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Japan Airlines lays on extra plane after sumo wrestlers make too heavy to fly

theguardian.com

31–40 of 44 posts

Re: Japan Airlines lays on extra plane after sumo wrestlers make too heavy to fly

#31
post #28
post #16

> forcing JAL to lay on an additional service for 27 wrestlers I've never seen "lay on" used this way before, but from context I take it to mean they added another plane. According to Mirriam-Webster "lay on" is used by the British to mean "hire" (as in the opposite of "lay off") and I suppose this is a similar use. -- U.S. English speaker.

as a UK English speaker I'm not sure I've ever heard "lay on" used to mean "hire" as M-W claims, and the OED doesn't seem to list that as a sense. The usage in this sentence is the sense the OED defines as: "To provide for the supply of (water, gas, etc.) through pipes from a reservoir; to provide (a telephone line). Hence, to make arrangements for, to provide (refreshments, entertainment, transport, etc.)" and which…

The most common usage I can think of is "they laid on a great spread" which would mean a fantastic buffet was provided.

Northern England native.

Re: Japan Airlines lays on extra plane after sumo wrestlers make too heavy to fly

#32
post #25
post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

i've also never understood how a xxs clothes was the same price as an xxl one

It's the same with kids clothes. I think the labour and overheads are dominant - the cost of fabric is probably only a small fraction of the cost of clothes.

It is more about how much people are willing to pay for the clothes and how an SKU nightmare it would be to base price on size + how easy it is to switch adhesives barcodes. Some people are expert at that.

Re: Japan Airlines lays on extra plane after sumo wrestlers make too heavy to fly

#33
post #10
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Their point is that the seats are not sized to 'common people'. At the very least I'd say it's likely a not-small portion of American adults are larger than common airline seats want them to be.

If airlines increase seat width to accommodate overweight, no of seating in aircraft will go down, which will lead to increase in per seat pricing, in effect healthy people will be subsidising overweight.

It decreases seating less than you might expect. Seating on an aircraft is usually limited by the number of emergency exits rather than actual dimensions.

Re: Japan Airlines lays on extra plane after sumo wrestlers make too heavy to fly

#34
"the passenger lists included sumo wrestlers, whom they estimated weighed an average of 120kg – far more than the 70kg average, the Yomiuri said."

Sheeeesh, an average of 70kg sounds low. But then again the average reported weight in the USA is 181 pounds, or 82kg, which ALSO seems low.

Re: Japan Airlines lays on extra plane after sumo wrestlers make too heavy to fly

#35
post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I buy 1 plane ticket, I expect 1.0 of a seat. Not 0.7 seats, nor 0.9 seats. Exactly 1 seat, no overhang, no getting squished. No invading the seats airspace. Exactly 1 seat.

Okay, and how do you define a seat exactly? Because what is a seat for one person is half a seat for another or two thirds of a seat for the airline. There is no universal definition for what a seat size should be, so your comment is just hot air and doesn't add to the discussion. Even more so when pricing is so malleable and disconnected from actual physical dimensions of the plane and its interior.

> Okay, and how do you define a seat exactly?

One seat on a plane is exactly one seat on the plane. This is not some abstract thing that is being talked about here.

Re: Japan Airlines lays on extra plane after sumo wrestlers make too heavy to fly

#36
post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I buy 1 plane ticket, I expect 1.0 of a seat. Not 0.7 seats, nor 0.9 seats. Exactly 1 seat, no overhang, no getting squished. No invading the seats airspace. Exactly 1 seat.

If you're twice the width compared to a regular person, then that's just not feasible.

Then you need to buy two seats.

Re: Japan Airlines lays on extra plane after sumo wrestlers make too heavy to fly

#37
post #10
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Their point is that the seats are not sized to 'common people'. At the very least I'd say it's likely a not-small portion of American adults are larger than common airline seats want them to be.

If airlines increase seat width to accommodate overweight, no of seating in aircraft will go down, which will lead to increase in per seat pricing, in effect healthy people will be subsidising overweight.

[flagged]

Re: Japan Airlines lays on extra plane after sumo wrestlers make too heavy to fly

#38
post #26
post #2

Pacific Island communities have to do this because of pretty severe weight issues with light aircraft and (without over-stating it) some beyond XXL local residents. People get hinky, but I think I'd rather get on an aircraft which understood it's risk exposure to overweight than not. Whats utterly crap is the way large people are hounded into expensive seats on specious "it's your lifestyle" reasons: If aircraft seat…

> Whats utterly crap is the way large people are hounded into expensive seats on specious "it's your lifestyle" reasons: If aircraft seating dimensions cannot accommodate people then just like the ambulance services, they need to adapt to the weight profile of the community they serve. Airlines, like other companies, serve their owners, not the community. If the community wants to compel the company to do something,…

Which is precisely what people are trying to make happen at the snails pace of the us justice system. Government being captive to the industry, using weak safety obligations as a get out clause.

https://www.reuters.com/legal/us-court-hears-challenge-lack-...

Re: Japan Airlines lays on extra plane after sumo wrestlers make too heavy to fly

#39
post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Okay, and how do you define a seat exactly? Because what is a seat for one person is half a seat for another or two thirds of a seat for the airline. There is no universal definition for what a seat size should be, so your comment is just hot air and doesn't add to the discussion. Even more so when pricing is so malleable and disconnected from actual physical dimensions of the plane and its interior.

> Okay, and how do you define a seat exactly? One seat on a plane is exactly one seat on the plane. This is not some abstract thing that is being talked about here.

You're the one who said a wide person has to buy two seats in a comment above. Then we must define what the dimensions of a seat are to know what we're tealking about.

Re: Japan Airlines lays on extra plane after sumo wrestlers make too heavy to fly

#40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Okay, and how do you define a seat exactly? One seat on a plane is exactly one seat on the plane. This is not some abstract thing that is being talked about here.

You're the one who said a wide person has to buy two seats in a comment above. Then we must define what the dimensions of a seat are to know what we're tealking about.

> Then we must define what the dimensions of a seat are to know what we're tealking about.

Why? We are buying a seat, not inches. But since you insist, here: https://seatguru.com/charts/generalcharts.php

How does this information move the conversation forward?

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