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Yes
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Add to FavoritesIn today's politically correct universe this is a question that will always cause a certain amount of controversy, because some people will always go on about discrimination and unfairness on obesity. However, this could also be used in the opposite direction, those of us who actually are not overweight are often put into very uncomfortable situations where we cannot sit in any comfort on a plane because we are being squashed by someone three times our size.
===Comfort===
I will not be the only person on a plane to have had to deal with an extremely overweight person sat next to you, before they sat down you were perfectly comfortable and looking forward to a good journey, then you see this person walking down the aisle. You close your eyes and start praying, hard; it doesn't work. He or she sits next to you. And your view on this journey suddenly changes, as you wonder desperately if you can change seats...not likely. So you spend the whole journey squashed into a corner of your seat as the bulk of someone else's weight takes up the rest of your place. I've even had an occasion where someone complained bitterly at me because I put my armrest down, and therefore they weren't comfortable because they were in a fair proportion of my seat, they got even more annoyed when I refused to lift my armrest and kicked up a fuss; well it got me promoted to first class! And you are left wondering; who paid for this seat? Instead of having a nice, comfortable journey; you are uncomfortable, often covered in someone else's sweat and thoroughly annoyed. I have been in this situation before, and considering I am only 40kg I don't take up a great deal of space at the best of times, and when I am in a situation where I am squashed there is a serious problem! It's not nice, it's not pleasant and particularly if you are on a long flight it can be almost unbearable. We spend far too much time worrying about the feelings of a minority, and at that an unhealthy minority, when we should be spending more time looking at the comfort of the majority. Yes, the minority also matter, but that can be easily solved by putting slightly larger separate seats in an area of the plane, this would be more comfortable both for the overweight people as well as the healthy sized. They would have seats that actually fit them, and I will be comfortable when flying as I will have my seat to myself and won't have to put up with someone else squashing me into the corner of a seat that I paid for. It's not discrimination; it's just allowing other customers to have a comfortable flight.
===Fuel===
Why do airlines charge more for baggage that goes over the recommended limit for weight? Fuel, that's why. Now if I have to pay for my luggage which is 2kg over the supposed limit, how come a human can be 40kg over the limit and not pay a penny more? Yes, you may say that this is treating people like cattle and charging by the kilo but it does actually make sense. You can also say that a taller person will naturally weigh more than a smaller person, well yes, that's obvious, but we do have a thing called BMI (Body Mass Index). Now, this is a measurement that takes both height and weight into account; and anyone over 30 on the BMI scale is classed as severely overweight. This seems like a far fairer measurement. It is also well known that heavier loads increase fuel costs, which in turn will push general airline costs up for all of us which also seems highly unfair when there is a majority of us who are not pushing up costs. I don't see why I should have to pay extra because of customers who are costing more for the airline to run their flights, so it also makes commercial sense as well. It's not discrimination; it's common sense.
===Health===
If overweight people are being forced to pay extra for a larger seat it won't only make flights more comfortable for the majority and possibly push costs down, it could also bring the issue of weight to their immediate attention. As it is well known that weight issues cause major health issues, this could finally push people into losing some weight and thereby actually improving their health. The British government has recently done a major push on smoking and alcohol as health issues but obesity is as much of a political issue, and if they are focusing on making it harder to smoke and drink it would seem to be a minor issue to have a major health push on obesity. In a recent RAND Health Research Brief (RB-4549), researchers related that obesity is linked to very high rates of chronic illnesseshigher than living in poverty and much higher than smoking or drinking. Considering the major rise in obesity something does need to be done, and this could have some form of an affect. Unless there is a legitimate medical reason for the person being obese that cannot be cured, and can be proven (prader-willi syndrome being a very strong case in point), I do not see how you can call obesity a legitimate disability. Yes, you could say that the changes will have a negative emotional affect on overweight people, but most people who are obese know they are obese, putting a charge in isn't going to make much of a difference there, and I personally believe this will be out-weighed by the positive affect it will have on customers who are not overweight, plus the fact that it might actually induce some change in the overweight person's habits money is always a strong motivator. How is this discrimination?
===Pr ecedent===
And before anyone complains about there being no precedent for this kind of move, there is. It just hasn't been enforced until recently. Southwest Airlines has a 22 year old policy requiring overweight or obese passengers who take up all of part of two airplane seats to purchase two tickets, and the policy dates back to 1980. If you look at other businesses there is a precedent in them as well, obese people may more health insurance, and they have to pay a certain amount more for clothing. If there is already a precedent, then I can't see what the issue is.
===Disadvantages= =
This could however cause added delays to passengers who have to wait in longer queues because of people getting weighed, however, if you have two lines of customers, one line in which there is obviously no problem with weight and the other where there is a possibility of an issue this will cut down on some of the problem. And considering how long most people spend in the waiting area anyway, an extra 20 minutes here or there shouldn't cause much of an issue.
The charges of insensitiveness, discrimination and unfairness are bound to come up somewhere, but I do not believe that this is the case. It's very simple really, if you take up two seats then pay for them. It's not discrimination; that would be saying that we won't allow anybody who is overweight on the plane. It is working with a problem which is becoming more and more severe to find a solution. I would personally say it's discrimination against me if I have to pay a full fare for an uncomfortable and squashed journey, because how is it my fault? However, if there is to be a major uproar on the grounds on discrimination it may be interesting to point out that precedents for discrimination on the basis of cost have been set in other industries - for instance, higher life insurance premiums may be charged for the obese.
A set weight of say 11 stone would cause massive problems, because for a large amount of taller people, or even average size males 11 stone is a normal weight. But as I stated earlier, I would disagree with this system of rating because we have a far better form of judging size BMI. If you can judge obesity on both height and weight then the issue becomes far less unfair, and there is far less room for debate.
===Conclusion ===
If you take up two seats, pay for them.
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No
When United Airlines announced that it was going to charge obese people double the fare for travel, many people were outraged and with good reason. Airlines should not charge their overweight or obese passengers more to fly.
Charging overweight and/or obese people more money to fly is counter-productive.
I t has been estimated that 40% of the world's adult population is obese. That means that 40% of the adult population has a BMI, Body Mass Index, of more than 30 and plenty more people are overweight bordering on obesity. The World Health Organization predicts that "by 2015, 2.3 billion adults will be overweight (many bordering on obese) and more than 700 million will be obese."
After reading these statistics and others it is clear that the airlines are going to be having to deal with an ever increasing stream of overweight and obese customers for a long, long time. And if they want to have these customers frequent them instead of going to other airlines or, even worse, deciding to use alternative forms of transportation entirely, then they had better do their best to meet the needs of these passengers rather than embarrassing them and/or penalizing them by charging them more money to fly.
It might seem on the surface that the airlines can afford to mistreat their obese and/or overweight passengers with impunity. Yet, if their larger customers go elsewhere, they will drag along their children, their spouses, their friends and other travelling companions with them so in the end the airlines will be losing a lot more money than they would if they had decided to refrain from charging their overweight passengers more money.
It is clear that charging overweight and/or obese passenger more to fly is a bad business practice as it runs the risk of causing the airlines to lose money and, even more important, brand loyalty.
So what should the airlines do?
Disneyland in Anaheim, California, shut down one ride for a time (reopened it March 2009), and made its seats bigger to fit the needs of its customers. It did not charge more for those who were overweight to get on that ride as that would have made "The Happiest Place on Earth" a very unhappy place for its many overweight visitors. It would have made enemies and would have lost business that it could ill afford losing.
Increasing the width of some of the seats in coach would be a good idea. The experts might say that the width of the seats and the leg room have not shrunk but most passengers, even those who are thin, would appreciate more room in the seats and perhaps more room in between the seats.
But adding more room does not seem to be something that the airlines want to consider. They want to make more money and do not seem to be caring as much about providing quality services as they do about tapping into their passenger's bank accounts.
The airlines have had a tendency to want to have their passengers packed in like cattle and recently have been charging for the things that most people who flew about ten years ago were basics - One Irish budget airline, Ryanair, in February, announced that it was considering charging people to use their bathrooms. But the flack from that was extreme so it is unlikely that will come to pass. The public protested US Airways and its charging for soda, juice, water and coffee so much that it reversed its decision in March citing its desire to retain brand loyalty. Many airlines charge for meals and snacks. Many airlines are charging $15 for the first checked in bag and about $25 for the second checked in bag per flight. And unfortunately the practice of charging obese people for double seats is not an uncommon one in the industry.
The public resents the increased fees and complains about them. Yet the airlines do not seem to be getting the message. The public wants more from their airlines and not less...
If the public was charged more for enhanced services like extra fast Internet service, wonderfully prepared meals, first run movies on enhanced video screens, television and radio on demand, etc. then perhaps the public would feel better about the fees as they would be value added fees.People would get more by paying more. But why should they pay more for what they have come to believe are the basics? It just isn't fair!
In regards to the proposed increased charges for overweight people and the double fares for obese people, it is clear that those who are overweight and/or obese, have the belief that being able to fly and being charged the same price as everyone else is a basic right. And they are not wrong for having this belief. They are indeed legally entitled to a seat on the airline. To discriminate against them by charging them more money for their seats is unethical and frankly has already been ruled as being illegal in one court.
If as, some have said, obesity is now often the plague of the poor and not the rich, as those who are poor or of reduced incomes are not as able to purchase the foods that provide good nutrition and have to depend on the carbohydrate rich foods and fast foods which keep them alive but add to their tendency to being overweight or obese, there is indeed reason to say that the airlines are discriminating against the poor by charging overweight and obsese people more to fly. And is discriminating against the poor a just, ethical or moral thing for the airlines to do?
It is also true that as the public have embraced political correctness and are no longer exhibiting overt racism, sexism, agism, etc. as much, the one group of people that is continuing to be harassed, picked on, abused and discriminated against, often with impunity, are the overweight and obese people of the world who quite frankly have done nothing to deserve such abuse. The obese and overweight people of the world are getting angry enough to express outrage at being treated unfairly so the chances are that the courts will soon rule that it is illegal to discriminate against those who are overweight and/or obese. As the majority of diets do not work for an extended period of time, being overweight or obese cannot be said to really be a matter of choice so it is likely that those who metabolize their calories slowly and who deal with the increased toxic load in the environment and poor nutrition by expanding their waist lines, would indeed be covered under the ADA and would be entitled to special treatment such as wider seats in the airlines without having to pay extra for them just as physically challenged individuals have handicapped accessible restrooms available to them in business establishments without having to pay extra for them.
For these reasons and others airlines should refrain from charging more for overweight and/or obese passengers to fly.
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