Over the weekend, a friend got squeezed on a flight from BWI to LAX.
Not “bumped” … “squeezed” … by a plump plus-sizer overflowing the adjacent seat.
My trim, yoga-inclined friend suggested that I reprise my posts about airlines’ pricing … hoping that the airlines would get the message this time around.
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It started awhile back when I posted Why don’t airlines charge more for these bags?
Specifically, I suggested that airlines charge passengers by weight: a base ticket price for the first 175 pounds and then $75 for each 50 pounds (or portion thereof) over the limit.
I thought I was on safe ground since a survey done for the travel website Skyscanner reported that 76% of travelers said airlines should charge overweight passengers more if they didn’t fit in a seat.
But, the idea went over like a lead-butted balloon.
Turns out that, as usual, we were just a bit ahead of the times.
Later, we reported that Samoa Air became the first airline to start charging by the pound.
For details, see Samoa Air: Pricing by weight is the ‘concept of the future’
Now, even politically correcct academicians are hopping on the scale. A Norwegian economist has suggested — in a prestigious academic journal — a “pay what you weigh” pricing plan that “would bring health, financial and environmental dividends.”
Here’s the skinny on his program …
The Homa Files 