Last week, Southwest Airlines reiterated its policy of requiring people who are not able to fit in a single seat on one of their airlines to pay for two seats. This is a policy that Southwest Airlines had been enforcing for quite some time, but chose last week to simply restate that policy to make it clear to everyone flying that airline. The fat acceptance activists went into a tizzy with that announcement.
Here is the way it works. If you take up two seats, you pay for two seats. Simple. That is the business of an airline? To sell seats on their airplanes, which will then take you to your destination. If they were simply selling travel on a plane from one location to another, it wouldn�t have to provide a seat. However, it does. One seat per person. If you take up two seats, you are denying revenue to the airline that it could realize if it were to have another fare paying passenger in that seat. If you allow this obese person ooze over into the seat of another, you are denying that person the right to enjoy that seat in reasonable comfort for the duration of that trip. I will not soon forget a transcontinental flight I took from Boston to San Francisco with this 250+ pound woman who oozed over the armrest and took up about 1/3 of my seat. Not to mention, she smelled like she hadn�t taken a shower in a week. The flight was full and there was no where else for me to go on the airplane. What about my right to try and enjoy that flight? It was the most miserable flight in my life.
Activists have argued that the airlines should provide larger seats. What would the result of that be? Well, let�s assume the airlines widen the seats by 50%. What was three seats is now two seats. You now have a flight with 33% fewer seats as before. The airline still has to earn the same revenue as it did when the plane had more seats. How will it do it? Raise fares, likely somewhere on the order of 33%. So, in order to accommodate people who can�t control what they eat, we are now going to force EVERYONE to pay a higher fare! I have no problem fitting into my seat, neither does my wife. Why should I have to pay a higher fare because other people can�t control how much they eat? I makes absolutely no sense whatsoever.
Look at this from another angle. Say you want to go to Chick-Fil-A and have a filling lunch. A chicken sandwich, fries, and a coke fills me up completely. I leave Chick-Fil-A after eating that content and satisfied for the afternoon. How about that 300 pound person who comes in and wants lunch? Will that person be filled and satisfied by the same meal? Most likely not. What is to stop him from saying, �hey, that little guy can come in and fill his stomach for five dollars, why not me?� Same concept.
How about the health effects? Yes, it is true that some people are genetically overweight. However, I find it impossible to believe that it is in the numbers that it manifests itself in our society. I have been to various other countries in Asia, Europe, and North America and have not seen the level of obesity that exists in this country. We have rising rates of heart disease and other health problems related to our diets.
We have come to the point in our society where it is considered rude to tell someone that they are overweight and they should consider going on a diet. I see an overweight woman who has a Big Mac in one hand and a Dairy Queen sundae in the other hand, and it is considered insensitive to tell this woman that she needs to go on a diet. When are we as a society going to come to our senses on this and realize that it is a public health issue and NOT a civil rights issue?