Should a 100-pound woman who has a carry-on bag (or checked bag for that matter…) that is a few pounds overweight have to pay up while a 300-pound woman with a slightly smaller bag is welcomed onboard without issue? Probably not, but let’s unpack this issue a bit.
Equity Vs. Equality: Should Carry-On Weight Include YOU?
A reader shared an interesting Instagram post and asked for my comment. While I’m trying to avoid the sort of contentious issues that divide readers and only lead to bickering, this is an interesting question that I will answer, in part because it is directly travel-related.
The post below shows a petite woman forced to pay extra for her carry-on bag because it is overweight, while a morbidly obese woman does no have to pay extra because here carry-on bag is a few pounds under.
An “equity” versus “equality” argument is made…I find that those two words have been hijacked by cultural warriors and will not even use them.
I will also note that carry-on bags are restricted by dimensions in the USA, but not weighed, so the issue is somewhat moot in terms of US readers.
So what do I think?
I’m not in the business of coddling people and reject the fat pride folks as dangerously delusional. At the same time, I know that many overweight people struggle with their weight and seem to keep weight on despite their best efforts—it is a constant battle. The point is not that most obese people are victims, but that we cannot look at someone and reduce their weight problem to laziness or a lack of self-control. Even if we could, yelling at someone does not generally lead to changed behavior.
The idea that the overall weight of the passenger plus carry-on bag should be factored is not wholly devoid of logic, but it presents an impractical solution to a world full of people of many shapes and sizes. What about weight lifters? What about very tall people? Conrolling the weight and size of carry-on bags is simple and straightforward. Penalizing someone for being large, even if it is their own fault, probably does not help anyone. There must be better carrots than shaming to incentivize people to embrace a healthier lifestyle.
Furthermore, one reason some airlines control the weight of carry-on bags is to reduce the risk of damage if they fly out of the overhead bin or have to be handled by airline personnel. The heavier the bag, the more damage it could do. I have a nasty scar on my hand after a very heavy bag fell on me after an American Airlines flight. When the woman behind me opened the overhead bin, the bag fell right on my hand, causing not only the scar, but also fairly bad pain.
So no, I don’t think it is a workable solution, even in places that do weigh carry-on bags. I would say that if a petite person has a carry-on bag that might be a few pounds over, maybe you just say, “Go ahead.”
What do you think about this issue? Setting aside the incendiary “equity” language, is it logical to let a 300-pound woman bring on a 40-pound carry-on bag but tell a 100-pound woman her 50-pound carry-on bag is too heavy?
My problem isn’t that people are fat. It’s that they want to impose that on those who aren’t. And even a bigger problem is that airline staff looks the other way and lets the issue become the problem of the passenger seated next to them. We have all seen people onboard who we all know do not belong in a single seat, yet they encroach on someone else’s space. I’m not criticizing you because you’re fat. I’m criticizing you because you know you need two seats, and you only bought one. And the gate agent pretended it was fine because they don’t want to be accused of fat shaming. So this all lands on the lap of the passenger next to you. Literally.
Some baggage handler has to pick up the heavy bag and transport it. Huge risk for injury. That’s why there is a weight limit.
Read the article again. It is a carry on so the handler is the passenger so his problem not of a baggage handler.
i get the point, but false equivalents.
Senator Tammy Duckworth ( on the aviation subcommittee ) has composed a letter to the FAA regarding three recent evacuation incidents. She is concerned that the 90 second time is not an accurate representation ( and not only because of the passengers on the slide with bags ) but because the flying public has issues with size , weight , age and overall health. I see this as part of the discussion here. Size and weight matters not only in baggage but the flying zoo we have become. How to address any changes ? I can’t answer that.
It isn’t just health but over the years spacing on the plane has gotten much smaller. Space between seats is less and it is harder to get in/out of seats, and for those in a window seat you have to climb over multiple seats.
Speed is important in a crash since the main issue most of the time involves fire. There have been many crashes over the years where people survived the crash but unfortunately did not get off before fire/smoke killed them.
And yeah, you have all of the idiots taking bags down slides.
They design aircraft to meet that 90 second evacuation. Even spry people seem to have trouble untwisting out of some economy seats, let alone the elderly and unfit passengers. And this will hinder safety in my view.
Please, provide some evidence that the seat width on a 737 has narrowed. It was 3-3 sesting in coach. It is 3-3 seating now in a slightly wider cabin (the exterior width is same, the interior is wider due to thinner non-structural walls.) Oh, and the A320 is wider. So, please, evidence.
We were discussing passenger size and mobility per se, making evacuation slower . Do you need Evidence of that?
I replied to rich, not you.
@ this . of course i noticed that, but it was our conversation. Btw I checked and the aircraft you are quoting your statistics 737 fails to include the reduction in pitch. This is an important component in comfort and movement. Enjoy your evening.
“but it was our conversation” sorry, I was unaware there were property rights here. I will dutifully avoid making comments on threads you have claimed. No loss…
Yes won’t comment when you’re cornered. Good troll. Both off topic and disruptive.
“ While I’m trying to avoid the sort of contentious issues that divide readers and only lead to bickering”
Dude I call BS on this. You are in business to make money and the old adage “Controversy creates cash” still holds value.
Keep the clickbait stories coming!
Too strict carry on weight limits are bad but there is logic to having a limit. That is one issue.
Another is if there should be extra charges for passenger weight. The fat burn causes greater fuel burn. Do we know how much more?
While there’s logic to asking the question, it’s about the business model and policies. Airline industry is complex and not based on weight transported.
What if they’re originating from same small airport and the larger passenger is paying 3x the fare as the petite passenger because the former is paying for a direct flight (to say DFW) white the latter is taking a layover there to a competitive market (say LAX). Now that’s logical from a supply/demand model but not for a weight/distance carried and seats occupied model.
Until it directly impacts safety or other passengers (eg encroaching on their seat) you make it about the policy and not the person.
My biggest problem with EU airlines is that they have rules but don’t follow them. During the pandemic we made a decision to not check bags anymore to Europe and that we wanted to only travel with carry on. Well, I looked at KLM website for the size of luggage they allow which is small than the US ones and bought 4 pieces for my family called European carry on. I also started booking only business class tickets while flying within Europe which allows us to bring carry on luggage plus a backpack. The problem is that most EU airlines do not enforce that. I just flew on 2 different airlines where I paid a much higher ticket to allow me to bring carry on and nobody ever checked that. Everyone on those flights brought their carry ons with them. There was absolutely no differentiation from the tickets, nobody weighted anything, nobody measured anything. Now, while at the airport, I noticed that Ryanair and Easyjet had those little frames by the gate saying you carry on luggage had to fit into those. Interesting enough, none of our carry ons would fit there. WTF!! So, each Eu airline has their own rule for the size so I am not sure how you can manage that.
Oh we should get one of those for people. Sort like your bag needs to fit here, and you must be this tall to ride the rollercoaster? “You must fit in this space to fly”.
We already have that. The “sizer” into which you must fit? It’s called “your seat.”
Except this needs to be addressed before boarding. The passenger needs to be told to buy two seats or reaccommodated in the next flight that does. Gate agents are just looking the other way because they don’t want to deal with being on social media being accused of fat shaming. So they push the problem into the plane and let the passenger next to them deal with it. And that ain’t right.
Make the Fatass pay more.
Welcome back brother!
There is a certain bone smuggler here that thinks he chased you away.
Oh goody, both idiots are here. Douchebag Dave Edwards and Sch*ttt Hsuan, proving with every comment that their nicknames are absolutely accurate and completely deserved and that they have nothing better to do with their pathetic waste-of-oxygen lives than to post abhorrent and revolting comments here over and over again every single day. Your loved ones, if it’s possible to love SHPOSs like you two, must be so proud. Even more projection, I had to look up “bone smuggler”, you are obviously intimately familiar with the term. (Even if it’s trolling, the extent and frequency is just as indicative of severe psychological or addiction problems.) You should both crawl back under whatever rock you crawled out from.
Never Dave! What can stop me? Nobody will stop me!
Feces Hsuan, proving with your every comment that your nickname is absolutely accurate and completely deserved and that you have nothing better to do with your pathetic waste-of-oxygen life than to post abhorrent and revolting comments here over and over again every single day. (Even if it’s trolling, the extent and frequency is just as indicative of severe psychological and/or addiction problems.) Your loved ones, if it’s possible to love a SHPOS like you, must be proud (not). You should crawl back under whatever rock you crawled out from.
Are we serious with these names?
Fat people SHOULD pay more.
I can envision the day that you and your luggage will have to stand on a scale and will be charged by the pound.
I am more concerned about “persons of size” being required to book two seats when they cannot fit into one.
However, as we all know takeoff weight does matter, but is typically enforced on small charters and no commercial carriers. Years ago I was in a remote part of Costa Rica that required flying in and out using chartered prop planes. On the day of our departure there was a group of very large, obese adults who had to charter a second plane for their luggage as their combined body weight did not allow for anything else to be loaded on the plane.
Maybe we can use AI to prorate your fare based on your body and luggage combined total weight?
This just came up on an Aer Lingus flight. I weigh 100kg, my wife weighs 70kg. The gate agent gave her hell about her carryon bag being 12kg, which is over their 10kg limit, according to the crooked needle on their scale.
Unless they weigh passengers, there’s no reason to weigh carry-on bags.
The issue is not weight for people but whether they can fit in a seat and the awkwardness of telling a person to sit in a “people sizer” in the gate area to prove that they can fit in their seat w/o spilling over in someone’s seat.
given the availability of GLP 1 weight loss medications, the notion that losing weight is too difficult for alot of people is just plain false.
The return on investment on GLP 1 medication gets a whole lot better if surcharges increasingly show up on services for not being able to “stay in your lane”
Some may find that tough to hear…
Writing as a fit person who has never struggled with weight, I find the cruelty of your comments and others telling.
Accepting your logic, perhaps there could be surcharges on participants in a public forum who engage in naked sycophancy for a particular airline, or who engage in specious bad faith arguments à la Thrasymachus and then cloak their nastiness in typical pablum like, “Some may find that tough to hear,” as if it is the listener who is responsible for the bile flowing through their fingers onto the internet.
On the upside, I reckon Tim Dunn is meek as a kitten in person. Internet smart alecks usually are.
Don’t be a fat shamer. FFS be better.
Nobody here is fat shaming. At least not me. But this is not the problem of the person seated next to them, who also paid the same amount of money for their space and doesn’t deserve an uncomfortable flight over other people’s choices. Nobody cares about your lifestyle choices or health conditions unless they start to impact others. If you want to eat yourself to death that’s your business. But know you’re going to have to get on a plane eventually. Then it’s either pay for two seats, or lose weight. This isn’t complicated.
I flew AA today on a 737, where bulkheads are MCE and have underseat storage, so I choose row 8 most often to be off the plane faster. I am relatively petite. Not a size 4, but average, and small in stature so I do not take up even my whole seat. The poor man next to me was at least 6 feet tall and large. Not “morbidly obese” but too large for those teeny seats. He did NOT encroach on me in the window or the small man in the aisle because these seats have fixed widths. He did not complain, sigh, ask anyone to switch or anything else. I felt terrible for him because even getting my tray table out was hard and I didn’t want him to feel bad. He doesn’t look “fat” but in that seat he did.
My point? The seats are made for me, or very slender men. They are not made for anyone larger in comfort. FC was sold out. We were to be an A319, but it was changed to a 737, likely due to the load and demand. I was 14 on an upgrade list of 48 as Executive Platinum. Sometimes you just get stuck in a seat.
If you want to avoid “fat” people encroaching, as some comments say, pick fixed width seats. Because not everyone encroaching IS fat. Sen. Duckworth is correct. In a real emergency, we would be in trouble.
(For the record, regarding the very large man, he did NOT need a seatbelt extender, and his belt fit. yet his sides bulged over the armrests. His friend told him where he was sitting and clearly they had bought BE or bought late and took what was left. This was a business route on a business day. You do what you have to.
Indeed C, we all are built differently. Gangly and tall, petite and small. With an aging population , I hope there is some realistic response. Lives will depend on it.
why don’t we just have AI real-time analysis of body weight, and fares are reduced or increased accordingly if out of a common band. Seee…remove the human bias.