An 18-year-old said he was kicked off a flight for complaining about an obese flyer seated next to him.
Taking to Reddit’s AITA platform, the teenager wrote that an obese man seated next to him took a good chunk of his seat, so he thought of complaining about him to the flight attendant.
“I (18m) was traveling to my home country. On my second connecting flight, which is also by far my longest one being over 12 hours long, I had the delightful sight of an obese man that was taking up a good chunk of my seat.”
“I am not a small guy myself. I have quite broad shoulders and am around 190 cm, so a full seat would already have been uncomfortable. I told the flight attendant about this issue and she told me that the seat was paid for by this obese person and the flight was full.”
OP added, “I asked the flight attendant how it’s possible that my seat still rendered as available if it was being used for someone’s literal rolls, as this wasn’t an American airline (non-american airlines don’t get overbooked).”
“I then added on how this airline wasn’t absolutely terrible just a few years ago (it wasn’t just this incident they just went downhill in quality).”
Listening to his blunt remarks about the airline, the flight attendant kicked OP off the plane.
“These comments prompted the flight attendant to call me rude and just made her double down on me getting kicked off the plane, though she reassured me I’d be compensated for this trouble as I told her I wasn’t traveling for vacation,” he said.
“The fat man took his opportunity to call me a fatphobic shit. Some other people around gave me the stink eye. I know they think I’m a bad person for this, but on the other hand I’m having to pay for the lack of discipline of another person as well as this shitty airline’s booking system. Hell I’d rather they called me the day before.”
The teenager said he received a letter saying he got appealed, and after a temporary ban of less than an hour, he was allowed to travel the next day.
“The airline staff sent a letter of complaint that I got appealed and the consequences in the complaint (being a temporary ban) were removed less than an hour later. In the letter of complaint, it said I was being rude to other passengers and the staff.”
“Since it got appealed so quick, and I got to travel the next day anyway, I’m really not sure if I’m TA.”
“AITA for my comments that have offended both the fat man and the airline staff?” he asked.
The post went viral on Reddit and received over 2.5K comments.
Most people in the comment section called OP a TA and said his behavior was unacceptable.
“YTA. Exactly. He would have likely gotten a very different response had he quietly approached a flight attendant to explain the situation and politely ask for a resolution. I’ve been in a situation where someone was taking up part of my seat as well, and it’s not a fun way to fly, BUT I handled it differently and received a refund on my flight, so Clearly, he’s TA,” one person said.
“Hard YTA. OP behaved like a massive jerk. The fact that the poor man knew you were complaining about him tells me you were loud and rude. You are also fat phobic how do you know there wasn’t a medical issue causing him to be larger?” a second commented.
“Yes YTA. Not for being uncomfortable and wanting your seat changed, but for how you handled the whole situation. You did not need to insult the man right next to you and the airline just to get your point across. All of that makes you TA,” a third added.
“YTA. You didn’t even have the decency to complain to the flight attendant privately, and wrongfully took out your frustration out on them,” said another.
Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
Source: Reddit
This happened to me and my husband…we had to share a seat and seat belt..the FA ignored us…but I complained and we got a refund
All I got to say about this is if I paid for a flight and I am flying for 12 hours and someone is taking up half of my seat and I am not comfortable the least the airline could do is give me another seat
This happened to me once. The lady couldn’t put down the arm rest nor wear the seat belt without the extender. She took up half my seat and I was stuck hugging up on the stranger in the window seat. She was wearing shorts and a tank top. She began to have nervous sweats (probably didn’t fly much) and drenched everything to include my seat. I quietly asked to move so her and I could be comfortable and was told nope flight was full, but I could get off. When we landed, the lady kept apologizing as my khaki pants now had a huge wet spot on them. I let her and everyone else get off aircraft. I told the flight attendant I was not a happy customer and that I PAID for a full seat and that they knew the lady couldn’t even put the armrest down. I was refunded only half my ticket price. I get larger people have a right to fly and not be shamed, but if they can’t fit in the space you pay for one ticket, buy two. Buying one ticket means you get one seat. He handled it wrong, but he was 100 percent correct in his rights. The airlines should refund the cost of the second seat if the flight is not full IF they buy two seats.