When I go to the store and buy wild salmon, the fishmonger
weighs the salmon and affixes a price tag based on how much I buy. The same per pound system goes for apples, potatoes and nuts from the bulk bins. I’m not thrilled about
it but when traveling, our ginormous black wedding registry (pre bags on
scales) bags get weighed as well and this often results in a surcharge. However, if I
want salmon and produce and travel, the scale is a prerequisite. Samoa Airlines is taking this one step further. What’s used for Tumi and tangerines is also
used for people of all sizes; they’ve started charging based on weight.
Passengers weight + baggage weight = price.
There’s a silver lining if you look for one. Kids would be
less. Instead of a 2 year old being charged the same as a 200-pound adult male,
they would benefit from being smaller and lighter (as long as they don’t charge
based on noise level or decibels). And hey, if you’re dropping weight for a
beach vacation, you now have a financial incentive. Weigh less pay less? I’m
not sure if this would impact initial efforts to lose weight just for the sake
of airfare.
In Samoa’s defense, Samoans are large- often the largest
people on earth and this airline, to date, flies small planes. Cargo weight
does matter. Military planes take weight into consideration. But most people
aren’t Samoan, soldiers or excited for public weighing. Not that we’re happy about
whipping out the credit card because you happen to have heavy ski boots (or
more likely too many shoes with you). I don’t like removing my shoes for the
security like but I do it, but that’s for “security” is getting on the scale
the same?
This may work for a small airline. I get their stance that
planes fly based on “cargo” weight not based on seats. I get that people are
getting larger. But what happens when someone gets to the airport and cannot
afford their ticket based on their size? Would companies pick smaller employees to do more travel if
it saves them money? Would people be willing to do this hopping on the scale pre-flight?
Lots of questions and for now mostly hypothetical but interesting.
It doesn’t seem right nor does the person seated in front of me reclining in my lap or breaching
their armrest boarder. On our recent trip, a child in front of us was using an
ipad. The parents hadn’t contemplated the mute button or headphones. I politely
asked them to lower it. You know what happened? The kid freaked out. I’m not
sure telling a person “politely” to pay triple for their ticket would have a
better outcome.
What do you think? Is
this, as the head of Samoan airlines said “the future”? Can you see this
working? What are the advantages or disadvantages?
