Airline offers one for the price of two
April 17, 2009
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| Passengers wait to check in for their United Airline flights at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport Wednesday, June 22, 2005. United announced an immediate 3 percent fare increase on most of their domestic and international flights, citing the rising cost of oil as the reason. (ASSOCIATED PRESS) |
SAN FRANCISCO, AIRLINE, OVERWEIGHT, FAT, TWO-SEAT POLICY — If you can’t fit comfortably into one airplane seat, you will have to pay for two, according to a new United Airlines policy.
As of Wednesday, fliers who are too large for a coach seat are being forced to purchase an additional seat, a business class seat or face being booted off the plane, the airline said in a statement.
The two-seat policy, which is already being enforced on other popular carriers such as Southwest Airlines and Delta Air Lines, comes after United received hundreds of complaints from folks who said obese people were making packed planes unbearable, the airline said.
The policy applies to tickets purchased on or after March 4, for travel on or after April 15. It includes passengers who can’t buckle the seatbelt or put the armrests down, the airline said.
If there aren’t two seats available next to each other, or if premium seating is unsuitable or sold-out, large fliers will likely be forced off planes, the airline said. If they choose not to try their luck on another flight, their ticket will be refunded, United said.
“We have implemented this policy to help ensure that everyone’s travel experiences with United are comfortable and pleasant,” the airline said.
The one bit of good news for large passengers is that the second seat won’t cost a penny more than the seat they had originally purchased, the airline said. Another benefit is that purchasing two seats means you can check-in two bags — one per passenger seat — without paying a fee.
But the new policy is bound to bring up complaints of discrimination or humiliation, as it has in the past, said industry expert Rick Seaney.
When Southwest announced in 2002 that it would force the two-seat purchase policy for large passengers, the Council on Size and Weight Discrimination launched a campaign against the rule. The group argued that airline seating is “far too narrow for most of the population” and that airlines feel they can charge overweight passengers “since there is already a lot of animosity against [obese people].”
It’s also hard to know which airline employees would have to inform a passenger that he or she is too big for a seat — or whether it’s in their job description, Seaney said.
A United spokeswoman told MSNBC the airline would try to find ways not to charge their larger passengers. If the plane happens to have two empty seats side-by-side, husky fliers will likely be moved to those seats without having to pay for a second one, she told the news organization. But United’s policy doesn’t reflect those remarks.
Seaney jokingly wondered whether airline workers would eventually have to take passengers’ measurements before allowing them onto planes.
“It’s going to have to be a judgment call,” he said. “And when there are judgment calls, you’re going to have people upset.”
