Woman sparks outrage after claiming skinny people should pay less for flights

A woman has taken to Mumsnet to share how an airline charged her for an overweight bag – but she argued the total weight of her and her bag was less than her friend travelling with her

A woman has been slammed for suggesting passengers should be weighed alongside their luggage when travelling on airplanes. She explained how she was forced to pay out for an overweight bag – but argued this was unfair because she and her bag weighed less than her friend travelling on the same flight.

Taking to Mumsnet, the woman wrote: “I was charged excess for my hand luggage as it was over a certain weight – that’s absolutely fine. The combined total weight for myself and my cabin baggage was approximately 69 kg. My friend wasn’t charged because their luggage wasn’t overweight – yet the combined total for them and their luggage was over 90kg.”

Although the woman paid the excess, she argued that thin people should have more leeway when it comes to the weight of their luggage because their body weight is lower – therefore using less fuel to travel than a heavier person.

She added: “My friend joked about how unfair it was. Surely it would be fairer to use the combined weight of traveller and cabin luggage to determine and excess fees due?”

While most users shared their shock over the woman’s “disgusting” suggestion, others slammed the woman for “fat shaming” and pointed out how she failed to consider how height, medical conditions and disability can all impact a person’s weight.

One user said: “Should my wheelchair be weighed too? How about a family with a baby who don’t pay for the baby under two-years-old but get to take a pram?”

Another user added: “Let me knock six inches off my height… maybe a leg or two? Or you could just pack less?”

A third user said: “I genuinely think if passengers were required to be weighed before travelling, a lot of them wouldn’t bother. I certainly wouldn’t be standing on a scale in front of anyone.

“When it comes to people suffering from any kind of disordered eating like myself, I’d think that public weighing (and shaming in this case, i.e. airlines charging you for being overweight), it’d make travelling impossible.”

One more user added: “If you genuinely think like this please give your head a big wobble – a big wobble.

“Should we then charge pregnant women more? Women carrying twins even more than that?

“What about people with thyroid issues, or people of certain ethnicities who naturally carry more weight around their middle and bottom?

“Should we incentivise eating disorders by letting the skinniest fly more cheaply?”

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