A Plus-Sized Airline Passenger Called Out A Woman For A Seat Swap & Many Say She Did It Right
She was accused of being fatphobic.
Seats inside an airplane.
Uncomfortable travel-related situations not only occur inside the airport when tourists lose it over flight delays or cancellations but also when airline passengers look for a seat swap or board the plane only to get kicked out afterward. Recently, a woman was called out by a plus-sized passenger for changing her seat during a long flight.
Reddit user u/throwawayonaplane shared a story in the AITA subreddit about the awkward situation she went through during a flight from Las Vegas to New York.
The 19-year-old traveler said she was assigned the middle seat inside the airplane and that two plus-sized passengers were next to her during the flight. The Redditor added that the seats were "terribly small" and that neither of the passengers fit comfortably into them.
"On either side of me, my seat neighbor’s shoulder was on top of mine, and their thigh was on top of mine as well," the Redditor wrote. "It was a pretty long flight and was kind of uncomfortable, so about an hour and a half through, I walked up to the flight attendant and explained the situation as privately and gently as I could, and I asked if there were any other seats available."
After the flight crew found an empty seat a few rows behind where the woman was originally seated, the Redditor said she went to get her bag to move, which, she said, was a pretty awkward situation.
Once the flight landed and the 19-year-old got off the plane, the woman that was initially sitting next to her was waiting for the Redditor.
"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," the Redditor added.
Many platform users consider the woman did the right thing and don’t believe she was ever rude for changing her seats.
"You did not make a 'public demonstration' nor contribute to fatphobia in any way," one Redditor commented. "You weren’t comfortable, and you discretely asked for another seat. She’s an AH for saying that drivel."
"NTA. Her anger is misdirected," someone else wrote. "She can go ahead and be mad at the airlines for not accommodating people of her size, but it’s a perfectly normal human response not to want to be touching someone you don’t know and to take steps to make that not happen."
Before you get going, check out our Responsible Travel Guide so you can be informed, be safe, be smart, and most of all, be respectful on your adventure.