Posted on 10/21/2016 1:08:35 AM PDT by Cronos
Airlines want more money from heavy fliers, but some say it's a rights violation. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), obesity has more than doubled since 1980. In 2014, more than 1.9 billion adults were overweight, and over 600 million were obese. (WHO defines "overweight" as a BMI greater than or equal to 25 and "obese" as a BMI greater than or equal to 30.)
Last month, lawyer Giorgio Destro from Padua, Italy sued Emirates, claiming his flight was disrupted by an obese passenger seated next to him. According to reports, Destro was not able to comfortably sit in his assigned seat, and spent much of the nine-hour flight from Cape Town to Dubai standing or sitting in crew seats. His proof for the lawsuit? A selfie that includes his fellow passenger’s arm in his seat space.
...Many airlines have responded to the growing obesity epidemic by insisting passengers of size buy two seats to ensure safety and comfort. Sometimes the airline will offer a refund if there was at least one other empty seat on the flight.
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.com ...
I agree.
What about passengers who don't carry one ounce of fat but are 6'10' and weigh 375?
“That’s what she said.”
They should be stacked side-by side so those who don’t flow over into adjoining seats can be comfortable.
Absolutely, and charge by the kilo for bags. It would encourage thrift, and slim. It would help people to have an incentive to cut down what they put in the pie hole. People who are obese FLOOD the doctors office and make ER lines longer at hospitals. The time has come. Vote Trump and cut obesity.... He doesn;t like fat. He wants to get rid of the pork, and the largesse in gov;t education, military and families...
For me - 38” waste (36 in high school) and 52” chest. My shoulders are broad.
When I have the middle seat I always end up with knots in my shoulders from hunching forward to give everyone room.
And I’m a 90K+ flyer.
Weight is an objective standard. It uses the same amount of gas to move 250 lbs. from point A to point B, regardless of whether the 250 lbs. is a tall, thin person; a short, fat person; or a sack of rocks. Perhaps charges could be based on personal weight + checked bag weight + carryon luggage weight.
Alternatively, they could leave things as they are, knowing that (a) people are going to complain no matter what and (b) people will continue flying because it's faster than the alternatives.
Airlines should install a couple extra wide seat and a halfs throughout the plane. There should be an up charge for those seats.
TSA was when your 200 miles became 2,000 miles for me. I basically don’t fly. 6 foot, 210 lbs. Too uncomfortable. I would rather drive anywhere, see the country, eat some nice meals, in comfort.
I’m 6’5” and 235. I’m basically tall & thin, but I lift weights regularly. But according to the government’s BMI index I’m about 20-lbs overweight.
= = = = = = = = = = =
When ‘they’ first introduced the BMI index, I sluffed it off because they considered Michael Jordan to be fat AND he was in the prime of his career.
Guess no one thought to put the ‘racist’ tag on that data...
](when it comes to ‘health’ and ‘global warming’ doesn’t take much to get me to ‘sluff it off’.)
Live long enough and every thing you grew up with to be ‘bad’ suddenly turns good AND vice-versa.
Even the old quote ‘Everything I love is either illegal, immoral or fattening’ (A. Woolcot) has come to pass.
Is the encroached upon individual entitled to compensation from the airline? Win a few cases on this issue and the airlines will be forced to come up with an industry standard for treating oversized passengers or widen seats. Of course the net result may be even higher ticket prices.
Should homosexuals and promiscuous men and woman pay more for medical insurance...How about alcohol drinkers and tobacco users, shouldn’t they pay more for medical insurance too...”The Devil’s Advocate” would like to know.
And yes,even I...who am a few pounds overweight...can see paying at least a little more for a plane ticket if you're overweight,just as you pay more if your *bags* are overweight.
And although I've never experienced it myself I've read stories of passengers who were so huge that they spill over into the seats next to them making people in those seats particularly miffed.They should be required to buy two seats.
I do a good bit of flying...99% of the time in coach.I'm 6 feet,205,meaning I'm about 20 pounds overweight.I've never had the slightest trouble fitting into a coach seat nor has any part of me ever spilled over into the seats next to me.So I haven't yet gotten to the point where a story like this can be written about me.
I agree. Same problem. 6’2” and 225. I’m supposed to weigh 185lbs according to BMI. No way.
The problem with charging more, is how quickly will they start making the seats even smaller. Pretty soon, my 5’9” wife will have to start paying more. Don’t think for a second they won’t abuse it and figure out a way to charge more. I’m fortunate in that I stick with United and with my miles and rewards status, I get put in first class on most flights. Economy plus at a minimum. I fly enough that I haven’t been in coach in a couple of years.
Many of the fairly frequent flights I take are long distance ones (I enjoy far off places).My cardiologist has strongly advised me to be up and walking around as much as possible during long flights so as to avoid "Economy Class Syndrome" which,he says,isn't particularly common but *does* happen.So maybe the guy who was suing was done a favor by the fat guy next to him.
I’m 6-7 with very wide shoulders. I get an aisle seat and lean into the aisle so I don’t lean into the middle seat space.
Of course, I rarely fly anymore. Used to be, I flew a couple of times a week for my job. Now, it is maybe once a year. Maybe. Even that seems like too much. I have a trip coming up in a couple of weeks that my wife made the arrangements for and sadly we are flying. I would have given up a day on either end of the trip to drive but... At least we are flying Southwest and get to board/pick our seats and who is beside us. There will be three of us flying together, so we can take an entire row and not worry about some obese person imposing on us.
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