Samoa Air charging passengers by weight, not per seat. Brilliant!
Back in 2006 when Air New Zealand introduced new baggage controls on domestic flights I had quite an email ‘discussion’ on the matter of weight (excerpt below) and passengers.
They said the new charges were to control fuel use, efficiency, not gather revenue and I argued they were penalising average mass passengers. Irrespective of your size you pay extra for more than 20kg luggage:
Air New Zealand’s Weight Problem - RobiNZ Personal Blog 11/2006
“Air NZ allow 20kg luggage then charge $5kg over that which is fine except…
I weigh 68kg which means if the gross weight of me + my luggage exceeds 88kg I start paying. According to the CAA the average passenger weight is 85kg so Mr Average sitting beside me doesn’t start paying until his gross weight is over 105kg. That’s hardly fair but the answer is simple:
Since the aim is to control weight, not increase revenue, in future I’ll be asking for my $85 ($5x17kg) discount when I fly Air New Zealand or taking 17kg extra luggage.”
They weren’t very keen on that saying it would be "discrimination” to charge by this method. Seemed to me at the time they were happy to discriminate against those with lesser body mass but not greater.
Anyway, todays report that Samoa Air have gone even further and dropped “per seat” airfares entirely in favour of charging by the kilo (total mass of passenger and luggage) had me cheering. Bravo Samoa Air, you’ll get my business whenever the opportunity arises!
Charging passengers by weight makes Samoa Air 'more efficient' - One News | TVNZ
There has been a mixed reaction to Samoa Air's controversial policy of passengers paying for what they weigh.
Fly by weight, parcels do, why shouldn’t we?
Samoa Air - www.samoaair.ws
Introducing a world first: 'Pay only for what you weigh'!
We at Samoa Air are keeping airfares fair, by charging our passengers only for what they weigh. You are the master of your Air'fair', you decide how much (or little) your ticket will cost. No more exorbitant excess baggage fees, or being charged for baggage you may not carry. Your weight plus your baggage items, is what you pay for. Simple.
The Sky's the Limit!
PS: Also quite happy that after drifting nearer to 75kg over the years I now weigh the about the same as I did in 2006! No special diet effort; just a bit of biking, dog walking and snacking on fruit & vege between meals rather than junk.
