Here's something that I learned over the Christmas weekend. Southwest Airlines charges obese people (also know as "people of size") for two tickets when they can't fit in a single seat. Depending on height, this usually happens at 320 pounds. At first, I thought that this was kind of funny, especially since I weigh 20 pounds less than the average American airline passenger. Here's Southwest's policy as it appears on their web site:
Customers who are unable to lower the armrests (the definitive boundary between seats) and/or who compromise any portion of adjacent seating should proactively book the number of seats needed during initial reservations. This purchase serves as a notification of an unusual seating need and allows us to process a refund of the additional seating cost after travel (provided the flight doesn’t oversell). Most importantly, it ensures that all onboard have access to safe and comfortable seating.
Maybe we can take this a step further by giving people with normal or less than normal weight a discount. Step on a scale and the computer tells you how much your ticket costs! We can do this in the name of airline safety! I have no mercy for people with their 5 Big Mac lunches and 64 ounce sodas. Most of us know someone like this. Hey if we can make smoking in public a crime, maybe we should make the overloading of our passenger planes with people of size (fat people) a crime too.
