Southwest Airlines is [censored] awesome (warning: seriously awesome)

[JayTee]

If they'd spend a couple of hours on a treadmill instead of at their fat ass convention the problem would be solved. Also, Southwest should just offer a "buy two seats get a free box of donuts" deal and fix the issue.

[Baloosh]

lol fatties

I bet that was the most fun those Airline reps had at a Convention (I mean at the actual Convention) ever.

[punkass]

I like the simple fact that the Southwest rep kept saying "fat people" instead of some other more PC term. love it.

[XXXNoahXXX]

[ QUOTE ]
Do you anticipate charging mothers with crying babies more? Or parents of children who kick the seat in front? How about loud people or those with offensive language? Or those who talk too much or drink too much?

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm actually in favor of this.

Imagine how quickly a mother would control her bratty kid kicking the seat, climbing all over the place, yelling, etc. if the flight attendant could come up and say, "I'm sorry Ms. Smith, but I have already given you one warning, I am now going to have to charge a $50 penalty. Each subsequent offense will result in an additional $50 penalty. Please control your child."

[esad]

[ QUOTE ]
Last year the beginning of the WSOp coincided with a fatass convention of some sort in las vegas, there were 7-8 MORBIDLY obese people on our plane and all but 1 were on the left side of the plane

landing in mccarran the plane kept rolling left on landing and you could feel the pilots fighting to keep the plane level, it would be funnier if it wasn't the most scared i've ever been on a plane in my life

[/ QUOTE ]

A plane like a 737 has a max weight of like 68,000 lbs. Uh yeah an extra few hundred pounds on one side of the fuselage near the center of the plane is going to make a huuuuge difference. It will totally unbalance the plane.

[XXXNoahXXX]

Also,

[ QUOTE ]
Through the 1990s, the average weight of Americans increased by 10 pounds, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The extra weight caused airlines to spend $275 million to burn 350 million more gallons of fuel in 2000 just to carry the additional weight of Americans, the federal agency estimated in a recent issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

"The obesity epidemic has unexpected consequences beyond direct health effects," said Dr. Deron Burton of the CDC. "Our goal was to highlight one area that had not been looked at before."

The extra fuel burned also had an environmental impact, as an estimated 3.8 million extra tons of carbon dioxide were released into the air, according to the study.

[/ QUOTE ]

[gol4pro]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Last year the beginning of the WSOp coincided with a fatass convention of some sort in las vegas, there were 7-8 MORBIDLY obese people on our plane and all but 1 were on the left side of the plane

landing in mccarran the plane kept rolling left on landing and you could feel the pilots fighting to keep the plane level, it would be funnier if it wasn't the most scared i've ever been on a plane in my life

[/ QUOTE ]

A plane like a 737 has a max weight of like 68,000 lbs. Uh yeah an extra few hundred pounds on one side of the fuselage near the center of the plane is going to make a huuuuge difference. It will totally unbalance the plane.

[/ QUOTE ]

yeah, but 7 or 8 COMPLETE fatties could make the difference like 1.5k-2k pounds, plus what if there was already a couple hundred pound imbalance anyway (i.e. just dumb luck not including the fatties). 2.5k pounds could definitely do it.

btw, I agree with all who have said the SW agent's tone was hysterical. He/she is so upfront with just calling them "fat people" or whatever they might as well just say lard bags.

[MicroBob]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Last year the beginning of the WSOp coincided with a fatass convention of some sort in las vegas, there were 7-8 MORBIDLY obese people on our plane and all but 1 were on the left side of the plane

landing in mccarran the plane kept rolling left on landing and you could feel the pilots fighting to keep the plane level, it would be funnier if it wasn't the most scared i've ever been on a plane in my life

[/ QUOTE ]

A plane like a 737 has a max weight of like 68,000 lbs. Uh yeah an extra few hundred pounds on one side of the fuselage near the center of the plane is going to make a huuuuge difference. It will totally unbalance the plane.

[/ QUOTE ]


There are reasons there are weight restrictions on planes.

I've travelled with hockey teams who were not able to take all their equipment with them on that flight and had to have some of it delivered on the next flight.

All of it would fit just fine. It was just too heavy and they have specific rules about maximum weight.

This is more likely to happen on medium to smaller size planes of course.

7 obese people at 350 lbs apiece on one side of the plane.
Tack on just a couple empty-seats and a couple little kids on the other side of the plane and you've got a pretty significant imbalance and I definitely think this would make a difference.

[Dids]

Few thoughts:

1- as a former encroaching fattie who flew Southwest a lot, they don't enforce this, or if they do you've gotta be a lot fatter than I was at my fattest.

2- I fully support this. Flying while fat is a horrible thing. A few very uncomfortable flights were part of the motivating factor for me starting to lose weight.

3- Nevada always seems to have the worst takeoffs and landings. Pretty sure that isn't the fatties.

[MicroBob]

Regarding flying while fat/big:

I'm 5'6" and am not really fat (could stand to lose a few, but whatever).

Even for someone my size those planes are ridiculously uncomfortable. A little extra leg-room helps but it's still pretty damn cramped.

I've flown with some big people before.
One flight to Alaska with a hockey team I was seated next to our 6'6" defenseman (lol AlphabeticalOrderaments!!).
He tried to sit up as straight as he could but his legs were just too damn long and he could barely fit in there.

The flight from Cincy to Denver he was really in agony.

He got maybe 2 extra inches for the flight from Denver to Anchorage which seemed to make a significant difference to him in that he was merely REALLY uncomfortable as opposed to not really being able to fit at all.

As uncomfortable as I am on those things I just can't imagine how much it must truly suck to be a football-player size type guy trying to sit in one of those.