A woman opened up how she was accused of 'embarrassing' a 'plus-sized' passenger after changing plane seats due to the woman sat next to her 'being on top of her'.
Unfortunately, the debate of plus-sized passengers on planes has been rife online as of late, with many being divided over whether or not they should be purchasing more than one seat to ensure the comfort of those sat next to them.
But this one woman has taken to Reddit to explain her recent predicament involving two plus-sized passengers on a flight she was on, asking her fellow Redditors if she was the a**hole in the situation.
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Taking to the infamous 'AmITheA**hole thread', the 19-year-old woman started by explaining she was flying from Las Vegas to New York and was sat in a middle seat between two larger passengers.
"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," the young woman explained.
She carried on: "On either side of me, my seat neighbour’s shoulder was on top of mine and their thigh was on top of mine as well.
"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."
The Redditor was able to be moved a few rows back, and while it was initially awkward when she moved, she insisted the rest of the flight was fine - well, that was until it was time to get off.
Apparently, one of the women she was originally sat next to confronted her for 'embarrassing her and the other man', saying 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 woman finished her post by explaining she really didn't mean for it to come across that way, but how she can now understand how it did and 'everyone on the flight saw me move'.
She also called out the 'fatphobic' comments that the thread was unfortunately flooded with, saying: "The blatant fatphobia in the comments isn't helping anything or anyone. Cut it out. I posted this to get some insight on if and how I maybe could have handled the situation better."
But many rushed to the poster's defence, with some self-described plus-size passengers insisting she wasn't in the wrong.
One said: "As a bigger person, I don’t want to invade other people’s space if I can help it. I’d be glad for the extra wiggle room, but also happy for OP that they were able to find a more comfortable seat. NTA."
While someone else pointed out: "As a person of size myself I agree with this... The way you handled it was fine and respectful.
"They should have been grateful because your actions helped everyone, them included.
"More comfortable for the flight. I wish more people would be respectful and discrete as you were and NTA at all."
Topics: Travel
Emily Puckering