Perhaps they could find some more sophisticated method of determining who will be charged double?
Posted on 06/20/2002 1:36:23 AM PDT by kattracks
Edited on 05/26/2004 5:06:54 PM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
June 20, 2002 -- Southwest Airlines hit turbulence yesterday over its plans to enforce a porker-profiling policy that doubles airfares for overweight fliers.
A spokeswoman for Southwest defended the policy and said tubby travelers are treated no differently from "normal" customers.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
This part stinks. The rest is fair.
Perhaps they could find some more sophisticated method of determining who will be charged double?
Safety - if you have to get out of an aircraft quickly, overweight passengers are a problem. When an aircraft is certified to ground evac in so many seconds, the manufacturer will hire Olympic Sprinters to perform the test; in order to satisfy FAA regulations. Independent studies (and NTSB analysis) have shown that obese passengers cannot egress their seats, the aisles, or the emergency exits in a timely matter. Moreover, they will adversely affect the safety of other passengers.
This is not discriminatory, an attack, or prejudice. As the line in the movie Babe says:
"It's just the Way Things Are."
Of course, wearing one of these is a dead give-away:
I thought of that myself, but I'm too sensitive to the feelings of others to bring it up.
Even if you are an experienced flier, take 20 seconds to see where that emergency exit is on an airliner. The Captain on the DC-10 who heroically flew that crippled aircraft into Souix City still gives lectures ----and he says when he flies he still pays attention to that as a passenger.
Obese passengers hinder ground evacuation, and by doing so jeapordize the safety of others in an emergency.
Years ago, I was incapacitated for three days after a cross-country flight next to a 'person of size' caused me to exert undue pressure on the right half of my buttocks. This aggravated the sciatica condition that I was suffering from at the time.
Anyone who has ever had sciatica KNOWS how painful it is.
Of course, an intelligent person also won't drive for six hours while sitting on his wallet - therefore crimping the sciatic nerve - causing the above-referenced condition.
But: double-fare, double seats, double baggage, double snacks, double courtesy - certainly sounds fair, and warranted, to me.
Airplanes are certified to carry X passengers with y baggage. A plane can only lift a fixed weight combined of Fuel, Passengers and Baggage.
For example a plane could be certified for 100 passengers with 30 lbs of baggage each and 12,000 lbs of fuel. Typically that is based on the average passenger weight of 175 lbs. Thus we figure a full plane would have 17,500 lbs of passengers. If the passengers average 350 lbs each instead of 175, only 50 passengers can be put on the plane. That assumes you want to get off the ground and actually fly. If all you want to do is get off the ground and crash, the extra weight is no problem. The danger comes when there are 100 passengers on the plane and the average weight is more than 175 lbs each. A plane designed to carry 17,500 lbs of passengers, does not like to fly with 20,000 lbs of passengers. To make that plane airworthy, the pilot would need to take the fuel load from 12,000 lbs to 9,500 to make the planes weight limit. That is not too neat if it takes 10,000 lbs to get where you are going. Crashes short of the destination are not a real good solution. The other option is to reduce the number of passengers to 86. 86 passengers at 200 lbs weight the same as 100 at 175. If the air lines charges the fatties the same as skinny peope it will have to raise its price for everyone so that the 86 people we can now carry pay what 100 people used to pay. Becuase if fat people ride we can carry fewer passengers than when people were skinny. They must either charge everyone more, or just the fat people more.
I suspect that fat people will want to raise everyones fare a bit and skinny people will opt to charge fat people double.
If fat people were as sharp as farmers they would get the government to pay their extra fare and when planes were fully booked they could be paid not to fly.
And of course the media whore who wrote the story couldn't let an innocent slip like that by. Seems a shame, calling attention to something like that. She was just some junior talking head for the airline. It's not like she's an elected official.
...As is the case with parents with young children and the elderly. It seems to me that a little euthenasia is in order!
What strikes me most about this entire story is how it pulls back the carpet and exposes the proverbial dust of mean-spiritedness within our society. We all pay a price for that with a decline in our general level of civilization.
I'm significantly overweight and have had occasion to be a passenger on Southwest several times in recent months. And first and foremost I must say that their service and attitude has been excellent. I will continue to do business with them until, for whatever reason, it no longer pleases me.
With regard to a requirement to purchase two seats - air travel has been a commodity for years - so I'm just not concerned. However, if required to purchase that second seat it had better be empty right there beside me and available for me to use - regardless as to whether the flight is full - otherwise I'll be on the phone with my lawyer and/or scanning the ocean of billboards for the advertizement of the upcoming class-action lawsuit.
And, while continuing a variety of approaches to loose the weight, and while continuing to contort myself during air travel so as not to impose myself on my fellow passengers (which is the opposite of mean-spiritedness), there is one thing I will not do, and that is to be browbeaten and ostracized by those who undoubtedly have their own, perhaps less visible, fences to mend.
"We'd both be more comfortable if you let me lift the armrest."
Though I wish I were making this up, NAAFA (the National Association for Alarmingly Fat Athiests) actually has a webpage with tips for mile high fatties titled Airline Tips for Large Passengers. Easily the most annoying tip:
When you get to your seat during pre-boarding, raise the armrest between seats. This may give you the inch or two of extra space you need. The chances are that the passenger who will be seated next to you won't say anything; if he does, smile pleasantly and say that you'll both be more comfortable if the armrest is up.
In just a few sentences Jean Soncrant and Lynn McAffee manage to be sexist, selfish, fake, annoying, imposing and downright dishonest
(Thanks to freeper redsoxallthewayintwothousand2 for pointer to the naafa site.
Was any part of her body spilling over onto her neighbor? (Note, not just her neighbor's seat, but her neighbor?
Your comparison is disingenuous.
Sorry, fat people are pretty much at the mercy of their gluttony (medical cases aside)
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