United Airlines to charge obese extra

CaptainSkidmark

http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSTRE53E72Q20090415

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - United Airlines, a unit of UAL Corp, will require obese passengers bumped from full flights to purchase two seats on a subsequent flight, matching the policy of some other carriers.

The change brings the Chicago-based in line with eight other airlines including Continental, Delta, JetBlue and Southwest, United spokeswoman Robin Urbanski said on Wednesday.

"Last year we had 700 complaints from passengers who had to share their seats," she said.

Under the new policy, obese passengers -- defined as unable to lower the arm rest and buckle a seat belt with one extension belt -- will still be reaccommodated, at no extra charge, to two empty seats if there is space available.

If, however, the airplane is full, they will be bumped from the flight and may have to purchase a second ticket, at the same price as the original fare, Urbanski said.

If the bumped passenger chooses to cancel the trip, the ticket will be refunded with no additional charge.

The policy is effective immediately.

(Reporting by Deena Beasley; Editing by Richard Chang)

CaptainSkidmark

Do ye think this will be Ryanair's next move?

Edit: IM guessing they will only charge the fare twice and not the tax's?

tracker-man

CaptainSkidmark wrote: »

Do ye think this will be Ryanair's next move?

Edit: IM guessing they will only charge the fare twice and not the tax's?

Who knows what the low fares airlines will do next!

Ryanair, Europe’s largest low fares airline, today (8 Apr) announced that it received over 12,000 suggestions from passengers as part of the low fares airline’s competition to suggest a discretionary revenue charge which would help lower Ryanair’s costs and reduce its guaranteed lowest fares even further....

More info from my Source :cool:

BuffyBot

Ryanair already have that policy, and have had for a while

http://www.ryanair.com/site/IE/faqs.php?sect=spn&quest=large

CaptainSkidmark

Ryanair would be doing well to lower their costs.

as it stands their costs run at 35 euro per passenger compared to Aer Lingus's 95 euro per passenger

Source: Michael o Leary interview with ray darcy available on iTunes Podcasts

onemorechance

It is only right and fair that they should pay extra if there are not two seats available on the current flight. It is good of the airlines to give them the free seat on the flights that do have an extra free seat. Being massively overweight is difficult for the people, but they can only be accomodated so much. IMO, the more accomodated they are, the less likely they are to deal with their problem.

Geog

It sounds very unfair BUT .... Once I had to sit beside an enormous man at The All-Ireland Final in Croke Park. We had both paid E70 for our tickets but I couldn't sit on mine as he was taking over at least half of it.
On another occasion I was flying on a long distance flight and there was a 20+ Stone man beside me. I couldn't sit, not to mind sleep on the flight. He slept fine- mostly on top of me!!! It really didn't seem fair then as I had paid the same for my ticket as he had and I couldn't use my seat while he was fine.

Geog

I don't want to sound in any way unfair but I just want to point out another way of looking at things. Perhaps airlines should provide larger seats for those passengers who need them.

maggy_thatcher

Geog wrote: »

I don't want to sound in any way unfair but I just want to point out another way of looking at things. Perhaps airlines should provide larger seats for those passengers who need them.

A lot of airlines do -- they're called things like "Business Class" . They're larger seats, and cost more as a result.

Seems perfectly fair imho.

CaptainSkidmark

Geog wrote: »

I don't want to sound in any way unfair but I just want to point out another way of looking at things. Perhaps airlines should provide larger seats for those passengers who need them.

well thats the first time ive heard that and its a good idea

*Kol*

Geog wrote: »

I don't want to sound in any way unfair but I just want to point out another way of looking at things. Perhaps airlines should provide larger seats for those passengers who need them.

Perhaps. They could charge extra for it. That would be okay for airlines that allocate seats. Ryanair would probably have a sign above it saying reserved for the morbidly obese.

The problem is that one big seat will take the space of 2 normal ones. You would have to charge a double fare for them.

run_Forrest_run

BuffyBot wrote: »

Ryanair already have that policy, and have had for a while

http://www.ryanair.com/site/IE/faqs.php?sect=spn&quest=large

unbelievable, the extra seat has no baggage allowance...that's crazy unless they are selling the extra seat cheaper than all the other seats which I seriously doubt.

On the flipside I think really skinny people should pay less then:)

jmayo

As someone who had the misfortune of sitting beside rather large bulky Welshman (now he was not fat or obese by any means just bloody big with a fleece and BO) for fourteen hours on 747 flight from Auckland to LAX, I thnk this policy is right.

If you are obese then don't expect that you should be allowed overflow into your neighbours seats.
Thus for others comfort you are given a second seat and you should thus have to pay for this priveledge.

After my fourteen odd hours of hell I would have recommended the big, the fat, the wide and the tall would have been strapped to the wings and let them take their chances.