Is This Weight Discrimination?

When Okamoni Fa tried to book a flight to make his uncle's funeral, he was told he would need to book an extra seat. Unfortunately for him, the flight was full and there were no extra seats to be had. Mr. Fa never got his flight and as a result missed the funeral. (Full story here.)

The article makes no mention of Fa actually claiming discrimination, though he is understandably upset about the outcome. This is by no means an isolated incident however. Airlines have been imposing these types of regulations for awhile now. Just this past April, United Airlines instituted a new policy, that mandates the same thing. Our neighbor to the north took exception to these trends recently, ruling that obesity is a disability and therefore the airlines have to give the overweight an extra seat for free.

Is this really discrimination? Or is it a reality that people need to face? From what little I know about planes, it makes sense from a profit stand point. After all, a plane can only carry so much weight. If one person, buying one ticket, weighs as much as two, then the airline is out a ticket price. Making them buy that extra ticket ensures the airline makes the money it would otherwise. Assuming that the plane was full of course. On the other hand, if obesity really is a disability, don't the airlines have an obligation to make them accessible to everyone without added cost?

The thorn is, as always, deciding whether obesity really is a disability or not. I'll dive into this in the next post.