[QUOTE=S2020,Jul 10 2008, 03:44 PM] charging more for a fat person?

 

^ I'm pretty sure that's not what he meant. I think he meant that if airlines start charging people by the pound, then the lawyers will start suing the airlines for discrimination. He seems to think that they'll win, and therefore make lots of money, and therefore line up to buy new Porsches/Ferraris.

I'm not sure that the lawyers would win. Airlines currently charge by the pound for freight transport, and as AZDavid mentioned, airlines are in the people freight business. Heavier/bulkier freight has to pay more... whether it's a box of encyclopedias or a fat slob. It's not discrimination.. it's just logical pricing scales.

 

 

Airlines already make really fat people buy two tickets.

 

The lawyers *always* win.

And there would be discrimination suits, and they'd have a pretty good case. You're renting a seat on a plane. As long as you don't need more than that seat, it would be unreasonable and discriminatory to have a sliding scale for weight.

And in the end, the airlines would lose as much revenue on anorexic girls as it gained on obese 6'6" guys. Factor in the inevitable legal costs (whether the airlines won or lost the case(s)) and it doesn't pencil out.

 

People have a lot more rights than a shipping box. There's legal precedent that you cannot treat person X different from person Y. (Even though it happens all the time. ) When you start to treat people differently to somebody's benefit when they used to be treated badly, that's easy to get through. When you start to treat people differently to the detriment of a group, you'll have issues.

 

I'd disagree to the argument that you're renting a seat on a plane. That's not the case. You are actually paying for a service... the service of being transported from point A to point B. If you are heavier than someone else, then it costs the airline more to transport you from A to B, and therefore it's logical that the airline charges you more. If you take up more space than the average passenger, then that decreases the airlines' ability to transport "X" number of passengers, and therefore you should pay more. Same thing if you're bringing along 5 suitcases. You're taking away the airlines' ability to transport the luggage or cargo of other customers, so you should pay more. Seems fair to me.

Regarding Elistan's comment... you wouldn't be treating person X different from person Y. You'd be charging them both the same rate. It's just that the rate is based on how much large they are or how much they weigh. So, it's not discriminatory. It's fair.

 

Actually, you're advocating charging them the same based on their weight, not the same based on them both being people. Just like they couldn't base charges on the number of letters in their race, therefore "Caucasion" people get ticket cheaper than "African-American" people even though it's the "same rate."

 

I still disagree with the premise, although your argument might win in a court of law. A business should be able to charge a consumer based on how much they consume. If your SUV takes you 80 gallons to drive you from Dallas to Houston and my Prius takes me 4 gallons to do the same, then I only pay for 4 gallons. If an airplane uses 100 gallons to tote a 300lb passenger from A to B, and only uses 80 gallons to carry a 150lb passenger the same distance, then they should be able to charge based on the costs of that consumption.

 

A 200 lb passenger is not taking away any more service space than a 150 lb passenger. They're both using (1) seat. As mentioned above, exceptionally large passengers have to buy (2) seats because they're using two. If seats were dynamic as cargo space is, then you might have a valid argument. But seats are not adjustable, so as long as you fit in the seat, the only fair (legal) rate is the same for everyone.

Luggage is different, as 5 suitcases clearly occupies more space than 1 suitcase, as well as requires more labor for loading, sorting, unloading, etc.