OMG - Flying While Fat

Did you see this story on MSN.com?  Unbelievable!

Ryanair caused a stir in February when it suggested making passengers pay to use the bathroom. Now the company is considering a policy that would make overweight passengers pay by the pound. 

The Irish budget airline isn't the first to consider implementing a policy for "flying while fat," a phrase coined by the media. Earlier this month, United joined Southwest and other airlines by enforcing policies that require overweight passengers to purchase another seat — or forgo their flight.

How big is too big: Passengers who cannot fit in a single seat with the armrests down and/or cannot use the safety belt with a single extender.

Pay-per-pound: If Ryanair adopts its body-conscious model, passengers may have to pay for every pound they exceed a medically determined ideal weight.

Know your rights: Travel writer Harriet Baskas suggests keeping a copy of the airline's policy with you, to ensure all options are exhausted before you're forced to pay for another seat.

Bonus: Weight policies don't affect just passengers. Several Air India flight attendants were fired earlier this year for exceeding airline weight requirements.

Original Post by merylwhite1:

Original Post by basinbrat:

Pay-per-pound is stupid. Muscle weighs more than fat, so a muscular rugby player in the peak of fitness who adequately fits into his seat (although he'd probably suffer from extreme lack of leg room) would tend to be considered obese via BMI. And he'd have to pay for daring to work out so much.

And really, when have Ryanair been famed for doing anything to promote SAFETY!!!11eleventyone!!! Theyre all about the bottom line.

The idea of pay-per-pound only kicks in at a certain height/weight threshhold. So, people who have a BMI that is slightly above average, like rugby players, wouldn't pay any extra. People who are so large they are likely to need a second seet would.

Still, I think it would just be easier to make people who actually need a second seat, pay for that seat.

Actually, I ran the heights and weights of some of the All Blacks through a BMI calculator.  All were well into the overweight category (even the two most slender backs in the team) and many of the forwards are considered obese.

And Ive seen a lot of non-professional rugby players as well (the ones who would actually have to fly low-cost airlines) and theyre big boys as well.

Not to mention are they going to weigh everybody? Or will the check in clerk get to say "hey you, you look like a fatty! come get on these scales!"

My husband is a very slim, short man and he is fed up with fat people's arses spilling onto him.  He says it is utterly repellant to have some stranger's rolls of sweaty lard nestling up against him. If they get too close he can get quite cross and will tell them they're sitting in half of his seat.  Which he's paid for.

Incidentally he puts the armrest down smartly on trains too - because fat people tend to make a bee-line for him.  Its his only protection from being squashed.

My point is that thin people have as much right to a seat as fat people.

Original Post by wiltshirelass:

My husband is a very slim, short man and he is fed up with fat people's arses spilling onto him.  He says it is utterly repellant to have some stranger's rolls of sweaty lard nestling up against him. If they get too close he can get quite cross and will tell them they're sitting in half of his seat.  Which he's paid for.

.

Wow.  Hope he's ok with your "rolls of sweaty lard nestling up against him" in bed!

Well, that seems pretty uncalled for. An aversion to physical contact with strangers seems pretty normal to me.