Why Are Airlines All of a Sudden Thinking About Weighing People?
The last time I took a trip on an airplane was in February 2020 when I got "flewed out" to San Diego for a YWCA USA national training conference. Getting past the TSA gates was relatively easy and worry-free because I was only staying overnight and didn't bring a lot of luggage. No one on our flight had to worry about getting weighed before we boarded the plane.
Traveling by airplane has certainly changed a lot since February 2020. It was the final month before the COVID-19 pandemic essentially brought the airline industry to a near-screeching halt. Travel by plane options is starting to pick back up now in droves, especially since most Americans have been infused with doses of cash by way of stimulus checks and states across the country have lifted their face-mask mandate restrictions.
Texas has even been affected by the sudden changes in airline travel post-COVID. The Tyler Pounds Airport currently still only offers nonstop flights to Dallas (DFW) via American Airlines. I could certainly throw in some puns about "pounds" and the Tyler airport, but I won't. (At least not today!)
If you are a plus-size person and are putting on the Quarantine 15+, watch out for airlines to start weighing you. This cruel practice is a result of nosy busybodies in the Federal Aviation Administration who will not only have certain passengers be weighed before boarding, they will also add ten (10) pounds to our weight because of clothes and shoes.
The reason we might have to get weighed is that the airline industry thinks most passengers have gained about 20 pounds since the COVID-19 pandemic. This means the weight allowance for airplanes has to be adjusted, even though some airlines have implemented the "block a middle seat" option. If planes start to get full again and everybody has generally gained 20 pounds, then that means fewer people will be able to fly on a plane at a time. This could result in the cost of plane tickets going up for everybody. I am definitely not looking forward to that. I suppose I'll be sticking with flying to Burbank on those cheap Avelo Airlines flights!
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