Thanks for the detailed reply but it didn't really address the issues I hinted at. This Samoa airline has something like ten planes, don't think any that carry more than 19 passengers (most were 172s so that's three at most), and flies to maybe a half-dozen places. I'm guessing things are pretty laid-back and that check-in and boarding are done at the same place and that weighing a few passengers isn't really slowing anything down. "The scales will be at the ticket counter where you show up with your bags". There are a couple of reasons that will not work at US airlines with hundreds if not thousands of passengers at an airport at a given time:  Online check-in and bag drop is becoming a bigger thing, interaction with airline personnel are being reduced to mere seconds if not completely eliminated, so to do so would really gum up the works. People are both sneaky and do idiotic things. Make somebody weigh everything at check-in, they are going to have somebody else hold their carry-on while they check-in or just stash it somewhere, causing "unattended bag" security drills every five seconds. And because the airlines don't want to be the bad-guy and don't enforce carry-on limits, much of the traveling public has all of their baggage as carry-on in however many pieces they can drag. So now to add to the problem there is a potential w&b discrepancy to add to the mix if the airline trusts the figures from the scales to calculate (I realize that currently they are only estimating already).  So I don't believe placing them at check-in can work logistically, economically, or in reality. They would have to be at the point people are getting on the plane without being able to add things.  That means the boarding gate. With airlines trying to constantly get down to LUVs 25 minute turn time, and guessing that it would take at best twenty seconds per passenger to get on the scale, make sure billing info is set, note the weight, etc.. vs the current five seconds per passenger to scan a boarding pass, 100 passengers = 25 extra minutes (if I did my math right) which ain't happening. Not to mention adding scales at each gate. And making sure they are calibrated on a regular basis. And what happens when one breaks? So at the gates ain't happening either. Don't get me wrong, I think this is a fantastic concept, just not one I can visualize being adapted by major airlines anytime in the near-future.