A PASSENGER has sparked a debate after she asked to be moved to an empty seat on her flight, after being allocated a spot between two plus-sized travellers.
The woman said she was approached by one of the people she was initially sat next to after the flight, who said she had embarrassed them with her request.
AlamyThe woman was sat between two plus-sized passengers but asked to move[/caption]
The problem arose for the woman on her flight from Las Vegas to New York, when she discovered that she was sandwiched between two larger passengers.
In a bid to make herself and her seat neighbours more comfortable, she asked a flight attendant if there was another chair free on the plane.
However, she was confronted by one of the people she moved away from in the airport after the journey, and accused of making them feel embarrassed.
The woman took to Reddit to ask others if she was in the wrong for behaving as she had.
She wrote: “My assigned seat was a middle seat, and both people next to me were plus sized.
“I wouldn’t have any problem with this in any other situation, but plane seats are terribly small and neither of my neighbours were able to fit comfortably into their seats.
“I explained the situation to a flight attendant as privately and gently as I could, and I asked if there were any other seats available.
“After I got off, the woman I was previously sitting next to was waiting for me.
“She essentially told me that I had embarrassed her and the other man and that traveling while plus-sized is hard enough without ‘people treating fatness like a contagious disease’.
“She also said that I made it a public demonstration to everyone that plus-sized passengers are an ‘inconvenience’ and opened the door to fatphobia on flights.
“I really didn’t mean for it to come across that way, but I can understand how it did and everyone on the flight saw me move, so now I’m wondering whether I should have just stuck it out.”
However, people were on her side and said she had done nothing wrong.
One wrote: ” If you were sitting next to me, I would be very happy that a solution was found that made everyone more comfortable.”
Another said: “This wasn’t you fat shaming. This was you looking for comfort. Her feeling uncomfortable was her problem not yours. You didn’t publicly shame her. You handled the situation extremely well.”
A third added: “I’m a plus sized person and I wouldn’t have been offended. Why should I make it uncomfortable for other people when there are other seats. That person has their own issues.”
Meanwhile, this plus-sized passenger revealed what it’s like to fly on certain budget airlines.
And another said that airlines are discriminating against certain passengers with the sizes of their plane seats and aisles.
AlamyThe woman was approached after the flight and told she’d made the passengers feel embarrassed (stock image)[/caption] Read More