Woman shares sad account of flying when you are overweight
A woman has given an account of the struggles she faces when she is flying due to her weight, urging others to be compassionate.
The writer, who goes under the name Your Fat Friend on Twitter, tweeted a thread about the preparations she must make before she flies and the vicious comments she receives from fellow passengers.
“So, I'm on a plane today. Here's what I did to prepare to fly as a very fat person,” she tweeted on Monday.
“I researched airlines for their ‘customer size’ policies, many of which reserve the right to kick me off the plane, even after boarding.”
“The rest require purchase of that second seat regardless of whether one is available. If I don't buy one in advance, I'll be charged the day-of price. Today, that's $800 one way," she continued.
“'I'm charged for that second seat regardless of whether one is available. I pay double for the privilege of staying on the plane.”
“Even if I buy a second seat in advance, the airline may still sell it to another passenger. If they do, I won’t be notified or refunded.”
The woman brought her own seat belt extender with her on the flight, however, sometimes they can be confiscated by the TSA in the US.
“I'm not worried about the embarrassment of asking for a seat belt extender. I know I'm fat," she said.
"I'm worried that hearing me ask for an extender will prompt others to complain. If they do, it starts a domino effect of trouble for me.”
The woman explained that if passengers complain about her, there is a chance that she could get re-seated, charged double or even escorted off the plane.
If she were to get kicked off the flight, she said there are still some airline policies that don’t include a refund or re-booking.
The woman revealed that in the past two years, 50 per cent of passengers in her row made a complaint about her size.
“No matter what happens, if someone complains, my body will be discussed loudly, with open revulsion, without regard for who hears it,” she said.
“As a very fat person on a plane, I am treated like luggage – a cumbersome, exasperating inconvenience. Inanimate and unfeeling.”
On one particular flight, the woman purchased a first-class ticket for $900 because the seats are wider and the amount was cheaper than buying two economy seats.
The woman could not fit the tray around her body so she was unable to do any work or eat the meal she had paid for.
And six years ago, she left in embarrassment after a man complained about her until he was moved.
“He got up several times to talk to a flight attendant, pointing angrily back at me. My stomach sunk as I realised what was happening,” she said. The agitated man claimed it was for comfort, highlighting that it would be better for both of them if he moved. However, the flight attendant explained that someone else would be sitting in that spot before he was moved to the seat in front.
“I spent the rest of the flight with my arms and legs crossed, humiliated and alone. No one spoke to me or made eye contact,” she recalled.
“The flight attendant didn’t speak to me, but gave free food and drinks to the others in my row – rewards for tolerating my presence.”
After that flight, the woman was scarred and wouldn’t go anywhere on a plane.
She later decided to return to flying as she loves her family, values her job and refused to let other’s perceptions dictate her life.
The woman’s penned her dreams about what could be done to spare her from humiliation, which resonated with many others online.
She explains that fat people are portrayed as being too loud and taking up too much space, which cripples her life more than others realise.
“In that way, air travel is sadly familiar, a microcosm of what happens so often as a fat person," she wrote.
“I am watched – and judged harshly – as I try and fail to fit into a space that was made for someone else. I am always too big, always too much, always unacceptable.”