Airlines enforce hard weight limits on checked bags, and charge you if you go over. But they don’t charge extra for very heavy passengers, even though passenger weight matters just as much for the plane’s total weight as bags do – and jet fuel is expensive.
An influencer claims, therefore, that “skinny” passengers are being forced to “subsidize” heavier passengers. She calls it “weight redistribution” and “discrimination” and she proposes a single total weight allowance for each traveler. Your ticket comes with a certain amount of weight, and it’s up to you how to distribute that between your body, carry-on and checked bag.
Skinny people should be allowed to bring heavier luggage onto flights the cause I’m really passionate about because you’re telling me that my luggage was 51 pounds and you’re like oh that’s overweight, oh that’s overweight
I dare you to say that to the person who’s next to me on my flight who is 400,000 pounds overweight but no no you won’t do that because this is weight redistribution. This is what the left’s trying to do they don’t want people to be skinny.
You should just have a total weight allocation that you’re given for your flight could be on your body or in your luggage or in your carry-on, but you do what that’s your business.
This is discrimination and I will not be silent in the face of it.
Airlines need to institute total weight allocation
Healthy people subsidize the morbidly obese everywhere pic.twitter.com/oUGuBnQMvc
— Arynne Wexler (@ArynneWexler) January 30, 2026
Unsurprisingly, this seems fairly popular in internet comments for the same reason Indian philosopher Osho criticized democracy. People feel like this seems “fair” and that pay by weight is a simple fairness standard, since “a pound is a pound.”
Of course, people aren’t going to want to weigh in at the check-in counter (no more app check-in until the app can reliably weigh you) or the gate (slowing down boarding). And it’s awkward to disclose your weight to counter staff.
In any case, checked bag fees and limits aren’t primarily about fuel so the cost here isn’t the issue. And this is meant as culture war bait not a serious proposal. (It worked.) But while we’re at it, this ‘conservative take’ actually hurts men most since they’re on average heavier than women.
- A major reason for bag weight limits is risk in bag handling and wear on baggage systems. There’s special labeling of bags over 50 pounds and 70 pounds is generally an upper limit per bag. Nobody is carrying passengers onto the plane, or if they are they’re using specialized equipment.
- Fuel isn’t the biggest driver of ticket cost. It’s about a quarter to a third of airline operating costs, depending on the direction of oil at a given time. Most airline costs aren’t driven by passenger or checked bag weight. And airlines don’t price seats off marginal cost in any case (for any given flight in the short-run, willingness to pay matters more than cost). The subsidy claim relies on passengers paying their marginal cost but that’s not how pricing works.
- Baggage fees are a revenue tool, and a tax arbitrage tool (moving money out of the fare and into fees saves airlines on the 7.5% excise tax on domestic fares). They aren’t going to give that up in the name of fairness to thin women.
There are a number of reasons we don’t really see airlines charging passengers by the pound. For instance, the Air Carrier Access Act prohibits discrimination against passengers with disabilities. If weight is linked to a medical condition (e.g., obesity tied to a disability), charging more could be viewed as discriminatory unless the airline can show it’s a legitimate safety or operational necessity. Even without a medical disability, a weight-based policy could disproportionately affect certain demographic groups, potentially opening the door to claims under civil rights laws.
Now, airlines actually do weigh passengers from time to time, but that’s about regulatory compliance and validating passenger weight averages for fuel and balance calculations.
Ultimately I think the framing here is wrong that overweight passengers are taking advantage of the airline, and that other passengers should be able to bring more checked bags. In reality, the conflict is airlines sell a seat, but some passengers don’t fit in the seat. So they take up part of another passenger’s seat. The issue with larger passengers is when they directly impinge on the comfort of others, which is why I do think passengers should be required to purchase the amount of space on the aircraft that they need.
I’m so over influencers thinking we care about their opinions. Shut up, get out of your mom’s basement and get a real job.
Social media may just be *the* worst thing to ever happen to society.
Large structures people have limited control of their weight. Small minded influencers have no control of the little weight their little mind has. If the USA would follow Spain in limiting online access to the children, just maybe this small minded dribble would go away.
I can see the ads now. You can now weigh up to 500 lbs with the Citi AAdvantage Executive World Elite Mastercard!!!!
they are not wrong.
Airlines nickel and dime passengers for other things but there is a flat rate for passengers with a potential range of hundreds of pounds for what is carried at the same ticket price.
other studies show that just US airlines could save hundreds of millions of dollars per year in fuel costs because of the popularity of GLP 1 weight loss/diabetes drugs. Those drugs are an investment in better health and an improvement to society as a whole
Nobody is gonna mention that, the ramp agent doesn’t lift passengers, but they lift passengers’ bags?
Not just weight, but volume.
Ah, yes. Skinny white women – the true victims in society.
We could save millions of tons of airline fuel by banning influencers from flying altogether. No one needs a Tiktok of you making duck lips in a hotel lobby.
Have to agree with Denver, the volume is a key factor. It can’t be ok to sell a coach seat to a passenger so large that they suffocate the person in the adjoining seat.
Gotta punish the pregnant passengers and grandparents with lap kids too!
The influencer is partially correct. Carry on bags should be included with the passengers’ weight, particularly on Qantas and Air France, which weigh carry on.
A weighty decision indeed.
If you are so big you have your own zip code, you might want to find a coupon for Jenny Craig.
If your field of gravity is pulling satellites out of orbit, you should be paying a gross tonnage surcharge at the airport.
What are the benefits – personally and/or in society – of being obese? None that I can think of. The worse things about having to “share” your bought for seating space with obese passengers is- they run hot and because they infringe upon your seat space touching you, you have that overly hot body part rubbing against you for the duration of the flight – and – they sweat and you have part of your body being forced to endure that sweat that is transferred to you where their flesh touches you. There should be a chart depicting when one exceedes the parameters of size on the chart – one has to pay for two tickets/seats. Thjis is only common sense.
It’s easy to tell the fat people in the comments.
@Travelgirl — Jobs? In this economy??
Since the smallest passengers who have to have their own seats are small children that cannot be carried on laps, maybe they should be the deciding factor on seat size. What fits them snugly would be one seat wide. Then all others would have to buy two seats or three seats or more. (sarcasm)
The guff from the woman is because she wants everyone to conform to her standards. As she gets older she will probably get heavier and then she would still want everyone to comply with her standards at that time. If we apply her standards to voting and money, those with a lot of money would have a lot of votes and those with little money would have one vote, if even that.
@jns — “If we apply her standards to voting and money…” as if we aren’t already living that reality. Probably should ‘do something’ about that. (Non-violent, of course. Always.)
Once again, cameras on cellphones were a mistake.
I fit quite well in any airline seat. I am not overweight or “big”. My neighbor (who travels extensively) is incredibly fit. He is 6’4″ and weighs 220. So he should be penalized for being fit and in shape? I agree with all the comments questioning “influencers” They are this generations muck rakers. BTW I don’t use any social media so I don’t know who any of these people are. Social Media will be the death of freedom in this country!
Ah yes, the myth about the rich buying all of the votes. If we combine that myth with the myth of the rich are all Republicans we come to the conclusion that the election was awarded to the wrong candidate in 2020. Myths gone wild.
We should make baggage in human shape. It might be cheaper to pay for an extra seat for a 200lb baggage in the shape of a human rather than check it in.
I have a better idea: let airlines charge an additional fee to those with stupidity levels as that of the so call influencer, i.e. parasite.
Influencers don’t say cruel things about people’s weight.
In the event of an emergency please remain in your seat. You will not fit through the emergency exit. If you fall all pax behind you will be unable to evacuate the aircraft.
Thank you
About not fitting through an emergency exit:
Things that never happened for $800, Alex.
Pay-per-pound seems highly acceptable to me. Background: I was once one of those “skinny people” and I truly loved airline travel. Loved it! In the last couple years I gained weight/size, significantly. I notice I fit into the seats tightly, and I always cross my fingers the person seated next to me will be a “skinny”.
Regardless, moving companies charge by size/weight. Cargo shipping does also. Livestock by weight. Trucking by weight. Garbage dumps charge by weight. Storage units charge by size. Houses are priced by size. Weight-loss shots are priced far higher than other preventive medicine. Is that discriminatory against fat people? No, that’s capitalism.
Air traffic should definitely be priced per pound. I read Gary’s comments of “baggage charges pay for equipment & extra-handling”. That is true, but it is also VERY TRUE that the cost of moving any specific plane across the sky varies by only thing: on-board WEIGHT (which determines the gallons of jetA needed to transport that weight at the set altitude).
I don’t think everyone should be allotted, say, 250 lbs. That means the “skinny me” would get to bring 150 extra pounds of luggage, while the “fat me” only gets a 40-lb bag. And some tall men would be banned. RATHER, I think a simple price-per-pound is appropriate, and reflects the actual transport cost. No weight LIMIT. We all would get a seat, a drink & a snack — no discrimination. But we’d pay for what we are costing the transport company (airline).
“Influencer”…another name for a numbskull know-it-all. The sad thing is that lots of people actually believe most of the drivel spewed out of these “influencers”.These “influencers” have their opinions, most of the time served without any facts. Opinions are like ***holes. Everybody has one.