I've been asked my weight before boarding small planes or helicopters, but that was so they could balance the aircraft, not change the fare. They took our word for it. I suspect they typically ran at least 10 percent low in the total. I also suspect they knew this, but didn't care as long as our relative weights were pretty close, since that mattered more for this purpose.
Sounds like a fit for Ryanair. Offer $1 fares on virtually every flight. Plus $1 /lb. I'll make it easier to sell, weight the passenger together with his baggage and carryon at once.
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Too bad they are not intelligent (or honest) enough to realise that they could simply pay the higher-ups at the airlines a reasonable salary and no lifetime benefits and all of the airlines will immediately show a profit.
Say what you will, but getting paid millions per year to posit this idiotic idea is stupid. Wait - is a stupid CEO an oxymoron? Hmm.
I knew this was coming. Let's see who will be the first to implement it.
Charging passengers by their weight makes absolutely no sense, since airlines do not currently charge us based on the true cost of getting from Point A to Point B. If they did, airfare would be based almost solely on distance.
But we all know it isn't, since it's often cheaper to fly cross-country than between two adjacent states. Since that's the case, it doesn't logically follow that the weight of the passenger should have any correlation to the price.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by fairviewroad
Charging passengers by their weight makes absolutely no sense, since airlines do not currently charge us based on the true cost of getting from Point A to Point B. If they did, airfare would be based almost solely on distance.
But we all know it isn't, since it's often cheaper to fly cross-country than between two adjacent states. Since that's the case, it doesn't logically follow that the weight of the passenger should have any correlation to the price.
I would be thrilled by this. All too often I've mistakenly assumed that since I paid x dollars for a seat that meant I got to enjoy the whole seat, instead I got to share it with the rather large person next to me. Not that this would stop this.....but maybe those requiring more than 1 seat will be more closely monitored.
I flew SFO-PEK with a friend and he had a large gentleman spilling into his seat and while my friend who is only about 170 lbs would fit comfortably in his seat, he was forced into my seat by the plethora of body insulation protruding from the aisle seat which cut down on my seat width.