Tag: Overweight Passengers View All Tags
Tags: Overweight Passengers / Easyjet / Hoaxes / Airline News / → All Tags
Drama At The Gate: Overweight Italian Woman Bad, EasyJet Good
We haven't whined about European LCC EasyJet in a while, and you know we like to complain a bit about all those "cheap" airlines that keep adding charges. So you can imagine our delight to hear EasyJet in the news again, even if it's the bad news that the LCC was recently mean to a middle-aged, overweight Italian woman.
But then we discovered that the whole ordeal was faked. Anna Delluci went public about suing EasyJet after they apparently made her step on the scales in front of a bunch of other passengers, then told her that at 98kg (216 pounds), she would have to buy a second ticket to be able to fly. A day after her story went public, it was unveiled as a hoax.
Tags: Overweight Passengers / Ryanair / Airline Fees / Seats / → All Tags
RyanAir Makes Predictable Contribution To The Ongoing 'Passengers Of Size' Debate
Whether it's because customer complaints finally reached critical mass or because they're desperate for new revenue, more and more airlines are forcing overweight passengers to buy multiple seats.
As a formal matter in their Contracts of Carriage, almost all airlines have stipulations that passengers have to pay for what they occupy. But most carriers never really enforced those policies. Sometimes it was because airport employees didn't want to embarrass overweight passengers. Often it was because it's easier to get those passengers on the plane and make it somebody else's problem, where that "somebody else" was the unlucky soul in the next seat.
In any case, corporations like US Air routinely acknowledged the policy but never really stuck to it. In 2002 Virgin Atlantic had to pay a huge settlement to a passenger who was permanently crippled by an obese rowmate who physically crushed her over the course of a Trans-Atlantic flight.
Until recently, in fact, only Southwest consistently forced customers above a certain weight to buy a second seat.
Tags: United / Airline Fees / Seats / Overweight Passengers / → All Tags
United Forces Overweight People To Purchase Two Seats on Their Planes
One of the perennial travelers' debates: should obese people have to pay for two seats? United put some of their best minds on the case and concluded: hell yeah they should.
Here are the outrageous new rules put forth by United which have already gone into effect:
Under the rules outlined by United, passengers who "are unable to fit into a single seat in the ticketed cabin; are unable to properly buckle the seatbelt using a single seatbelt extender; and/or are unable to put the seat's armrests down when seated" will be denied boarding unless they purchase an extra seat. If no empty seat exists, the passenger will be forced to take a later flight.
Listen. There are decent arguments on both sides. On one side there's the very reasonable point that people should pay for what they use. It's unfair to make one customer sit in half a seat because a bigger customer is taking up a seat and a half. On the other side there's "yeah but still." Yes it's unfair for "oversized" people to inconvenience people who are merely "sized." But still.
