I am not sure what your point is. They do not let you buy a first class ticket? You want to get a first class seat and pay coach? You say you fly a lot, is someone forcing you? I don’t get it. I think you can fly first class if you are willing to pay the fare, just like those people did.
The only champion American Sumo wrestler (forgot his name, sorry) regularly paid for two seats on flights to and from his home in Hawaii. Perhaps this is a better answer than using weight: if you take up two spaces, pay for it. And here’s an extender for your seat belt.
OTOH I really think there’s a consumer issue about airlines sucking in the width of the standard seat in an attempt to squeeze in more passengers. Couple that complaint with the sucking up of legroom, too.
I aways prefer the window seat. Some window seats have arm rests that will not raise. I am rather heavy and wide so this means that there is 2 to 3 inches that I could use to be further from my seatmate that is taken up by a hunk of metal and plastic. This pisses me off. At the current rate of seat shrinkage, I will soon have to use 2 seats even though I am not changing size.
I find the whole concept of charge by weight offensive. I travel quite a bit for my job. If planes charge by weight, then companies would be more profitable if they hired thin people for jobs that would require travel. I suppose that is just reasonable. This is really what the country needs, more excuses to be nasty to fat people and for women to starve themselves.
I was at a show where the comedian said it mad him nervous to see fat ppl walking on air planes for fear they would cause the plane to crash. Much of the audience agreed. It won’t surprise me to see something like this attempted.
The best seats are the ones by the emergency exits - lots of leg-room. The downside is that I sit in terror for the whole journey terrified that the door will blow out. At least it’s comfy terror, though.
To those complaining about small seats: Of course we all like wide, comfortable seats but we also like cheap fares and you can’t have both. If you want wider seats you can have them as long as you pay for them! But the truth is people would rather have the lower fares and you get what you pay for.
And while we are at it, one more reason for Americans to lose some weight would be something beneficial seeing that there are already multiple health reasons in spite of which obesity is rampant.
I’m thinking if you want to charge by weight, we should also charge by:
How many days it’s been since your last bath.
How many minutes your baby is going to be fussy and scream on the flight.
How many times do you like to wake up the stranger next to you by climbing over them to go to the bathroom.
How long you like to fidget in your seat.
How many times you make nasty comments to the stewardess/fellow passengers.
How long you plan on having your elbow jabbed into your neighbor for the flight.
Keep in mind the exit-row seats by law cannot be assigned to passengers 15 years and younger. For this reason the counter agents MUST visually check that the passenger is an adult prior to assigning the seat. You can ask to be moved to an exit-row seat at the time of check-in, but plan to check in early, as other tall passengers have the same idea as you.
Beware: Some exit-row seats in some aircraft do not recline.
While all are legitimate arguments JavaMaven, none of them affect fuel consumption, which I suspect is the primary argument for being charged by weight.
I do have to ask, though (and this is going out to those of us ladies who no longer fit in the “junior” sized clothes) – how many of us would volunteer to stand on a scale at the check-in counter to show how much we weigh? NOT I, said the pig. (oink oink)
I couldnt agree more.
Obviously only slim, medium height, preferably attractive people should fly. HEY! maybe they could stuff all us fat and tall folks onto a train, like cattle!!!
No Kelli @ We short fat people do not want you tall fat people towering over us ! Besides, we had the cattle cars first ! 
MattK:
Here’s a Column by Cecil that should make you feel better. The door blowing out is quite impossible.
>> This is really what the country needs, more excuses to be nasty to fat people and for women to starve themselves.
Well, I don’t need more excuses as I have enough already and as far as women starving themselves it does not seem to be a problem if you take into account that Americans are fatter than ever before. Any incentive to shed some pounds would be beneficial IMHO.
Ok, former corporate travel agent checking in. I don’t have alot of gray matter to add to this, but I did have a couple of LARGE MARGE kinda clients who either flew first class -their company paid- or bought two tickets in coach because of their weight/size issue.
I haven’t heard of the women suing the airlines, but it isn’t the first time and it won’t be the last. My feelings on this are mixed. I feel for the fat ladies mortification, but on the other hand, what about the poor schlub who was suppose to sit in that seat that her big butt was occupying? Does he/she have the right to sue for invasion of his (even if temporary) property/space?
[hijack that is related, I swear]I naturally am picturing the worst case scenario who is my mom’s cousin, a woman who is so fat in the hips ( her own fault from lousy eating habits and being very lazy) that she has to sit on two chairs at my mom’s house because she is too big for one. She has to turn sideways to go through a doorway. If I had to sit next to that on a plane, I want some space. ( It’s weird, her upper body is about half the size. From the waist down she is gargantuan. She’s a mutant. [/hijack]
Incidently, if you are buying two seats for yourself ( or a large instrument, like a cello) the second seat is not as much money as the first. At least the airlines use to give a slight price break for passengers who needed the second seat or had to tote along the tuba and did not want to check it through. They probably changed this rule since I’ve left.
Weight has nothing to do with size.
I’m 5’9" and weigh 200#… so do I pay more or less? My ass fits into an airline seat very comfortably, thank you… so what? I can probably bench press you, you smart ass, so what? You gonna fuck with me on some flight?
I doubt it.
Weight has nothing to do with size. After I don’t know how many flights I’m a hell of a lot more interested in seeing MORE restrictions on the shit that folks drag in as “carry on” luggage.
It’s so fucking annoying to have a butt load of dipshits pulling up four fucking bags claiming that they meet the “carry-on” luggage requirements. They take up four luggage compartments to any seat or overspill a “heavy” person might take.
And where would this brilliant idea stop anyway?? Going to weigh all the bus passengers too?? Taxis can’t go until they have a ‘weight’ amount suitable for using the fuel to go anywhere?? Trains have to have so much weight, or they aren’t allowed to run at all. If this were about fuel, that would be one subject, but I don’t think that it is.
It is about someone’s personal experience again. Well, "I won’t give blood because some ‘creep’ will get it, and I don’t want to help any rude person to live one moment longer. "
“Let’s charge more for airline seats, since I’ve had some overweight person sweat on me.”
Frankly, ** rudeness and inconsiderate behavior is a great deal more offensive to me than sweat. ** Sweat washes off, after all.
I have a very petite friend who demands every time she flies that she be allowed 20% more weight in her luggage because she weighs at least that much less than the average joe. When she told me, I thought yeah, sounds right.
For one part I do definitely see the purpose of having two seats for an overly large person, for comfort of both the person concerned and the one next to them. I have been on enough uncomfortable 24 hour flights to know what a difference your own personal space means.
We’ve all pretty much agreed that it would not be practical or logical to charge by weight but the OP was motivated by a passenger who needed TWO seats and wanted to pay for ONE. When the airline said NO, she sued.
I think we can all agree that if you are so fat as to need two seats, you should pay for two seats. You get what you pay for lady! If you want six hot dogs, you pay for six hot dogs, don’t you?
On the matter of carry-on luggage I heartily agree that they should restrict it more and I am glad to see many airlines and airports are doing just that. I always make a point of telling them because if not they think they are displeasing passengers by enforcing the rules.
As for some of the language used in earlier posts, I think it is unnecessary and better if it would be restricted to the pit. Let’s try to keep this part a family show, shall we?
I’ll bet it was more a question of volume rather than weight. Chances are that this woman was too big to fit in one seat and have someone comfortably sit next to her.
Even having been pretty overweight for most of my life, I don’t have a problem with charging someone who doesn’t fit in one seat for two- that’s just rude to expect someone else to rub up on you because you’re too big.
As for weight, not everyone who’s heavy is necessarily fat. I weigh 225, and I’m well in middle of the recommended male bodyfat percentage range(13%). Yet I’d get screwed by some weight based fare system, in spite of the fact that I fit nicely in ONE airline seat.
Inane comments such as these from airline passengers make me prefer riding trains or buses to different cities.
Right on. Weight has absolutely nothing to do with size in many cases. I’m somewhere between 5’9" and 5’10", and I am an athlete at a minimal level. Naturally i have a muscular build, and it makes me weigh a lot more than the average person my height. I do have a larger frame than the average person also, but I fit perfectly fine in any airline passenger seat, excluding my irritation at the legroom.