"About 76% of respondents to a poll by a travel Web site said airlines should charge obese people a 'fat tax' when they fly."Airlines' Answer to Obesity - Pay for an Additional Seat.
maybe take ten seats off each plane, space it out better, and see how it goes?'The problem is width, so on, say, a 737, making the seats any wider would require getting rid of 1/6th of the seats (to make each row 3 and 2). An alternative would be a new class for big people, but then you have the same enforcement problems.
"During the development of the 777 family of planes, Boeing took their findings and decided to add 5 inches to the width of the plane. It permitted them to put in wider, 18.5" seats without diminishing the overall capacity. The standard airline seat is 17.2" wide, while seat pitch ranges from 28" on some short-haul, down-and-dirty charters, to 33-34" on some planes."Previous MetaTalk on the subject in response to this MeFi FPP: 'Forced to buy second seat on Southwest Airlines?'
Oh please, no one who owns an airline lives a middle class - let alone working class - existence. I don't give a fuck about billionaire's money losing woes.Southwest is publicly traded, you know.
I'm sorry planet, but the vast majority of US citizens do not own stocks either.Start by reading about CalPERS and CalSTRS. Then think for a bit about what a 401k plan is.
planet, do you think most Americans have 401k plans?How often do people who don't have any of their wealth in the public equity markets actually fly?
In 2002, 49.5% of American households owned stock. Now, that's not the majority, but it's pretty damn close, and I sure as heck wouldn't say that the vast majority don't.That doesn't appear to include pension plans (both private and public), all of which represent an interest in stock. It just includes mutual funds, which will include a large portion of retirement plans, but not nearly all.
I don't care about making life better for stock holders or CEOs, so I don't want my fat friends to have to absorb the cost of their "extra" seat.Yeah, and I don't want to have to absorb the cost of my single seat, as it turns out. It would be great if big business would give me stuff for free, just because I'm me, but come on.
Maybe they should just cut a hole shaped like the fattest person you can fit in a seat in a board and make everyone walk through it to get on the plane.
Smith's girth contributed to an embarrassing incident last week. "I broke a toilet. That's how heavy I am," said Smith. "I can't take all the credit -- that was an old toilet and a very waterlogged wall -- but my size took that toilet down. I cannot cognitively reframe it and be like, 'It wasn't me -- it was the toilet.' It was definitely me. And that's a wake-up call!"i'm sorry sir, but we have a policy to enforce and you're delaying the flight.
So Justinian, you think it's fair if airlines reserve the right to make the majority of their male customers buy a second seat? -- serazinWell, any weight-based system is going to impact men more then women as it is.
if you're a customer of a business, why should you suck up their unfair policies, just because those policies make money for the business? -- serazinBecause I'm not fat? These polices don't just benefit shareholder and CEOs, they also benefit people who end up paying less for a ticket because the seats are stuck together.
I would invest in some sort of underground shelter with enough room for all your friends and family and a few lifetimes worth of food, because if our stock market fails we're all utterly fucked.-- floamThat's a bit excessive. And pardon me if I ignore financial advice from southwest airlines shareholder
I know, right? And why's everybody so upset about airlines, anyway? Everybody I know has their own personal jetpack that's fueled by doubloons and disdain for the working man. Damn plebes... -- Toby Dammit XLol.
Kevin Smith engendered a few comments on his MacWorld appearance last week on the San Francisco news site. -- telstarWow, he actually looks really fat in that picture. He looks like he's wearing a screen-printed snuggie.
"You've read about these situations before. Southwest instituted our Customer of Size policy more than 25 years ago. The policy requires passengers that can not fit safely and comfortably in one seat to purchase an additional seat while traveling. This policy is not unique to Southwest Airlines and it is not a revenue generator. Most, if not all, carriers have similar policies, but unique to Southwest is the refunding of the second seat purchased (if the flight does not oversell) which is greater than any revenue made (full policy can be found here). The spirit of this policy is based solely on Customer comfort and Safety. As a Company committed to serving our Customers in Safety and comfort, we feel the definitive boundary between seats is the armrest. If a Customer cannot comfortably lower the armrest and infringes on a portion of another seat, a Customer seated adjacent would be very uncomfortable and a timely exit from the aircraft in the event of an emergency might be compromised if we allow a cramped, restricted seating arrangement.Blind or functionally illiterate? People of metafilter, you decide!
Which is why nowhere on any of the television advertisements for his film is there a single mention of his name. Which is why his films don't do all that well at the box office.Yeah, I had no idea that this was a Kevin Smith movie until this thread. It looked like a generic comedy. I didn't know the "Zack and Miri Make a Porno" was one of his movies either right away.
Because he chose to. What about his choice or his solvency fails to entitle him to adequate customer service?Well, obviously "Adequate customer service" isn't a service southwest airlines is setup to provide? People know SW's rep when they buy tickets.
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posted by dunkadunc at 3:11 PM on February 14, 2010 [2 favorites]