Should obese people have the right od two seats whithout charging more?
On November 20th, the Canadian Supreme Court ruled that obese people have the right to two seats for the price of one on flights within Canada. Apparently, an appeal made by Air Canada, Air Canada Jazz and WestJet was declined and as a result, the one-person-one-fare-two seat policy will go into effect January 2009. The policy “stipulates that people who are too large to fit in one chair should be given two seats, so as to avoid unpleasant situations during the flight.”
Though I’m no the frequent air traveler ,I’m a frequent bus traveler and train traveler.I have witnessed extremely obese people overflowing into the seats next to them, and to be perfectly honest, I am amazed that those passengers don’t get charged for two seats. The passengers sitting in the adjacent seats, have barely a half of a seat to call their own…and they surely can not be comfortable.
Personally,I feel it’s quite unfair for the average weighted individuals.In a day when we are being charged for everything from the weight of our baggage to water to headphones for a B-Rated movie, how is it possible that a 450 pound individual can pay the same price for a ticket as a 150 pound individual? The 450 pound person is 3 TIMES the weight of the 150 pound person. Further, that 150 pound individual most likely will take up 1/3 of the space as the 450 pound person.
Ironically, the Canadian Court ‘agreed that this was a very delicate situation that could not be resolved without hurting either the feelings of people with extra pounds, or the benefits of the airlines.’ Forgive me, but the truth is that if every business had to worry about the feelings of consumers, there is a good chance a lot of companies would be out of business.
In conclusion,I feel that giving an additional seat to an obese person for free is enabling obese people to stay the way they are and to not take responsibility for their condition. The more people are coddled, the more they won’t change. Where will it end?
