While struggling with attaing my optimum weight, I have become more sensitive to the generalizations hurled at overweight people. Sure obesity is unhealthy and unsightly. But I have friends you might call "obese" but none of them are "sloppy." Many overweight people (probably those who have the money and taste to shop at the right stores) are impeccably groomed and carry their oversized bodies with dignity and grace.
Are People Getting Bigger Or Seats Getting Smaller?
#16
Posted 04 June 2008 - 09:57 PM
While struggling with attaing my optimum weight, I have become more sensitive to the generalizations hurled at overweight people. Sure obesity is unhealthy and unsightly. But I have friends you might call "obese" but none of them are "sloppy." Many overweight people (probably those who have the money and taste to shop at the right stores) are impeccably groomed and carry their oversized bodies with dignity and grace.
#17
Posted 04 June 2008 - 11:58 PM
#18
Posted 05 June 2008 - 07:00 AM
#19
Posted 05 June 2008 - 07:03 AM
BLOOMBERG NEWS
Tuesday, June 3rd 2008, 3:40 PM
Imagine two scales at the airline ticket counter, one for your bags and one for you. The price of a ticket depends upon the weight of both.
"You listen to the airline CEOs, and nothing is beyond their imagination," said David Castelveter, a spokesman for the Air Transport Association, a Washington, D.C.-based trade group. "They have already begun to think exotically. Nothing is not under the microscope." He declined to discuss what any individual airline might be contemplating, including charging passengers based on weight.
With fuel costs almost tripling since 2000, now accounting for as much as 40 percent of operating expenses at some carriers, according to the ATA, airlines are cutting costs and raising revenue in ways that once were unthinkable. U.S. Airways Group Inc. has eliminated snacks. Delta Air Lines Inc. is charging $25 for telephone reservations. AMR Corp.'s American Airlines. last month became the first U.S. company to charge $15 for one checked bag.
Even a cold drink may be harder to come by aloft.
Singapore Airlines Ltd., whose shares have fallen 8.9 percent this year, is "trying to eliminate unnecessary quantities of extra water" to save weight, Chief Executive Officer Chew Choon Seng said in an interview.
"When you hear some people talking about putting showers on their planes, that strikes me as counterintuitive," he said.
After U.S. airlines reported combined first-quarter losses of $1.7 billion and crude oil jumped to a record $133.17 a barrel on May 21, almost double from a year earlier, fares based on a passenger's weight may be a logical step, said Robert Mann, head of R.W. Mann & Co., an aviation consultant based in Port Washington, New York.
"If you look at the air-freight business, that's the way they've always done it," he said. "We're getting treated like air freight when we travel by airlines, anyway."
"Laughter aside, the airlines are just in a desperate situation," said David Swierenga, president of consulting firm Aeroecon in Round Rock, Texas, who dismissed weight-based ticket sales and steep price increases as unrealistic.
Since December, eight companies have ceased flying, largely because of fuel costs - MaxJet Airways Inc., Big Sky Transportation Co., Aloha Airlines Inc., ATA Airlines., Skybus Airlines Inc., Eos Airlines., Silverjet Plc. and the charter- flight operator Champion Air. Air Midwest., a division of Mesa Air Group Inc., is ceasing operations this month.
Japan Airlines Corp. is using crockery in first-class and business-class cabins that is 20 percent lighter than the service items they replaced.
Southwest Airlines Co. is flying slower - by 72 seconds, for example, on Houston-Los Angeles flights, which now take 3 hours 14 minutes. That saves 8.7 gallons of fuel for each of the airline's four daily nonstops on the 1,387-mile route, 34.8 gallons a day overall, said Marilee McInnis, a company spokeswoman.
Southwest comes closest to charging for weight, asking passengers to buy a second seat if their girth prevents the armrest from lowering.
One airline that is unlikely to start weighing its customers is Dubai-based Emirates, the largest carrier in the Gulf region.
"That is something that when I was a check-in agent in the early 70s I used to do and it was the most horrific experience, trying to get people to stand on scales," said Tim Clark, the airline president. "It's not something that we would do."
Travel, food and drink blog by Dave - http://davestravels.tv
#20
Posted 05 June 2008 - 07:42 AM
Well, I'm scrood
Sinatra "Here's to the Losers"
#21
Posted 05 June 2008 - 07:50 AM
The airlines are screwing everyone, pretty soon they'll be charging extra for additional clothes you may be wearing (leave the jacket at home heh)
Travel, food and drink blog by Dave - http://davestravels.tv
#22
Posted 05 June 2008 - 07:51 AM
Genesis 49:16-17
http://www.active2030folsom.org
#23
Posted 05 June 2008 - 07:52 AM
Ok the greasy, slob part is definetly not me but I am proud of the little/big bump that is getting magically bigger everyday....I am just glad I have only gained 2lbs. I love how food is just not appealing to me anymore!!!
#24
Posted 05 June 2008 - 07:58 AM
Customers who are large enough to require 2 seats, should be charged for, and given, 2 seats, instead of causing tremendous discomfort for those of us smaller passengers seated next to, and ultimately sharing our seats with them.
Not long ago, I had a very large woman, who clearly had a lot of anxiety about flying, seated right next to me (occupying hers, and much of my seat as well) and proceeded to sweat so profusely during the 3 hour flight, she sweated through my clothing, including my heavy wool coat. It was absolutely disgusting.
#26
Posted 05 June 2008 - 08:03 AM
Way I see it is as long as they're weighing us *after* they make us take off our shoes I guess it's okay. I mean, my shoes probably weigh about two or three pounds. That's two or three pounds of my money they won't get! Ha ha! Hear that airlines? Now I'm the one screwing *you*! So take that!
Yeah, I take big comfort in small comforts.
Sinatra "Here's to the Losers"
#27
Posted 05 June 2008 - 08:09 AM
I don't get how "the airlines are screwing everyone" when they are losing money hand over fist and paying double what they did last year for jet fuel. It's still cheaper, faster and easier than any other type of long range transportation. How would you like to drive cross country with gas at $4.35 per gallon (in the Bay Area right now)?
#28
Posted 05 June 2008 - 08:10 AM
I know I am trying. It's just the warm weather. I always lose 20 lbs or so during the
summer every year just because I do not feel like eating. Combine that with horrible indigestion (which I have never experienced until baby), a baby that is a sqiggle worm and the fullness feeling after just drinking water. I usually have to force food down. Thank goodness my love is an amazing cook and a health food type guy or i'd only have Baskin Robbins shakes or Jamba juice everyday.
#29
Posted 05 June 2008 - 08:21 AM
perhaps the better way to say it is that the airlines are charging much more now then they used to just 1-2 years ago...by nickle and diming people for every little thing now such as luggage, weight etc...
maybe if they just came up with a standard ticket price that included everything and stuck to that instead of all the add on's it would feel better.
I used to fly monthly - now I barely fly yearly, we've cut down on as much unnecessary travel as possible - including in the car.
Travel, food and drink blog by Dave - http://davestravels.tv
#30
Posted 05 June 2008 - 08:32 AM
Last year July 07 - a flight to Orlando Florida from Sac cost $238
This year, that same flight costs $660
Travel, food and drink blog by Dave - http://davestravels.tv
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