Airlines to Charge for Passenger Weight?
Jun 3, 2008 Political
The airlines are considering charging passengers based upon their weight. Likening people to freight, the airlines believe they should weigh people and charge them according to that weight. It is bad enough that the airlines already treat people poorly but to treat them like freight is beyond the pale.
I thought that airlines charged for seats based upon how many there are left and how close it is to flight time. Since fuel prices have increased then they should add a fuel surcharge to each ticket. The idea of charging people based upon their weight is ridiculous because each passenger, regardless of weight, receives the same benefit from the flight. The seats have the same amount of room and each person gets the same free items (drinks and snacks). If a larger person has to pay more then he should get a bigger seat. Why pay more for the same size seat?
The airlines are charging for every thing imaginable and they are still miserable with regard to performance. Don’t get me wrong, I think it is great that they take off and land without crashing quite a few times a day but they are not the most customer friendly business around and they have a horrible on time record.
Having said all that, why don’t they just take all the books out of the seat pockets and stop serving drinks and snacks? That would remove a lot of weight and people would not have to pay more because they weigh more.
Maybe passengers need to pick a few days and refuse to fly. That would be so devastating to the airlines they might rethink their business model, a model that pays CEOs MILLIONS of dollars for running businesses into the ground. How can they justify charging people based on their weight with those kinds of salaries?
The airlines had better stop playing games and decide on a business model that includes sensible ways of making money without screwing people who provide them with cash.
Who do they think they are, Congress?
Source:
Bloomberg
Tags: airlines, charges, failure, passenger weight