[Timoteo]

http://now.msn.com/living/0313-overweigh...ngers.aspx

Here's what a Princeton professor thinks of fatties, and he isn't the first person to propose this. I think airlines make them buy two seats, but this is a different approach...

[Basil Ransom]

(03-13-2012 06:42 PM)Timoteo Wrote:  

http://now.msn.com/living/0313-overweigh...ngers.aspx

Here's what a Princeton professor thinks of fatties, and he isn't the first person to propose this. I think airlines make them buy two seats, but this is a different approach...

I made the same argument on here, that we should be charging heavier people, i.e. fatties, more money.

It's basic engineering. Fuel economy goes down as weight goes up. Heavier people are costlier to move.

[Timoteo]

(03-13-2012 06:48 PM)basilransom Wrote:  

(03-13-2012 06:42 PM)Timoteo Wrote:  

http://now.msn.com/living/0313-overweigh...ngers.aspx

Here's what a Princeton professor thinks of fatties, and he isn't the first person to propose this. I think airlines make them buy two seats, but this is a different approach...

I made the same argument on here, that we should be charging heavier people, i.e. fatties, more money.

It's basic engineering. Fuel economy goes down as weight goes up. Heavier people are costlier to move.

If you're fat and fly on Southwest, they probably just throw you off the plane! But you can already anticipate the uproar from the more corpulent among us - the filing of discrimination suits, etc. On the flip side it would be hard to make that claim without acknowledgment of the discomfort of passengers that are forced to sit next to them, or in the case of emergency their inability to move quickly (or at all), thus jeopardizing the safety of other passengers, etc. etc. on top of the fuel costs issues. If they're hitting us for luggage above a certain weight, it stands to reason they could justify doing the same for people. With people it isn't just about their weight - it's also SIZE. That isn't the concern with luggage. Suitcases are only so big, no matter how much you pack inside them.

[BortimusPrime]

(03-13-2012 06:42 PM)Timoteo Wrote:  

http://now.msn.com/living/0313-overweigh...ngers.aspx

Here's what a Princeton professor thinks of fatties, and he isn't the first person to propose this. I think airlines make them buy two seats, but this is a different approach...

It'd take quite a marketing person to spin this without costing the airline most of it's business. Figure most people are chubby and will get pissed off, so however much you save by sticking it to the whales isn't worth the loss of customers.

[Timoteo]

(03-13-2012 07:35 PM)BortimusPrime Wrote:  

(03-13-2012 06:42 PM)Timoteo Wrote:  

http://now.msn.com/living/0313-overweigh...ngers.aspx

Here's what a Princeton professor thinks of fatties, and he isn't the first person to propose this. I think airlines make them buy two seats, but this is a different approach...

It'd take quite a marketing person to spin this without costing the airline most of it's business. Figure most people are chubby and will get pissed off, so however much you save by sticking it to the whales isn't worth the loss of customers.

There is no way to spin this issue without offending that customer base. The only way they sell it is the way they do at the moment - if you're taking up more than one seat, you have to buy the one you're spilling over into also. There can be no real argument against that.

[SVK]

For the airlines - maybe discounts for very light people (e.g. less than 120 lbs or so) and charging extra the morbidly obese instead of charging somewhat overweight people. Or other perks for light people - like transporting heavier luggage without extra charge.

[Timoteo]

(03-13-2012 08:01 PM)SVK Wrote:  

For the airlines - maybe discounts for very light people (e.g. less than 120 lbs or so) and charging extra the morbidly obese instead of charging somewhat overweight people. Or other perks for light people - like transporting heavier luggage without extra charge.

The real battle will be deciding what the top-end weight threshold is. Though size and weight often go hand-in-hand, that isn't always the case. Supposedly if a person can get in the seat "comfortably" with the arm rests down, they can fly, but even that measure isn't perfect because fat arms/shoulders/torso can still spill over. The morbidly obese are easily identified, but it's the folks in between simply overweight and morbidly obese that will test the guidelines, ala Kevin Smith. He claims he fit in the seat just fine, but the crew thought differently and removed him from the flight. He had actually purchased two seats on a different flight (which he said he always does on Southwest), but decided to fly stand-by on an earlier one. He said there was someone bigger than him on the same flight, yet they only removed him.

[BortimusPrime]

I'd go for larger seats for the larger people. I may not be fat, but my legs are stiff as hell after being jammed against the seat in front for 10 hours.

[Timoteo]

(03-14-2012 01:57 AM)BortimusPrime Wrote:  

I'd go for larger seats for the larger people. I may not be fat, but my legs are stiff as hell after being jammed against the seat in front for 10 hours.

This makes logical sense, but with the airline industry struggling, they won't do anything that means putting FEWER seats in airplanes. Comfort be damned - it's all about jamming as many bodies into a plane as possible. And as it is there are pricing plans that charge more for exit row, and even aisle seats. If they put larger, but fewer seats, they'd jack up the price for all of them. I sympathize though. I'm 6' 2," and my knees ache also during a long flight. That's why I always fly either very early morning or late at night, so I'll sleep through the worst of it.

[Basil Ransom]

(03-13-2012 07:35 PM)BortimusPrime Wrote:  

(03-13-2012 06:42 PM)Timoteo Wrote:  

http://now.msn.com/living/0313-overweigh...ngers.aspx

Here's what a Princeton professor thinks of fatties, and he isn't the first person to propose this. I think airlines make them buy two seats, but this is a different approach...

It'd take quite a marketing person to spin this without costing the airline most of it's business. Figure most people are chubby and will get pissed off, so however much you save by sticking it to the whales isn't worth the loss of customers.

Actually, airplane tickets are one of the most price sensitive items out there. People care about almost nothing but the price. If airlines could offer cheaper rates to relatively lighter people, it wouldn't necessarily be a losing strategy. They could start by offering customers the standard rate, or a discounted rate based on how much they and their luggage weigh.

According to this thread, the cost per lb per 1,000 miles is about a nickel. So a 300 lb person would cost $15 more to transport than a 200 lb person on a New York to LA flight, roughly.

People thought the same of charging for extra luggage. But as soon as one airline did it, it seemed like all the others followed in short order.

Using weight is the simplest and most sensible. You already have those scales for luggage, you could simply make people get on the scale after their luggage is weighed. Of course, this country is full of pussies and lard-asses who are insecure about their weight, who'd throw a fit at getting weighed in public like cattle.

If they did use weight, I don't think we personally would benefit much. Thin chicks, who come in at 100-130, stand a lot more to gain from a weight discount than 200 lb dudes.

[Timoteo]

"People thought the same of charging for extra luggage. But as soon as one airline did it, it seemed like all the others followed in short order."

That's the thing. The airlines KNOW what the reaction will be to any additional fee, so they all play a game of chicken to see which airline will be the first, and use them as the guinea pig. It's usually the budget airlines that do this kind of thing first, because they have to squeeze every dollar out of the customer that they can to survive. Then the bigger carriers do it, because in the end, after all the noise, the customer has few alternatives other than to pay. Delivery services immediately capitalized on the baggage fee issue by shipping traveler's luggage to their hotels for them for less than the airlines would charge. If you've got either a lot of bags, or heavy ones, you can just arrange to have them shipped to your hotel at your destination.

[SVK]

"If they did use weight, I don't think we personally would benefit much. Thin chicks, who come in at 100-130, stand a lot more to gain from a weight discount than 200 lb dudes."

We would benefit indirectly from having some kind of penalty for being overweight that would result in perhaps more people coming to their senses and try to lose weight - more thinner chicks for us.

I wonder how much would it help if multiple fat-discouraging policies would be implemented - soda tax, junk food tax, higher health insurance premiums, weightloss education, educating about health risk of obesity, promoting alternative modes of transportation, etc. I'm not normally a big supporter of more gov control like this, but I believe that if US started fighting obesity like they did with smoking we could see the average BMI fall to pre-80s levels... Effect on sexual marketplace would be obvious

[The Beast1]

Being fat is as much of a diseases as alcoholism is.

It's all a lack of self control. Nothing more, nothing less.

[dads]

I don't care if an NFL lineman wants to be 360 lbs to be at a competitive advantage, or if a girl feels like she needs to be 80 lbs to be a model. Let them be, if they are that desperate to be in their chose fields. No one's kidnapping either forcing them into their line of work.

[Dark Knowledge]

Yup obesity is a disease alright

[Soberane]

[RexImperator]

A lot of fashion models are too thin, actually. For photographic purposes it works because it makes the cheekbones more prominent and striking, etc. Fitness (but not ripped) and swimsuit models have much more attractive (healthy-looking) figures in my opinion.

It's all irrelevant to me though, because I'm only interested in what I see in real life. I'm trying to get away from the influence of media which leads to all that "2/10 pointy elbows" stuff.

I don't think the problem with western women is at the high end as much as many girls who would be 7s in their prime years are pushed down to 4,5 level with being overweight.

[zombiejimmorrison]

If being fat is a disease, so is anorexia. But they're not diseases they're eating disorders, closer to mental problems and caused by a lack of nutrients