Weighty question?

[Hakahura]

Ok, so this is an old story

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worl...o-tickets.html

But another article I was reading linked me to it and it got me thinking.

1 United may well have a good point here.
2 They could go further.

Maybe instead of Airlines charging us for our seats and giving us a baggage allowance, what they should do is combine each passengers weight and that of their luggage and then set a total allowable limit. An excess baggage charge could be levied in much the same way as it is now. Sounds fair to me, after all it's the total weight of the contents inside an Aircraft fuselage that determine the fuel burnt per sortie not just the baggage. Now if you then combined this with United's idea of making the more generously proportioned customer purchase an extra seat, (if they are unable to contain themselves within their own without encroaching on fellow passengers,) would not the cost and service be fairer to all?

After all there are issues of passenger safety at stake. Would you be pleased if you were unable to reach the emergency exit because one of your fellow passengers was unable to extract themselves from their seat?

I feel safe posting this not because of the anonymity of the internet, but for the fact that those most likely to take offence would be unlikely to catch me as I run away.