So I have avoided a airline seat for about 5 years. Then here's this story.

what do you guys think?

http://now.msn.com/living/0313-overweight-airline-passengers .aspx

Personally, I'm torn about this. Weight is weight if its a suitcase or a belly/ass
It costs more to fly heavy air planes, but I'm not sure how much it actually costs.

 so this arguement I think is bogus now I do agree with the Southwest Policy (kind of).  If you encrouch on the seat next to you then they charge you for a second seat.  Where I think airlines would or do fail with this policy is they still try and shove someone into that seat.  If I pay for 2 seats I am entitiled to 2 seats and the airline is not entitled to double their profits off the same seat.

While I agree in theory, in practice airline seats are too small for almost everyone these days. That's not just saying people are larger, but seats and seat pitch, leg room, head room, etc is all shrinking.

I am all for being fair, however it's time the airlines treated customers like people rather than like cattle. If they can sell me more leg room for $40-50 a flight segment, they can afford to set the panes to accommodate some larger passengers without screwing them around.

Off of soapbox now.....

 Ok, so if we bring my 30 pound nephew on the plane and he takes up a full seat, he still pays 1/6 of what I pay right?

Or if we have a flight of folks that are "little people" that would throw the curve right?

The "incremental" cost of passenegers is actually pretty small in fuel usage vs flying empty I suspect... the plane itself (plus fuel) is a majority of the weight.