Airlines to charge by Weight???

[BobF64]

Also airlines should ban reclining seats - it is simply obnoxious and selfish to put your seat down in an aircraft as it reduces the person behind's legroom.

Or just free knee pads would do me, my knees are perfectly capable of preventing the person in front from reclining, and continued attempts earn my wrath.

[csgohan4]

Or just free knee pads would do me, my knees are perfectly capable of preventing the person in front from reclining, and continued attempts earn my wrath.

Haha,

well be nice and ask the person behind when all the lights are off if you can recline

[BobF64]

well be nice and ask the person behind when all the lights are off if you can recline

I actually find reclining is more uncomfortable.

Once I even managed to get a seat in the exit row, never again though, whilst the leg room was quite impressive, for some reason the seats were solid and narrower than all the others.
The last time I flew over night with Delta, I paid a little extra for their new (at the time) "Economy Comfort" seats, much much better, even managed to recline comfortably, extra few inches of leg room and increase reclinability helps.

[melon]

what about those that weigh more because they are tall or are fit and work out??


If they are applying the rules across the board, then fair enough, but this will not be popular

What happens if your stuck on a wheelchair or scooter , how do
they fairly weigh you them ?

m

[Larkspeed]

well sorry melon but if you are in a wheelchair or scooter they should weigh you sitting in or on it.

If it is weight that you are going to be taking on a plane you should pay for it.

I think the pay for the weight you are taking on the plane is the fairest system they can come up with.

Every kilo on a plane costs more in fuel to move around, if you or something you have brought onto the plane is the source of that extra kilo then you give me one good reason why you should not pay to cover the extra transport costs of what you are bringing on.

[melon]

well sorry melon but if you are in a wheelchair or scooter they should weigh you sitting in or on it.

If it is weight that you are going to be taking on a plane you should pay for it.

I think the pay for the weight you are taking on the plane is the fairest system they can come up with.

Every kilo on a plane costs more in fuel to move around, if you or something you have brought onto the plane is the source of that extra kilo then you give me one good reason why you should not pay to cover the extra transport costs of what you are bringing on.

Because some one disabled cant get on the plane without it , therefore its discriminating against a basic requirement that would otherwise prevent that person from travel- unlike luggage or even being overweight which does not .

[Larkspeed]

pure logic view.

In all forms of transport the heavier the item is the more it costs to transport.

If you want to transport something you pay based on what it weighs

Why should it be any different with commercial air travel. You are responsible for the weight you bring on the plane, the more weight you bring the more it costs to transport you so the more you should pay.

As this type of story filters out to the world people will start to realize that fact and will start getting more disgruntled with air travel when they realize that it costs more to transport the guy on the next seat but he did not pay any more for his ticket, this potentially means that you are paying to transport part of the guy sitting next to you.

And I'm sorry if this offends but disabled, or differently abled if you prefer, people are always insisting that they should be treated equally until some debate like this comes up and then they are the first to start saying "but I have no choice you have to make an exception for me"

[Funkstar]

Because some one disabled cant get on the plane without it , therefore its discriminating against a basic requirement that would otherwise prevent that person from travel- unlike luggage or even being overweight which does not .

A person also can't help if they are exceptionally tall or a lot smaller than average. I don't think that is discrimination if it is applied fairly across the board in an easy to understand manner. Not weighing a wheelchair would be classed as positive discriminating as that person is being allowed to take more weight into the aircraft than the person behind them without paying for it.

I don't believe this system would make much sense for large airlines, but I can see why people would be in favour of it.

[melon]

pure logic view.

In all forms of transport the heavier the item is the more it costs to transport.

If you want to transport something you pay based on what it weighs

Why should it be any different with commercial air travel. You are responsible for the weight you bring on the plane, the more weight you bring the more it costs to transport you so the more you should pay.

And I'm sorry if this offends but disabled, or differently abled if you prefer, people are always insisting that they should be treated equally until some debate like this comes up and then they are the first to start saying "but I have no choice you have to make an exception for me"

And what about the added controllable weight ?

Why would you morally complain about 1 or 2 people in wheelchairs compared to say 100 fat people whose lifestyle have cost you more ?

Shouldnt something ( that happens to be in majority ) be charged appropriately rather than charging 1 - 2 in the minority instead ?

If you dont make that distinction , then your basically labeling all wheelchair users as fat even if their not , and perhaps even less in weight than any one else ,your also rewarding those who can lose weight as opposed to those who cant.

Why not just have different weight class flights ?

that way you pay for what you get

[csgohan4]

Perhaps taking the wheel chair out of your lugguage allowance, wouldn't that be fair, it's weight that is not natural and yet you can't go without it.

[melon]

Perhaps taking the wheel chair out of your lugguage allowance, wouldn't that be fair, it's weight that is not natural and yet you can't go without it.

What about lack of seating options ( usually next to the toilet ) and the inability to lie back or down as others ?

Wheelchairs arent designed to sleep in

[watercooled]

So much nonsense in this thread...

Cargo is charged by weight, and often size, because they are important metrics; you can fit fewer heavier/larger items on a given transport medium so overall they cost more to carry. Airlines have a tendency to have fixed size seats where passengers sit, so up to a point size is unimportant, and it's quite laughable some people think fuel usage is so precisely controlled that someone weighing 5kg more will actually have a measurable impact on consumption.

By these nonsensical metrics, does this mean people should be forced to pay something like £100 for a ten mile journey if they are the only person on the bus? They didn't choose to be the only person, and their presence doesn't change much, but because this big, heavy vehicle is transporting them they should pay for the entire costs of the journey right?

People might be charged more for larger food portions, or for a long haircut, because they actually cost more/take more effort. Individual passenger weight has no meaningful impact on flight costs for airliners, so what exactly is the point in charging by a completely irrelevant metric? It makes about as much sense as charging based on how many freckles you have...

[BobF64]

Individual passenger weight has no meaningful impact on flight costs for airliners, so what exactly is the point in charging by a completely irrelevant metric? It makes about as much sense as charging based on how many freckles you have...

On large commercial jets, no it probably doesnt, but on smaller planes the total weight of the aircraft at take off should be more meaningful.

But ultimately the idea isnt about being meaningful, its about making passengers feel they have received better value because theyre underusing "average" allocations.

Its simply personalisation, and balancing things to be fair, in the proper and true sense rather than the "fair" everyone thinks is fair, which is really just an average at best.

[wasabi]

If you dont make that distinction , then your basically labeling all wheelchair users as fat even if their not ,

No you're not, you're just throwing in misleading emotive language. The idea is simply are weighing people plus anything they bring onboard. Total weight. No value judgement.

[melon]

No you're not, you're just throwing in misleading emotive language. The idea is simply are weighing people plus anything they bring onboard. Total weight. No value judgement.

Emotive language is what you are resorting too by labeling my explanation because you have none yourself.

To judge every wheelchair as fat because of necessary added weight they cant reduce ( because its necessary ) is not the same as an overweight person who can travel lighter or lose weight because they have a choice.

You also dont include the weight of the disabled persons luggage which may already include other items over and above what a regular person would require to make things " more adaptable " i.e. portable ramp etc

The additional help to get in the plane as Animus pointed out , which has to be disclosed also doesnt leave you with the option of last call or emergency flights , you got to pre-plan everything and calculate things ( on both ends ) so its no as straightforward as just expecting us to be as flexible as every one else.

Like it or not we cost more by default usually unless you can walk a bit like when I last traveled on crutches , you really have no choice.

[TheAnimus]

Weight does not matter on a normal commercial jet. 20kg costs pretty much nothing.

Please can people understand this, its incredibly frustrating to see people saying "well I shouldn't be paying for them, hurp de derp, I know squat about how much it costs, but I'm paying for them, even thou it would be more expensive for me to be weighed, durrrrrrrrp I don't want to pay for them.".

Disabled people cost the airlines a fortune, not because of the weight of a wheel chair, but because of the ground handling costs. If your not going up to the terminal directly but using the stairs and a bus (which many low cost routes do!) they have to get the lift over specially for that one person.

It's also normally that one person, because most craft are not designed to be able to have many disabled passengers, this includes blind, deaf or limited mobility too. In case you've wondered why when booking airlines you are required to disclose this information, it is simply because in an emergency situation there are only so many people with disabilities that can be safely evacuated or not prevent the timely evacuation of others.