Airlines, One Ticket or Two?
Diet Ergonomics
The recent airline controversy involved the prospect of an overweight person being required to purchase two tickets in order to fly. This bull whip gives new emphasis to the humiliation and oppression that's been so generally doused on the overweight individual since the beginning of time.
In the meantime, airline seats continue to shrink as ticket prices inflate. These one-sided implemented practices are kissing the flying cash cow just a bit too close for comfort! And it's not the first time that the airlines have targeted overweight individuals - and gotten away with it!
The First Time They Got Away With Weight Discrimination
For those of you who were born before the twenty-first century, you'll remember that airline stewardess were required to weigh in at a certain weight, or face the unemployment line. Even highly qualified applicants who tipped the scale beyond the restricted weight were not hired by the industry. The airline's defense sung a tune that went something like this: 'Our aircraft is limited to a specific weight. Stewardess exceeding our weight restrictions limit our flight capacity.' In other words, if they hired overweight flight attendants, they couldn't carry as many passengers.
Hum. Let's think about this very closely. Not once was I asked my weight when I purchased an airline ticket. If weight was such a concern, wouldn't it have mattered if the passenger was also overweight? What about those weight capacity limitations?
The airlines got away with weight discrimination while simultaneously falsely convincing the public that stewardess must be within their standardized weight guidelines, or they'd send the plane off course. The gullible public swallowed that bitter pill with acceptance. Crudely put, the airlines didn't want to hire fat employees. Image, without a doubt!
Point #2
Back to our 2 for 1 airline seat dilemma. Obviously, the airlines are experiencing multiple occurrences with "tiny seat/too-big person" scenarios, or they wouldn't have addressed the 'problem'. This should tell them something. If this is an ongoing problem, their seats are too small. Why not get larger seats?
Point #3
When the 2 for 1 seat airline story broke, overweight individuals were targeted. What about weight lifters? Professional sport's players? Just man-made large people? These people are also 'airline seat challenged'. So, why weren't they brought into the story? Why wasn't the problem focused on this aspect rather than blatantly targeting the overweight individual?
Point #4
So, let's understand this clearly, if possible, by doing a short recap. Some airlines have spoken out on obesity. They want the overweight individual to purchase two tickets because they fill two seats. Yet, has anyone broached the comfort aspect for the customer? I mean, how comfortable can it be sitting in two seats? "You pay us double, and it's tough that your flight is miserable," is what I'm getting out of this.
Point #5
The airlines have made no bones about it. Most are in a deep financial crisis. Since the 9-11 catastrophe, there has been a drop in the number of people flying the blue skies these days. With so many planes flying at low capacity; some airlines have clipped back their number of flights in hopes of balancing their wings. The 2 for 1 ordeal appears to be yet another way to suck up money.
Point #6
If the airlines want to do us a favor, why not offer a few larger premium seats per flight for a few bucks more?
