Leave it up to the crazy cats in Philly to create the world’s first airline whose ticket prices are based your weight: Fly Derrire-Air.
I actually heard about the airline earlier in the week during a news update on a local radio station. I did miss the beginning of the news read, but I heard that the airline was “offering seats with pricing based on your weight”. “What a concept!” – was my initial reaction. We’re just another form of freight and, lately, I have been treated like a brown, cardboard box strapped in a seat by every airline I fly. Why should I pay the same amount as a guy twice my size? UPS and FedEx work that way, why not public transportation? Then, I thought about it a little more. I figured it would only be a day or two before the first discrimination suit was filed against the airline.
Now, this concept isn’t new. Maybe 10 or 15 years ago, I did hear about hotels who ran promos for “rooms by the pound”. Many were pushed to stop due to unfair pricing practices.
Sorry to be a buzz kill, but all of you lawyers need to stop and wipe the drool off your keyboards. It is all a hoax. Our good friends at the Philadelphia Inquirer – online at Philly.com – generated the whole concept to "demonstrate the power of our brands in generating awareness and generating traffic for our advertisers, and put a smile on people's faces,” according to Philadelphia Media Holdings spokesman Jay Devine.
The company said they will track traffic to the Derrie-Airsite and Devine also blurted this key phrase - “there's already a buzz about the campaign on online blogs.”
The keyword is “online” and this little experiment validates the media shift that we have been witnessing for the past three or four years. Jay, I'm one guy with a big smile.
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