• Death_Equity@lemmy.world
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    29 days ago

    No it wouldn’t, if the industry as a whole started pricing based on weight, travellers aren’t going to start taking trains and ships.

    If a minority of airlines didn’t switch, they would get more passengers that would save money by going with them and would ultimately fail in the market.

    If a minority of airlines switched, they would decrease costs and very few people would decide against saving money on airfair on principle.

    The big airlines switching would have a new means to increase profits and decrease costs, which they love.

    Yes, the media will drag them through the mud and social media would have a tantrum, but the airlines would profit because nobody is going to decide 3 days on a train is better than 6 hours on a plane.

    • IrateAnteater@sh.itjust.works
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      29 days ago

      Any airline that tried this would immediately get sued in just about every country that has any sort of discrimination laws, and the airline would lose ten times out of ten.

      • Death_Equity@lemmy.world
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        29 days ago

        Being overweight is not a protected class in the US, EU, or England. Some states and cities have laws that do prohibit weight based discrimination.

        There is no discrimination going on anyways when charging based on weight. You are contributing 300lbs of cargo and that cargo cost more than 200lbs of cargo to transport.

        • IrateAnteater@sh.itjust.works
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          29 days ago

          Being overweight isn’t the only source of weight variation. If a 6’4" man weighs the same as a healthy 5’0" woman, he’s probably dying.

          • yetAnotherUser@discuss.tchncs.de
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            29 days ago

            You can legally discriminate against size though.

            If you’re in the top 1 percentile of sizes, any and all clothes will be much more expensive than if you were in the median.

          • Death_Equity@lemmy.world
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            29 days ago

            That is true, but if her plus her luggage weights the same as him and his luggage, they should pay the same. If they don’t, their ticket price should reflect that.

            • IrateAnteater@sh.itjust.works
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              29 days ago

              You don’t fly much, do you? Getting through check in is a pain in the ass enough as it is, and now you want to add a weigh in and price adjustment step for every person onto that?

              • Death_Equity@lemmy.world
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                29 days ago

                I don’t. I stopped flying a few years after 9/11 because I despise the TSA, being confined with inconsiderate people, and love road trips. If flying was what it was like in the 90s, I would be more inclined to fly.

                Stand on a scale with all your bags at check-in. No issue.

                • IrateAnteater@sh.itjust.works
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                  29 days ago

                  Except there’s plenty of issue. Do you think none of those people, whom you already know are inconsiderate, are going to lie about their weight? Hell, they don’t even have to be knowingly lying, their scale at home could just be wrong. Now you have to deal with price adjustments at the gate, and you know people are going to argue with the attendants about that.