Airlines Charging More to Oversized Passengers?

I toyed with the idea of when to put this post into the feed, since I already had a sizeable (HA!) story in the queue for today. But this was an in-the-news item and as a rule of thumb...if I'm putting something in that is "time sensitive" I try not to put it into the end of the queue where it could take days to show up.

There is also the fact that while I've heard that this was being considered before I didn't have the link handy; it didn't stop me from putting it into my previous post as an example. Then my wife told me this story had just appeared in CNN that, lo and behold, was about this precise topic. I love it when fates smile on me. Doesn't happen often, but when it does, I smile. And I hit "edit" on the post that needed the link inserted to prove I wasn't just being a smartass and rambling about the topic.

The article pointed out that obesity has been rising for 25 years, yet coach seats are still 17 to 18 inches wide. Another reason this caught my eye is because I read about this issue already in The 9-Inch "Diet", a fantastic book that discusses another perspective on obesity in America, including the fact that theaters with their typically smaller seating have found it necessary after raising a generation to chow down on mega-boxes of candy and buttered popcorn now have to spend money on renovating with larger seats because their patrons are getting larger (that that they're the cause, just a contributor).

The issue here is that airlines are getting one step closer to charging fat customers for two seats on planes. Apparently airlines have had 700 complaints last year from passengers that had obese passengers spill into their seats, and one-third of a small European airline's 100,000 customers supported instituting a "fat tax" on passengers that are overweight.

To their credit, the article states that most airlines have had informal policies to deal with obese passengers that usually involves moving the obese passenger to another seat with an empty neighboring seat for free if the flight isn't full.

There have been lawsuits that claim this is discrimination, but since there are no laws to prevent discrimination against obese individuals I guess this means it's okay to do that (unless you can prove to a jury that your obesity is genetic and thus out of your control).

The funniest part for me was that after an accident from an overloaded plane (that's not entirely fair, it also had a maintenance issue, according to the piece) in 2003 the FAA decided to reevaluate the weight it uses for estimating average passenger size, upping it from 180 to 190 pounds (including luggage). I found it entertaining in that it once again illustrates that these people don't pay attention to what is going on around them...honestly, you haven't noticed that there's an obesity problem on the rise in the US? The figure of 180 was used in 1995. That means they updated it after 8 years. Geez.

The obvious answer is to start making seats that are wider, unless they really don't care about passenger comfort. There are normals out there who find airline seats uncomfortable, hard as it may be to believe. And it sounds from the article as if airline companies have a good view up their butts too...Boeing said that the 17 inch seats suit 95% of they traveling public, and that it's the shoulders, not the butts, that are more often spilling into the next seat. Honestly, wouldn't wider seats solve or alleviate the issue whether it's shoulders or arse spilling over?

So is it fair for obese passengers to pay a "fat tax"? Or should airlines work to accomodate their passengers, flaws and all? I understand that airlines need to work to make a profit and squeezing that profit out is more and more difficult; they need to balance comfort with profit or else there wouldn't be an airline left to have this issue. Personally I'm thinking that airlines have a convenient scapegoat when they should be focused on enlarging seats a bit to accomodate the average paying clientele. They'd rather not deal with it because they already irritate their clientele through asinine security procedures and removing even basic comforts like in-flight meals.

I suppose that there are actually two "obvious" answers; widen the seats, or lose weight. One puts the burden on the business to accomodate their clients. The other is forcing clients to adjust to those who are supposed to be providing a service.

Or don't fly. If everyone is getting fatter and they refuse to use a service where the business won't accomodate them then the airlines will get the message in the pocket books.

Just some food for thought.