Friday, December 16, 2005

Weighty issues!

This post on India Uncut got me thinking on a slightly different note.

Airlines have a weight limit for baggage. This is, obviously, to reduce load on the aircraft. Now, say I weigh 60 kg (ah, there, you know now!), and my baggage weighs 10 kg. The total load on the aircraft due to me is 70 kg. Now if you weigh 80 kg (Relax, its just an example!) and your baggage weighs 10 kg, you cause the aircraft to be heavier by 90 kg! And that is gross injustice to me!

So to make up for it, they should have a weight limit which is [passenger weight + baggage weight]. For example, say the total limit is 100 kg. Then I can carry 40 kg of baggage and you can carry 20 kg. How's that? :)

[100 kg is just an example! Coz I have no idea what you could do if you weigh a 110 kg!:)]

19 comments:

Sri Harsha said...

Well tht's why there is a thing called "Factor of Safety" (F.O.S, reminds me of my engg. ) to take into account all these stuff.

:-)

Shruthi said...

Yes I am sure there is FOS :) But my point is, why should the overweight person and me be allowed to carry the same weight? It is unjust ;)

Sri Harsha said...

Hmmm...there are some things which are the way they are...(sounding philosophical??!!)...

Anyways...have pity on there "heavy" souls... :-)

( No pun intended @ the obese)

Unknown said...

I think Vijay Mallya of Kingfisher Airlines will agree
cause he is a little bit on the heavier side :)

Shruthi said...

@Harsha: :)

@Abhay: Yes, and Mallya has made up with his air-hostesses who are just the opposite! ;)

Global Indian said...

I second the idea. I was only 140 pounds, less than the average weight here. And I had to pay for 20 pounds of extra baggage. This is just a week back.:(

Mr. J said...

Yep, luggage weight is kinda a big pain right now. And add to this the weight of the person. I've seen it all....Maybe we should go back to old fashioned bullock carts..

Anonymous said...

Hindustan Times, in a front page story titled "Shape up, Air India tells cabin crew", carried this information:

The A-I cabin crew are divided into three categories. Those from Punjab are in the first category and are allowed a 5-kg weight relaxation. Those from Maharashtra and Gujarat fall in the second category and are also allowed a little deviation in weight. The rest fall under the third category with no weight relaxations.

All the three categories have to conform to different weight parameters depending upon determinants like age, gender and height.

Shruthi said...

@Ravi, Supremus and Me: Good you agree with me.. lets start a movement :p

@SloganMurugan: I did not get the logic behind that! :-?

Anonymous said...

:) Thanks for your comments. I do not not know if there is actually aplace called Halle bengaluru near kodigehalli. I lived most of of my life in Jalahalli which is close by, so I guess it is a place that is no longer there, as the name suggests.

I'm not a kannadiga, i speak malayalam at home but since i lived all my life in bangalore, before shifting to Mumbai a few years back, I guess i can consider myself one.

Anonymous said...

There is no logic behind that. It could be read the way u wnt : for instance Air India is racist. Punjabis get away by being overweight, perhaps.

Sri Harsha said...

SloganMurugan....dude...r u kinda a screw loose case!

First get u're english right man...do u really know wht racism is?

Shruthi said...

@Harsha: Relax, Relax!
SloganMurugan's first comment was in reply to my comments on HIS site! So in context to that, it makes perfect sense to me :) If you read it without a background, I am sure it looks like he is crazy :))) YOu should visit his site - its good.
And as for his "racist" comment, it is in context with his comment above - ok maybe "racist" is not a very apt word out here - but what is the correct word?

Sri Harsha said...

Oooops....my apologies.

@shruthi: His tempalte kinda turned me off from reading the whole blog!

See...it kinda irritates me when people bring in the role of caste/sect/race/regionla bias into evrery issue.

Though i must add tht....my outbursts here are totally unnecessary.

Shruthi said...

@Harsha: I can understand your irritation! There is too much of it nowadays.. sometimes it gets jarring! Though I dont really think that SM had any such ideas when he mentioned this topic! Anyway, Peace! :)

Anonymous said...

Sri Harsha,

My mistake. I forgot to mention that I was replying to another conversation with Shruthi about a post on a different blog.

anumita said...

This is such a brilliant idea! Why didn't I think of it?

Raj said...

Yup, thats how it should be but I think extremely fat people have to pay for two seats in some airlines. Thats some justice.

Anonymous said...

The problem is that it's the cargo hold that has the weight restrictions, not the passeger compartment. There is a maximum weight the cargo hold can carry. Airlines make a bunch of money moving around other peoples cargo - your luggage is a gross inconvinience to them.

It doesn't really matter if you weigh 40kg or 140kg, you only get a small section of the cargo area for your luggage. Unless you are willing to put 50kg of cargo in your lap for the whole flight, you won't be able to put more luggage in the cargo hold.

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