Airline passengers charged according to their weight.

[sweefs]

BBC News - Samoa Air boss defends charging passengers by weight

**The head of Samoa Air has defended the airline’s decision to start charging passengers according to their weight.**Chris Langton told Australia’s ABC Radio that it was “the fairest way of travelling”.
Rather than pay for a seat, passengers pay a fixed price per kilogram, which varies depending on the route length.
Samoa Air flies domestically and to American Samoa. It is thought the move could encourage other airlines to introduce similar policies.
“Airlines don’t run on seats, they run on weight, and particularly the smaller the aircraft you are in the less variance you can accept in terms of the difference in weight between passengers,” Mr Langton told ABC radio.
"Anyone who travels at times has felt they have been paying for half of the passenger next to them."Under the new model, Mr Langton described how some families with children were now paying cheaper fares.
“There are no extra fees in terms of excess baggage or anything - it is just a kilo is a kilo is a kilo,” he said.
Air Samoa’s rates range from $1 (65p) to around $4.16 per kilogram. Passengers pay for the combined weight of themselves and their baggage.
Mr Langton also suggested that the move had helped promote health awareness in Samoa, which has one of the world’s highest levels of obesity.
“People generally are becoming much more weight conscious. That’s a health issue in some areas,” he told ABC Radio.
Mr Langton said he believed that charging by weight was “the concept of the future.”
“People generally are bigger, wider and taller than they were 50 years ago,” he said. “The industry will start looking at this.”

What are your opinions? Do you think other airlines should adopt this strategy, why/why not?

[Shak]

Re: Airline passengers charged according to their weight.

That’s air travel done for you then?

j/k ‘‘lolzzzz’’

[sweefs]

Re: Airline passengers charged according to their weight.

HHAHAHAAHAHAa hilarious.

forreal though, i don’t see how much difference weight of a person makes to a flight? but then again, i don’t know the technicalities behind scheduling a flight and its cost.

[Sehar]

Re: Airline passengers charged according to their weight.

I don’t think this will work in a long run. You really can’t begin to penalize people based on their physical appearance, there really isn’t an end point to that. I think weight tends to average out for a flight given the variance of weight in the population but I’m no expert in the science behind it. I wonder if airlines are limiting checked luggage (or charging a fee for it) for this reason?

That being said, I recently sat next to a very overweight man. I was in the window seat and he was in the aisle. He was clearly in my space since I couldn’t find my seat belt for take off. I didn’t ask him either, too embarrassing for him and me both.

[sweefs]

Re: Airline passengers charged according to their weight.

@Sehar

I don’t think this will work in a long run. You really can’t begin to penalize people based on their physical appearance, there really isn’t an end point to that. I think weight tends to average out for a flight given the variance of weight in the population but I’m no expert in the science behind it. I wonder if airlines are limiting checked luggage (or charging a fee for it) for this reason?

That being said, I recently sat next to a very overweight man. I was in the window seat and he was in the aisle. He was clearly in my space since I couldn’t find my seat belt for take off. I didn’t ask him either, too embarrassing for him and me both.

seems more socially acceptable than to charge according to weight.

i just don’t think a few extremely obese people on one plane will make a huge difference. it’s just a money making ploy i guess.

[Southie]

Re: Airline passengers charged according to their weight.

This will affect the poor more. Cheap food, fast food is unhealthy. Healthy food costs more and is unavailable in poor areas. And the Right wants to cut programs for poor further in the US.

[diwana]

Re: Airline passengers charged according to their weight.

When do they weigh the passenger?

Before, or after the ticket is sold online?

Do they serve samosa and chutni?

[aaliyahkhan1]

Re: Airline passengers charged according to their weight.

^the poor ppl in the third world countries are very skinny Southie uncle!! So it would work out to be cheaper for them when they travel to work elsewhere…

This would be awesome for me then…I wouldn’t be paying too much on airfare…

But…hmm…I really don’t see this working out…it is kind of like discrimination…your fat..so you gotta pay more!

[Midnight_express_91]

Re: Airline passengers charged according to their weight.

i think its good. The samoan population for the most part are obese. Some of them would maybe have to purchase more than one seat which equals higher sales volume. On the other hand, more petrol is needed to get the freakin aircraft moving with all of them on there. So meh. Whichever. They should charge the old baba some kind of izzat fee aswell who forget to lock the toilet doors on PIA flights

[Southie]

Re: Airline passengers charged according to their weight.

^ poor baba. That would be age discrimination.

[Geezer]

Re: Airline passengers charged according to their weight.

Samoa is a country where people can be as huge as small sized elephants so that makes sense.

[Huma_1]

Re: Airline passengers charged according to their weight.

Some interesting comments on the Guardian, including that of the author’s:

So I hope the Samoa Air experiment proves a failure. There would be good sense in airlines offering, or even requiring passengers with hip measurements above a certain size to pay extra for larger seats, but the current plan bypasses the obligation on companies to provide facilities that meet the needs of their customers. The policy is a dehumanising, degrading and mechanistic approach to customer service. If it succeeds it may encourage the slow spread of body fascism and discrimination across different industries and the wider culture. But if I’m honest, I’d mostly like to see it fail in order to wipe the smiles off the faces of some of those for whom smug superiority is a badge of pride. I can be very judgmental like that.
Charging fatter people more to fly? It’s Samoa Air that should be ashamed | Ally Fogg | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk

[Naabigh]

Re: Airline passengers charged according to their weight.

This is the only way to make PIA , a profitable airline again

[Southie]

Re: Airline passengers charged according to their weight.

Nice article in The Guardian.

" But if I’m honest, I’d mostly like to see it fail in order to wipe the smiles off the faces of some of those for whom smug superiority is a badge of pride. I can be very judgmental like that."

Nice ending.

[9m33]

Re: Airline passengers charged according to their weight.

Its their call. There is an opportunity cost angle to it. If fat people don’t like it, they can travel by other airline.

Also, i think, fat people should be taxed more, that way, they will be motivated towards losing weight…

[_Iraj]

Re: Airline passengers charged according to their weight.