Should Obese people pay for an additional seat? (where, traveler, distance)

[beachmouse]

Some of the Cuban charters also weigh passengers. Due to the embargo, everyone wants to bring large amounts of excess baggage (consumer goods, car parts, etc.) so that Aunt Maria gets her new rice cooker for Christmas and the airline needs to know both fuel amounts for plane #1 and if they need to get cargo plane #2 out of the hangar to fly under the same flight number in order to handle the amount of baggage passengers want to bring.

The big selling point of the proposed Florida-Cuba ferries was not so much that they were an alternative way of passengers getting to the islands but that they were giving something like a 100 pound baggage allowance for the trip. Set it up so that there's a facility on the US docks that accepts packages straight from Amazon or Costco.com for loading onto the ferry, and you've got a gangbusters back door freight service.

[Mahrie]

Originally Posted by botticelli

And those who don't need the extra space should also pay for the additional cost just because the fat ones need it? Makes no sense to me.

Regarding 797, why does Boeing "need" to have wider seats? Those who can't fit in today's seats are few, and not everyone on Boeing's planes are Americans, who just happen to be much fatter than pretty much all other countries.

Incorrect.

Boeing needs to have wider seats because, as of this writing, fully 2.1 billion people globally are either overweight or obese, and those numbers are growing daily. The United States stats show that 2/3rd's of its populace is either overweight or obese, and the rest of the industrialized nations aren't far behind them.

Anyone who has a clue about precisely what has caused a heretofore rare disease like diabetes (90% of the victims of which are either severely overweight, or obese) to go from being a rarity to epidemic proportions in less than forty years, knows that it isn't overeating on the part of those so afflicted, it is how the food one *does* eat is metabolized, and how GM (Genetically Modified) foods, phthalates, heavy metals, Big Pharma, and pesticides are responsible for the way in which the metabolic function of people is compromised by the food we eat, the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the various forms of plastics in people's homes that come from toxic petrochemicals.

No, not everyone manifests their toxicity by becoming overweight, but that simply raises their probability of developing inoperable cancers by 80%; eight times more than their 'fat' compatriots. Pleasant, no? Well, that's what we get for living on a sick planet - which we, and our parents before us, made sick.

Certainly, no commercial airliner is responsible for what a passenger weighs. We live in a service economy, and if anyone wants service in a service economy, one must pay for it.

I'm confined to a wheelchair, have chronic pain issues due to multiple skeletal injuries, and I can't sit still for the duration of a long flight. I also need to sit on a ROHO medical cushion because my spine cannot tolerate the strain of ordinary seating. I don't expect airlines to pay for my injuries, my need for extra legroom, or the fact that I can't sit still. When my husband and I fly, we either fly first class (usually courtesy of the airlines because of the work we do), or we purchase three seats so that I can stand to fly without screaming. I understand both mathematics and economics and consider this just and fair.

I also have Hashimotos Disease, a thyroid malfunction that plays havoc with my weight. Eighteen months ago, I weighed 85 lbs less than I do now, and since the scales appear to be moving in the 'right' (nice for me) direction again, in another year I'll probably have lost that weight again. This is simply my reality.

I don't weigh 350-400 lbs., as was mentioned above, but I can stay around 200 lbs for a while from time to time, and my diet doesn't change one iota from what I eat when I'm slim, to what I eat when I'm not.

My blood glucose, blood pressure, resting pulse rate, cholesterol levels, and all other vitamin and mineral levels in my body are optimal and excellent - and I work at that. I've worked at staying and/or keeping as healthy as I can all my life - prior to Hashimotos, prior to Diabetes, and prior to the truck accident that rendered me a cripple.

I've seen all the 'top' endocrinologists (and I specialize in Nutritional Medicine and molecular biochemistry myself), and the truth is we don't know how to help those who have 'tried everything' and simply can't lose weight. Of course, there are also those like me who have wardrobes that range in size from size five to size twenty, but that is less common than those who are simply 'stuck' with up to a couple of hundred pounds or more that they cannot get rid of.

So, while I don't mind paying (and do) for the accommodations I need on airplanes, I do mind the level of ignorance that I've seen displayed on this thread. Comments about people choosing extremely large waistlines, or who should 'eat more salads,' and other outrageously ignorant (and cruel) remarks.

Care to venture a guess as to how many of the 210 million of your compatriots are sitting at home right now in tears, after reading this thread, because of your ignorance and cruelty?

It's too bad that airlines don't levy a charge on a$$holes, because people who choose to behave like a$$holes do have a choice. Compassion costs nothing; wouldn't it be nice if everyone showed some?

I pay for my accommodations on airplanes because I don't expect other people to foot the bill for my challenges, but I do expect to be treated with the same respect that is due *all* human beings; the same respect that I afford each person that I meet - even if they choose to behave like a$$holes.

Shalom,


Mahrie.

[mikeyyc]

Originally Posted by annerk

And the larger the crate, the more the cost. My sister spent over $1000 each to fly her mastiff and rottweiler from Edinburgh to JFK--one way.

It's all easy to say but 20% more space costs you 500% more in price. I don't care if you make me weigh my ass before my flight as long as I get an appropriately sized seat to go with it.

My biggest problem is that I'm all upper body. I've got no problem fitting a standard seat, but with the pitch so tight, the tray table isn't coming down, and on some flights my knees are wedged between the rails and in the small of the back of the person in front of me. We won't talk about elbows and shoulders, as I tend to fly with my arms crossed to keep out of everyone else's space as much as possible.

[10-23]

I am 6'2" and I remember when I flew in the '80's I was able to cross my legs while sitting in a coach seat. Now my knees are pressed against the seat in front of me. The airlines created sardine cans and now we have to debate over charging reasonably sized people who can't fit into them to pay for a second seat.

Let's all turn anorexic .

[tlvancouver]

Originally Posted by 10-23

I am 6'2" and I remember when I flew in the '80's I was able to cross my legs while sitting in a coach seat. Now my knees are pressed against the seat in front of me. The airlines created sardine cans and now we have to debate over charging reasonably sized people who can't fit into them to pay for a second seat.

Let's all turn anorexic .

"Reasonably sized people" fit in seats, and there are seats with additional leg room in virtually every plane if people are willing to pay for more space.

[annerk]

Originally Posted by mikeyyc

It's all easy to say but 20% more space costs you 500% more in price. I don't care if you make me weigh my ass before my flight as long as I get an appropriately sized seat to go with it.

My biggest problem is that I'm all upper body. I've got no problem fitting a standard seat, but with the pitch so tight, the tray table isn't coming down, and on some flights my knees are wedged between the rails and in the small of the back of the person in front of me. We won't talk about elbows and shoulders, as I tend to fly with my arms crossed to keep out of everyone else's space as much as possible.

So buy two economy seats and then you get double the space for 200%. Seems like a no brainier.

[annerk]

Originally Posted by 10-23

I am 6'2" and I remember when I flew in the '80's I was able to cross my legs while sitting in a coach seat. Now my knees are pressed against the seat in front of me. The airlines created sardine cans and now we have to debate over charging reasonably sized people who can't fit into them to pay for a second seat.

Let's all turn anorexic .

What would anorexic have to do with leg room?

[10-23]

Originally Posted by annerk

What would anorexic have to do with leg room?

It doesn't. I was referring to seat width. Taller people proportionately weigh more and need wider seats.

[annerk]

Originally Posted by 10-23

It doesn't. I was referring to seat width. Taller people proportionately weigh more and need wider seats.

That is an assumption and not true for all.

My cousins husband is 6'5" and has a 34" waistband. He easily fits into a seat as far as width goes.

[10-23]

Originally Posted by annerk

That is an assumption and not true for all.

My cousins husband is 6'5" and has a 34" waistband. He easily fits into a seat as far as width goes.

How about his shoulders? Do they spill over in adjacent seats? Mine do. I'm 6'2" with a 34" waist.