Overweight passengers having to purchase 2 seats, fair or not fair

[2000stanggirl]

Originally posted by jimberg
Charging by weight may be fair because it would apply to everyone equally.......

This isn't entirely true. I have to pay full fare for 30 and 60 pound children. You aren't paying by weight, you are paying for the seat. I'm a small person (little bigger after kids LOL) and at one time I was traveling to Chicago quite a bit. I am 5'2" and at the time weighed around 100-104 pounds. The seats were uncomfortable for me, so I can only imagine how a large person must feel when trying to squeeze into the tiny space.

It's time for airlines to change their seating. People in America have progressively gotten larger over the past few decades in both height and weight. Some airlines have already done this, some have not.

Perhaps because of the battles I've fought for accessibility in other areas for my son, I can empathize with these individuals that are being told they are too fat, and must purchase more than one ticket. Hammer stated that "While there is truth in hereditary heavyness, the worst cases are almost ALWAYS self made. In these cases, the issue was self-made and CAN be corrected." This is half true. Morbid obesity is most often caused by medical conditions. You simply cannot look at an overwieght person and judge if this person is fat because of laziness, or fat because of uncontrollable medical issues. The airlines are not talking about generally overweight passengers. They are refering to the morbidly obese (BMI over 40) and this is considered a disability weither you want it to be or not.