Should Obese People Buy Two Airline Tickets - Assignment Example

Should Obese People Buy Two Airline Tickets? Introduction Have you ever travel more than ten hours by airplane? If you have, how was your neighbor, fat or thin? Do you have experience sit with obese people when you flying? Obesity is a big problem not only for the person who has overweight, but at times it causes problems or disturbances to others as well. While travelling in a bus, train or airplane obese people often causes problems to the co-passengers and the crews. “The prevalence of obesity (BMI≥30) continues to be a health concern for adults, children and adolescents in the United States. Data from the most recent NHANES survey1 shows that among adult men the prevalence of obesity was 31.1% in 2003—2004, and 33.3% in 2005—2006, a small but not statistically significant change. Among adult women, the prevalence of obesity in 2003—2004 was 33.2%, and in 2005—2006 was 35.3%, again a small but not significant change”. (Overweight and Obesity) Most of us are getting larger, 65% of Americans are overweight, but airplane seating has just gotten more oppressive. It does not compute. Even non-overweight people are crammed in. As increasing of obese people, there is a new controversy that airlines should or not charge two seats to obese people when flying. Analysis of double charge policy for obese people by airlines Obesity is not a crime as it happens unintentionally. Moreover obesity is a personal matter like the height. Height and weight is gained by a person due to his genetic factors and food habits. “Children whose parents are obese have a much greater chance of becoming obese themselves” (Dr. Clayson) Dr. Mark Clayson Level: Platinum I am an experienced professional, graduating from King’s College, London in 1986 with a medical degree (MBBS). I have progressed in the medical world culminating ... ... Even if the children of obese parents try to reduce their sizes by controlling their foods, it is not necessary that they may successful always. So obesity is not a crime just like the case of rich and poor. It is a person’s destiny which decides in which family (rich or poor) he should take birth. Only the creator decides which persons need to take birth in rich or poor family. Same way it is the creator who decides which person should be obese and which should not be. Appling price differently based on the weight is an opportunity for the airliners to make more money rather than anything else. “The airline companies would lose a customer if they allowed a fat person to only pay for one seat, but take up two. It has to be true since it makes sense. Also, airline companies have started to charge for EVERYTHING. I booked a flight and was charged a fee for selecting my own seat!!!! Then on the flight, they tried selling me $2 cheap earphones. They were also selling $8 ham and cheese sandwiches. It’s pretty ridiculous.” (A Benefit of Losing Weight: Fitting Into an Airplane Seat) The airline seats are too small nowadays even for the thin persons because of the airlines attempt to accommodate more people in aircraft to increase their profit. "As a business traveler, I think that the size of the seats is one of the big factors in the mood of the passenger on a airplane. I am under 6 feet tall and on most aircraft my knees almost touch the seat in front of me. I can imagine how anyone else taller than I feels." (Hewitt)Tall people, fat people and skinny people, all are uncomfortable on a flight. The airlines in their attempt to make more money squeezed in as many seats as possible at the expense of the passengers comfort. The airlines that made the seats to small in the first place to make more money have no right to penalize the obese customers. “An increased number of seats on the plane means more income per flight, and helps keep airfares down” (Hewitt) But in practice no airlines had ever reduced their airfare based on the increased number of seats. Most of the airlines looking for a price hike rather than a reduction at any cost and hence they will never try to reduce the price even if they were able to accommodate more seats by reducing the size of the passenger seats. People who support double charges for obese people say that obese people have a responsibility to bother the convenience of their neighboring passengers. Some people cry that "I dont want to sit next to a fat person.” The main point of their assertion is that they want their personal space fully since they rent an airline seat; they want the entire seat they paid for. They also insist that they should not have to subsidize on obese peoples travel. However, in my opinion obese people also have a right equally like normal passengers. They also paid the same amount of money like the other passengers. Moreover the airlines will never undercharge for thin persons even though they require less space compared to the normal persons and hence they have no moral rights to charge more for the obese people. Another reason cited for charge twice to obese people is that the plane would require more fuel - therefore the journey would cost more. In other words, increasing of weight of plane would require more fuel which leads increased ticket price. Normal passengers do not want to pay more because of obese people. Even a thin passenger can bring bigger luggage and hence the total weight occupied by a normal passenger and his luggage may sometimes exceeds that of the obese person and his luggage. So the above argument is ridiculous. Obese people are "functionally disabled", according to a ruling by the Supreme Court of Canada (Hooper) Though obese people are different from physically handicapped people, their functionality will be similar to that of a physically handicapped person and hence they should be given considerations similar to that of a disabled person. Functional disabled obese persons must be considered with empathy rather than criticizing them for their overweight. Normal people can advice obese people; “lose your weight for your health”; but they cannot say that “lose your weight for making us comfortable.” Size shape, beauty and functionality of a person are the blessings of the creator and hence nobody has the right to blame or criticizes others for their disabilities or functional problems. Advices are always given to some others; but nobody wants to take that from others. It is always like a one-way traffic. Everybody wants to advice others and nobody wants to be advised by others. Every human being has their own individuality and characters. As far as these characters are not creating any problems to others, it is acceptable to the society. Obesity related problems created to others by obese persons are not a deliberate and hence the public should have the temperament to accommodate such things. “Heavier people spill over onto their neighbors’ seats, generating negative externalities for the other passengers. So I hope a few real-world airlines take notes and think about charging heavier passengers extra.” (Hamermesh) Of course it is the duty of the aircraft operators to ensure comfortable stay of each and every passenger while they are on board. Long journeys which are taking more than 10 hours are always create discomfort to the passengers even if they have comfortable seats. So it is difficult for a normal person to sit between two obese persons for a long journey. The cabin crews must make arrangements for ensuring comfortable journey to every passenger. But it should never be accomplished by double charging the obese persons. Solutions or recommendations for accommodating obese persons inside aircraft “Since the number of obese passengers isnt going to shrink any time soon, I like the idea of mandating airlines to add a few plus-size seats to cabins and either sell them at a special premium economy rate or assign them to passengers at the last minute like bulk-head or emergency-row seats” (MacNeil) Most of the airlines are running in huge profits. Most of the passengers utilizing the services of airlines are rich persons and hence the airlines are not keeping any liberal approach in their pricing strategies. They have to concentrate more on providing comfortable journey to the passengers irrespective of economy class or executive class. The best solution for making everybody comfortable is the arrangement of different sized seats inside the aircrafts. The airlines should have seats of different sizes like, big, normal and small. Obese persons can be seated in big seats and the normal persons can be allocated normal seats. Small people or children can be accommodated in small seats. The total number of seats inside the aircraft can be kept constant even if different sized seats are allocated to different sized people. While the big sized seats need more space the small sized seats need less space only and hence they will compensate each other and the airlines will never suffer in the total number of seats. Double standards in pricing for normal and obese persons will be discrimination in one sense. It will create two types of citizens inside one plane. Moreover it is an intrusion into the personal integrity of an obese person. An obese person will hurt his feelings when he is treated differently from others. Conclusions Most of the airlines are running in immense profit and hence the strategy for charging obese people more is another way of exploitation. If one person is obese, his overweight will be compensated by another parson who has lesser weight. It is the duty of the airlines to ensure comfortable stay to all passengers irrespective of their height or weight. They should never charge more for ensuring comfortable stay of obese people inside the plane. If they are losing space for obese persons, they are getting more spaces at the expense of thin people for whom they charge the same price. Since obesity is not a crime they should not be segregated from the main streams of public life. They should be treated similar to other normal people. The arrangement of different sized seats will be the best solution for tackling the obese people similar to others rather than charging them double price. Works Cited 1. Overweight and Obesity, Retrieved on May 17, 2009 from http://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/dnpa/Obesity/ 2. Dr. Clayson  Mark, Hereditary Factors In Childhood Obesity, Retrieved on May 17, 2009 from http://ezinearticles.com/?Hereditary-Factors-In-Childhood-Obesity&id=459412 3. Hewitt Ed, The Shrinking Airline Seat, Retrieved on May 17, 2009 from http://www.independenttraveler.com/resources/article.cfm?AID=161&category=13 4. Hooper Rowan, Are the obese functionally disabled? Retrieved on May 17, 2009 from http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/shortsharpscience/2008/11/are-the-obese-functionally-dis.html 5. MacNeil Laura, Should obese airplane passengers pay more? Retrieved on May 17, 2009 from http://current.newsweek.com/budgettravel/2008/01/poll_a_question_of_weight.html 6. A Benefit of Losing Weight: Fitting Into an Airplane Seat, Retrieved on May 17, 2009 from http://www.fatmanunleashed.com/a-benefit-of-losing-weight-fitting-into-an-airplane-seat/ 7. Hamermesh Daniel, Should Thinner People Fly Cheaper? , Retrieved on May 17, 2009 from http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/06/09/should-thinner-people-fly-cheaper/ Read More