hijinx@enteract.com (Paul McAleer) wrote in message news:...
> By the Pound
>
> Sweeney sent in a somewhat baseless editorial (
> http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A58886-2004Nov17.html?sub=AR
> ) by Marc Fisher from the Washington Post. He suggests that people should
> pay a per-pound charge to fly on airplanes because, you know, that'll force
> people to lose weight (ie, this is another fat tax - albeit a somewhat
> avoidable one.)
>
> He chastises L.L. Bean for keeping their plus-size prices the same as
> neutral-size prices, calling them "greedy." He then launches into the
> Southwest two seats policy - but check out how he misrepresents it:
>
> "Southwest's policy is simple and fair: If you take up more than one seat,
> you need to buy the extra seat. The airline refunds the extra charge if
> there are empty seats on a given flight. "
>
> No, Mark, their policy is not simple nor fair. The problem is that their
> policy isn't clearly defined fleet-wide, and is a total judgment call by
> the people at the flight desk. If they think you look too fat for a seat,
> they'll ask you to pay for two. If you fit in a seat just fine, seatbelt on
> and all, they can ask you to buy another. They can feel free to embarrass
> you on the flight, they can feel free to do whatever they want all in the
> name of so-called safety.
>
> This is a gross, one-sided misrepresentation of the facts. Instead of
> expressing shock at the fact that there's an "obesity lobby" (although it's
> no real friend to fat acceptance,) Mark, you should be doing more research.
> Taking Southwest at their word smacks of lazy journalism.
There is a simple and easy way to deal with all this. Basically the
commuter airlines should adopt/synchronize their shipping practices
with the freight carriers. This way people would be charged for the
combined weights of themselves and their luggage in much the same way
we are currently charged to ship a parcel by air.
It would be very easy to install weighing plates in front of each
ticket counter. The display would only be available to the attendant
and the customer only thus avoiding any potential embarassment. All
you would have to do is step up onto the plate along with your
luggage, insert your credit card and get your ticket price based on
your weight. Frequent flyers could have a 'smartcard' where their
weights and average luggage weights are already on record to speed
things up. |