Soutwest Airlines Charge Fat Extra

[Guest Some Guy]

I was half being serious adn half joking. Seriously I wouldn't complain if I only paid $11, but you don't have Fenway's crazy prices for comparison.

Leg room is an issue that no one cares about, it's just fat people who get sympathy in this country, as I've said before.

[Guest HoffmanHBK]

Agreed -- tall people get the shaft. Ironic, in that's one of a very few conditions a person can't help. And hey, think of it this way: at least you might not have to buy expensive playoff tickets, whereas it's all but guaranteed I'll have to. HA HA! Okay that was low, sorry.

[Guest Hogan Made Wrestling]

The problem probably boils down to something like this: suppose you want to give an overweight person an extra seat. Ok, that takes an extra seat, and done. But if you want to give people more leg room you either have to have a section of the stadium pre-set that way (maybe not a bad idea, although it would probably be abused by people who don't really need it) or you have to move all the seats up to keep it standardised. Now, those extra inches might not seem like much, but add all of them up, over the whole stadium, and you are probably losing A LOT of seats.

[Guest MentallyNormal]

Damn Just imagine if you're a sumo wrestler. That is gonna cost an arm an a leg.

[Guest J*ingus]

Or an NFL linebacker, or any basketball player, or pretty much anyone who's over 6'3" or 300 pounds, no matter what the source of that mass is. It's not just fat people being discriminated against, it's all kinds of large people.

[Guest X briar rose X]

I'm sorry, I don't see any discrimination here. It's business. Airlines lose if they can't put someone in a seat due to an (extremely) overweight person taking up two.

 

[EDIT: Full price, however is a little ridiculous. However, they'd get two full price for two people in two seats.]

 

I understand the plight of long-leggedness, though at 5'2", I haven't any problems.

 

[Guest HoffmanHBK]

Hogan Made Wrestling makes a good point, but at the same time you've got companies making billions of dollars (not every, but certainly some do), running airlines and buslines stadiums, and scrunching as many seats in as possible to get their profits even higher. It would be nice if they could trade a relatively small amount of that cash in for some added leg room, which would translate into customer satisfaction for us tall guys. Now, it's not a huge deal, and it's not as though I'm gonna stop going to places with minimal leg room, but I'd be much more inclined to go back, and do so more often, if I had a little more space.

 

Of course, airlines are a bit of a different story post-September 11th, but the industry will bounce back to full strength eventually (hopefully) and at that point you have a lot of rich airliners...just saying.

[Guest Cancer Marney]

"A woman injured while squeezed next to an obese passenger on a trans-Atlantic flight has been given £13,000 ($20,000) by the airline.

Barbara Hewson, 63, was offered damages by Virgin Atlantic after suffering a blood clot, torn leg muscles and sciatica following a flight to Los Angeles in January 2001."

CNN story

 

 

 

 

 

Put the Snickers bar down, you fat fuck. PUT IT DOWN!

[Guest Ace309]

Just to weigh in...

 

er...

 

add my two cents to this already dead discussion....

 

You use two seats. You pay for two seats. It's not fair to do it any other way. It's not discrimination, it's pragmatism.

 

I also firmly believe that if you get a 500-pound husband and a 90-pound wife who take up a total of two seats comfortably, and they want to buy two seats and wedge themselves into it, fine. Let them. But that's their choice, and I don't recall being asked permission to have someone else's BUTT on my seat.

[Guest Jobber of the Week]

I personally am against this policy, but from a fair-minded POV I think it's like the law regarding smoking in bars. If you don't like what one airline does, fly another.

[Guest HecateRose]

I have been on a lot of planes in my life, and I know that it can be very uncomfortable to have a large person taking up some of your seat room. I am only 5'3" and average weight for my height, so if I was uncomfortable, most other people would be too, especially on overseas flights (I've been in that situation for 9 hours, it was beyond uncomfortable) Airplanes are uncomfortable enough when you are seated next to someone you don't know, let alone if they are intruding into your personal space. I believe if you take up more than one seat, you should have to pay for another. Why should those who are not large in size have to be uncomfortable because another chose to be large.

[Guest Samurai_Goat]

Hey, If you eat a burger and a half, Burger King ain't gonna charge you for half a burger. They will charge you for the whole burger. And people who might do that might take up one and a half seats. I know of very few people who would fit on half a seat. I'm 5'11'', and 120 pounds. I'm rail thin, and I can't fit in half a seat. I have not heard a single convincing arguement towards not having this two seat rule put into effect, other than "Well, I'm not fat, I'm big boned" type arguements. Hey, out of curiosity, how many bones are in your BUTT there, mister?

[Guest HecateRose]

Exactly, there is no real arguement against making them pay for two seats. If you are wide enoguh to need two seats, you should have to pay for them. In most cases getting that large is a choice, whether it's putting on a lot of muscle or putting on a lot of fat. I figure if you are willing to be that big, then take what comes along with it. And, if you are say an NFL Linebacker (QUOTE: Jingus) then you can afford two seats, and if you can afford to eat enough to justify needing two seats, stop eating so much and you could save the money for the second seat (or lose enough weight to not need it, better your health, and have a good amount in savings to blow on new clothes in smaller sizes). IMHO it is not descrimination because weight and muscle are not necessarily genetic, now you start making tall people buy second seats because there legs might get in the way, that's bull. You can't control how tall you get, and that would definitely be descrimination (and absolutely uncalled for)

[Guest The Czech Republic]

If you're an NFL linebacker you don't fly coach on Southwest.

[Guest Jobber of the Week]

now you start making tall people buy second seats because there legs might get in the way, that's bull.  You can't control how tall you get, and that would definitely be descrimination (and absolutely uncalled for)

I don't see how you could get away with charging them a second seat. If they keep their legs together, they won't spill into other people's laps, just jab others in the back.