the tarmac.
I went to get mine and they told me i had to pick it up in the terminal.
The terminal looked like a glorified lightening shelter.
They carried the luggage to the terminal.
There was a swing up metal door into the terminal.
They opened that door and handed us our luggage thru that door hole into the terminal.
Too funny.
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