Treating passengers as baggage — by weight

I suppose I would have to pay extra. But let’s take this a step further. If a first class seat is twice the space of an economy class seat, then let’s have them cost twice as much (instead of 14 times as much, which I often see).

They will be pretty close to trucking companies if they charge by weight and space!

I notice that Air Canada gives you a $5 discount for not checking a bag, and United charges $25 to check an extra bag. So what is the value of an extra bag? $5 or $25?

Mark,

Thanks for the compliment, though I’m hardly that smart – just mildly observant of the world around me. I proposed this solution half tongue-in-cheek, half… well, not seriously, but half to provoke a discussion about both fare “extras” and how passengers are treated. But there are questions that would have to be addressed: If you pay for transportation by weight, are you entitled to additional seat room if you’re overweight and large? After all, that’s really the problem you’re referencing in your ‘using more of the aircraft than I am” comment. How do we determine the “base” allowance per person?

Bill – You make a valid point about first class vs. coach seat pricing, but there’s a lot more to first class than extra room. There’s early boarding privileges, free drinks, free food (if there’s food at all), MUCH better service (one attendant for 12-16 people, as opposed to two attendants for 150 or more). Those things must be factored into the cost of the seat as well. And actually, a first-class seat is typically not that much more than what is called full-fare coach – the walk-up, refundable fare you’d pay to get a seat on the day of the flight. The difference is that airlines don’t offer nearly as much of a discount (if any) on advance purchase of first-class seats. Now, one could argue that those fares are closer to the “true” cost of flying and that airlines are shaking people down for the last-minute and first-class fares, but then that’s supply and demand at work. In the real world, cost doesn’t always affect price.

As for what is the value of an extra bag: value is whatever the customer is willing to pay. No doubt some United customers will skip an extra bag because it’s not worth $25; some will pay it without question. Might United make more money on extra bags if they lowered the price to $10 or $15? Perhaps. But that’s the kind of calculation the market will end up determining.

Buck,

If this was 50 or 60 years ago, chances are good your parents were flying on a prop plane. If that’s the case, weight becomes critical, and not just total weight, but distribution of that weight on the plane, because the engines didn’t have a lot of excess capacity.

I flew on a small (20-25 seater) turboprop flight about ten years ago on American Eagle; the flight was full, and we were waiting on the last two passengers. This is a 2+1 seat configuration plane, and the two open seats were a window and aisle seat one row apart. When the FA saw the two passengers leave the terminal to walk to the plane, she hurriedly had the two people sitting next to the empty seats sit together. Both of the last two individuals boarding were in the 300+ lb. range, so they had to endure an hour and a half of flight crammed next to each other.

And after they boarded, the ground crew had to re-arrange the luggage under the plane because of the new weight distribution. More had to be shifted to the opposite side of the plane to offset the weight of just two passengers.

Nowadays, though, it’s done with leveling gauges that guide the crew on how to load luggage to balance the passenger weight, instead of the indignity of weighing passengers at the terminal.

I am an overweight person, and I would have NO PROBLEM paying more for a little more space. I don’t want the extra service in first class – the food, the flight attendants, etc. I just want the space, and would be willing to pay more for it, on a proportional basis. (not 14X the price, as mentioned earlier). I’ve proposed bench-like seating with moveable armrests that can move back and forth so people can pay per inch for their seat. I’ve sent letters to each major airline (and got form letters back for some, and nothing from others) proposing this idea.

I work for a company that has several people, I included, and that travel extensively. Normally I am spending more time in the air, than some Flight Attendants and pilots. I can see my penny pinching boss wanting us all to lose weight, and having people interviewing these coveted positions step on a scale at the interview.

That said, I am all for this. I have flown on flights with “LARGE” passengers who outweigh me by double, and they have forced me more than once to almost sit in the aisle. Not only are they a pain to sit next to, they are also a safety hazard. The airlines should make those who take up half of the seat next to them to purchase that seat, not make someone share their half of the seat with them.

Or at-least have a row or two of seats designated for these overweight travelers, with extra large seats, and longer seat belts.

Back in the Dark Ages–40′s and early 50′s– you were often asked how much you weighed when checking in. I always lied–and then was terrified that the plane would crash because of my fib.

Can we say the word descrimination!!!!! As a person who use to work for the airlines I understand if a person is obese and has to by an extra seat on an airplane for comfort and safety reason but my God charging someone(who can sit in an airplane seat comfortably) because they weigh more than the next is a little ridiculous. Heck then next thing would be lets charge a pregnant woman because she isn’t technically traveling by herself after all she is “with child” so why not charge her for her weight and an additional airplane ticket too. This has gotten completely out of control when people start suggesting to charge by the passengers weight.

I agree with this idea personally, but looking at it from a different perspective, wouldn’t that be discriminatory against obese people?

This is a matter of economics not finger pointing at heavier people.
The airlines should be able to charge based on the total pounds they fly from point A to point B because the cost of fuel is a major part of tproviding transportation services. Think of it this way, even for ready-to-wear clothing where the fabric cost is a minor part of the total product cost, there is an extra charge for plus sizes. Is that discrimination? Of course not. As far as the humilation factor, that could be minimized by how discretely the “weigh-in” would be done but ultimately it comes down to how an individual feels about their own weight. As it is right now, I don’t see anything fair about someone who weights 140lbs having to pay extra for a bag a few pounds overweight while someone who is 225 lbs has the same luggage allowance!

Actually, I feel like the airlines treat us as baggage already, so why not.

After my flight to Seoul, South Korea last October, I told people that I should have bought some long johns, a sleeping bag, portable oxygen, and stuffed myself inside a refrigerator box and sent myself to the hotel in Seoul via FedEx. I would have been more comfortable than I was on the United Airlines flight I was on.