Saturday, March 29, 2008

Airline discrimination falls under fire

If someone told me years ago that airlines would be allowed to get away with this, I'd have my doubts. But here we are.

Only in the past 3 years, airlines in the U.S. have begun the discriminatory practice of requiring passengers to pay extra if they happen to be "of size." (How's that for society advancing backwards?) Southwest Airlines is the most unashamed culprit in this greed, though other airlines occasionally enforce a similar policy.

Now the Canadian government has a new rule saying airlines in that country can't charge extra for customers who are "overweight" or disabled. Although this regulation doesn't apply to U.S. carriers, it's sparking efforts to enact a similar rule in the U.S. (which currently lags behind Canada).

This might not have ever been an issue if the airlines would have offered seats that were the right size in the first place. But Southwest declares it has no intent to mend its ways. The corporate world is always short on progress and long on greed and excuses, so I'm not surprised.

(Source: http://www.kypost.com/content/middleblue3/story.aspx?content_id=32cc276c-0e8f-4e9d-b357-85d894ccf339)

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