Will airlines start setting fares by weight?

[straitman]

Today in the Sky - Will Airlines start setting fares by weight?

 

[JohnK]

Unbelieveable! Same seat, same service but charge everyone differently. Now would you charge someone at the time of booking or at the time of the check in? How much longer would check in take? I can see many disputes and lots of late departures.

What about when someone drinks 2 litres of fluids on the aircraft. They now weigh more than at check in so should they be paying more?

How about someone dehydrating during the flight and end up losing 2-3 kilos by the time the flight is over. Should they get a refund?

How about pregnant women?

Silly unrealistic ideas thought up by desperate greedy people. Can of worms....

 

[opusman]

Same seat, same service but charge everyone differently.

And that's different to how it currently works.. how?

 

[oz_mark]

I am not convinced that the ad agency that created the advert seriously considers it a possibility.

 

[moa999]

NO !!!!!

This is coming from uninformed idiots who are seeing airlines go more heavy on excess baggage charge and putting 2 and 2 together and getting 10.

Comparison of Person v Bag boarding aircraft

Person - Walks self through security holding boarding pass, walks to gate, walks onto bag (even if 150 kg). Person of any weight occupies the same seat, uses same amount of FAs time and is served the same amount of food.
Bag - Requires manual tagging and stickering. Typically manual intervention to put it through baggage scanner, manual loading onto trolley carts, driven out to aircraft, manual loading into plane hold. If bag is over 20kg and marked HEAVY, some of these manual intervention steps need to be undertaken by 2 people due to OHS regulations.

Now which do you think costs the airline more??
Hence the move to user pays baggage - generally by piece.

Excess weight imho is a ruse to ensure people are not packing too heavy a bag and a revenue earner on the side for some LCCs

While weight is a small factor it is much less than the number of times a bag has to be handled to get it onto the aircraft.

 

[JohnK]

And that's different to how it currently works.. how?

Discrimination!

 

[pauly7]

Another article suggesting the fatties pay extra!

Charge obesity, not luggage fees

Charge obesity, not luggage fees | NEWS.com.au

 

[drron]

Unbelieveable! Same seat, same service but charge everyone differently. Now would you charge someone at the time of booking or at the time of the check in? How much longer would check in take? I can see many disputes and lots of late departures.

What about when someone drinks 2 litres of fluids on the aircraft. They now weigh more than at check in so should they be paying more?

How about someone dehydrating during the flight and end up losing 2-3 kilos by the time the flight is over. Should they get a refund?

How about pregnant women?

Silly unrealistic ideas thought up by desperate greedy people. Can of worms....

I like this John.It reminds me of the time I watched a woman buying a chicken in a Laotian market.The exchange between buyer and seller was vigorous.I asked our guide what was going on and he said the chickens are sold by weight and the buyer is saying that before I get it home it will sh** and I'm not going to pay for that.
Anyway mate a great business opportunity if they do-set up saunas within a km of major airports and promote the old boxers weigh in routine.should be a great little earner.

 

[openseat]

Plenty of operators of small planes like Twin Otters weigh you with your luggage. This is so the plane can take off safely.
Surely it would be easy enough to arrange to have a discrete system built into the floor which weighs you and your hand luggage.

 

[NM]

I guess if they did weigh everyone and their luggage, then AA could have avoided a 30 min delay on my recent LAX-LHR flight. Apparently the weight calculation based on the standard per-passenger weight put them 2 passengers over their maximum take-off weight for the 777-200 aircraft. So they were going to have to off-load two passengers. But instead, they did a "children count" (term used by the captain when explaining the delay) which is an alternate method allowed to adjust the weight calculation, and the revised calculation resulted in the aircraft being under the MTOW.

This all took 30 mins to sort out while we all sat on the plane waiting. I guess there were two very relieved passengers who were now allowed to travel rather than being bumped.

 

[Fluid-Flyer]

I can’t find the reference, but do remember reading somewhere recently, that some US airlines would be better off charging passengers the equivalent “overnight express” cargo rate (per lb/mile for baggage), and offering a bonus/complimentary seat for any companion travelling with the baggage.

 

[Mal]

Qantas, Jetstar and Virgin Blue have all stated that this is not on their agenda:

Airlines will never weigh passengers | NEWS.com.au

AIRLINES in Australia have condemned suggestions that they should weigh passengers instead of charging luggage fees, calling it a "preposterous proposal".