Samoa Air__ is the first airline to do the unthinkable: charging passengers by their weight. This wouldn't be the first time the issue of overweight passengers and flying has been debated, but now it's becoming a reality. Samoa Air flies to to American Samoa, North Tonga, Niue, North Cook Islands, and French Polynesia, and although controversial, the airline defends its decision to charge passengers for their weight especially since the Pacific Islands has an obesity problem.
Samoa Air's Chief Executive, Chris Langton, says that the airline is making the right decision by stating: "Airplanes don't run on seats, they run on weight." But not everyone is happy with their decision to do this since they fear that it will influence other airlines to do the same.
According to ABC.com, the way the new policy works is that when you book online, the application will ask for your estimated passengers and baggage weight. It is then accompanied by an airfare calculation determined by your weight and only lets you pay exactly what you tip on the scale.
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However, people may think they can scam the system by entering a fake weight, but the airline plans on combating this by weighing them in at the airport. The site reads:
"Booking a flight with us is as easy as inputting your approximate weight into our online booking engine (don't worry, we will weigh you again at the airport)–you then can prepay your 'guesstimate', guaranteeing you that much weight is allocated to you for that flight."
And although weight is a touchy subject, those who ARE happy by the new policy are families with children since they can travel by paying less than they would have before this change. Langton believes that the policy will catch on and other airlines will start to do the same once they warm up to the idea.
Oh boy, this is a difficult matter. I understand the reason the airline is doing this is in order to avoid piling on too much weight on their planes. On the other hand, this poses as not only a cost issue for those who are overweight, but it's borderline degrading! There are many people out there who are sensitive about their weight and the last thing they want to do is be weighed before a flight in front of the public.
And let's be honest here, women's weights especially fluctuate during the time of the month–which would suck having to pay more all because of extra water weight. However, for overweight passengers who fly often__, this may encourage them to lose some weight and would be beneficial for their health overall.__ Hopefully this policy doesn't make its way to American soil, as I don't see it being well-received at all.
Image via ABC
