Today, I want to share about two unethical practices by airplane companies.

It is well known that in some countries, esp in Europe that is much cheaper to travel by airplane than train.  Airplane is faster and convenient.  I would like to start off with my own experience. Last summer I visited Italy.   My last stop was Venice and I am leaving off from Rome. So I bought a airplane ticket online  from Venice to Rome. The price of the ticket is extremely cheap, it is like 40 mins, 35 dollars.  I knew before that in Europe how cheap the airplane ticket is but when it came to me, I just could not believe… I never think about there is any ‘extra charges”.  So my friends and I dragged our big luggage to the airport.  When we do luggage check in, we were notified that everyone passage could only check in one luggage and there is a weight limit. I was like, Ok then I will drag one luggage with me and backpack then( I have two small luggage). The at the security place, the women there let me in. Yet, before we on board, there came to the airport people, saying  one person could only carry one luggage, you are carrying two right now.  I was very angry because when I went through the security place the lady there just let me in..how come??? Anyone, I ended up paying another 55 bucks for my luggage.  It is quite hilarious that me as a person, costs 35 euros.  and my luggage took 55 euros.  Later on i was checking the airplane ticket and then I found a small line of words, like extremely small words at the very bottom of the ticket saying that one passenge on luggage…

I was very unhappy about the hidden fees from the airplane company. It is their scheme to print the luggage policy extremely small. It was their intention to have you neglect those words.. Why we should be pay for it? My lesson is never trust those cheap airplane ticket, there must be some hidden fees behind it.

So today, I was reading a piece of news from the Times, one really caught my attention.  The article is about that a airplane company called Samoa is going to charge passengers based on their weight!  The price is $4.16 kg for 1 kilometers.  I feel this is very unethical. The charging policy holds a strong prejudice for over weight people.   Why people who are fatter have to pay more?  It is reasonable to consider the question from a fiscal and practical point of view, but this practice can not be accepted it is http://newsfeed.time.com/2013/04/02/samoa-air-to-charge-passengers-by-weight/ against humanity in general.  Not only I think this is ethically wrong, but it will also cause lots of unnecessary troubles for the company. For example, if this pricing policy got approved, everyone passenge had to stand on a scale to measure their weight before onboard? But most people buy their tickets before they came to the airport, then does that mean when you purchase the ticket you would have to report you weight at the same time? Then people can lying in such issue.  In the end, I think this charging passengers based on their weight is unpractical and very stupid.

Reference: http://newsfeed.time.com/2013/04/02/samoa-air-to-charge-passengers-by-weight/