Pay What you Weigh Airfare

[vicky]

Sorry, I'm being a post-whore, but wtf@this. 

April Fools Joke Comes to Life As Airline Starts Charging Passengers Based on How Much They Weigh

 Neetzan Zimmerman

Samoa Air had more than few people reaching for the calender this morning to check if April Fools' Day had been extended after the company announced plans to ditch the standard pay-per-seat model in favor of a "fairer" pay-by-weight model.

"Airlines don't run on seats, they run on weight, and particularly the smaller the aircraft you are in the less variance you can accept in terms of the difference in weight between passengers," Samoa Air boss Chris Langton told Australia's ABC Radio."Anyone who travels at times has felt they have been paying for half of the passenger next to them."

Under the new model, passengers will pay a flat fee of between $0.50 and $2 per kilogram depending on the destination. Each passenger's luggage will also be factored into their overall weight.

"So a family of maybe two adults and a couple of mid-sized kids and younger children can travel at considerable less than what they were being charged before,"Langston told the radio station.

If this policy sounds familiar to you, it might be because Air New Zealand claimed to have instituted a similar fare program back on April Fools Day 2011.

But reached for comment by New Zealand's 3 News, a spokeswoman for the airline said the company's new "pay only what you weigh" model is no joke.

Be that as it may, a 3 News comparison of Samoa Air's new air travel rates with comparable airlines flying along similar routes found that, while innovative, the new policy doesn't appear to save the average passenger that much money.

Langston, however, believes pay-by-weight has an invaluable benefit that makes the scheme well worth it.

"People generally are becoming much more weight conscious," he said. "That's a health issue in some areas."

And Samoa is certainly one of those areas. According to recent statistics, over 91.1 percent of residents age 15 and over are overweight.

[cheeseandcrackers]

Good motivation to lose weight before a trip! lol

[rex]

Apr 2, 2013 11:58:32 GMT -5 puddleofgrace said:

I'm having really bad flashbacks to going to the Ground Round out in NJ when I was a kid and having the "pay what you weigh" for your dinner. What a fucking nightmare!!

At least kids are small and cheap! My dad used to take us to that all the time.

But pay what you weigh airfare? Not as cute.

[midnightrae]

Apr 2, 2013 11:58:32 GMT -5 puddleofgrace said:

I'm having really bad flashbacks to going to the Ground Round out in NJ when I was a kid and having the "pay what you weigh" for your dinner. What a fucking nightmare!!

They had something like that out here when I was younger. I think it was at Red Robin, but I could be wrong. My dad would take me and my sister every once in a while. I don't remember much about it though. 

[vanillacourage]

Apr 2, 2013 11:45:41 GMT -5 vicky said:

And Samoa is certainly one of those areas. According to recent statistics, over 91.1 percent of residents age 15 and over are overweight.

So, it's a marketing scheme. 

[winston]

I'm uncomfy with this policy and the way that it could hurt people. I think that if they want to implement something like this they need to have options to purchase a wider seat. A lot of airlines already require passengers above a certain weight to purchase two seats, which makes for a really expensive flight (and how comfortabe could that really be?). The current seats just aren't big enough for a lot of people and that's uncomfortable for those people and the people in the seat next to them. I've had a couple long haul flights where I really was only able to sit in half of my seat. It sucked for me and I can't imagine it was great for my seat neighbours, either.

But really, if you want to make people pay more because they're heavier, you need to provide a more comfortable option for them.

And I don't know where they would draw the lines here, either. I don't know where they already say, 'you must now purchase two seats', but I do remember Kevin Smith being famously booted from a flight a number of years ago because there weren't two seats available for him to purchase and they wouldn't let him sit in just one. Brutal.

[ering1115]

Apr 2, 2013 11:58:32 GMT -5 puddleofgrace said:

I'm having really bad flashbacks to going to the Ground Round out in NJ when I was a kid and having the "pay what you weigh" for your dinner. What a fucking nightmare!!

A penny a pound and free popcorn?  Awwwwww yeah!

[mrsbro]

Apr 2, 2013 11:58:32 GMT -5 puddleofgrace said:

I'm having really bad flashbacks to going to the Ground Round out in NJ when I was a kid and having the "pay what you weigh" for your dinner. What a fucking nightmare!!

OMG I remember this too. I also remember crying. FU pay what you weigh. 

[winston]

Apr 2, 2013 13:21:57 GMT -5 cjoy said:

I'm picturing the airport looking like my high school on the day of a wrestling meet; all the passengers wearing black garbage bags and jogging in place, spitting in water bottles so they can try to make weight. "Eight more ounces! GOOD! CRYING BURNS CALORIES!"

Haha!

Really, how could they actually implement this?  Add a scale at the check-in counter and adjust prices there? Awful.