Man Claims He Was ‘Kicked Off’ Flight, Called ‘Fatphobic’ After Complaining He Had Nowhere to Sit

A social media user claimed he was “kicked off” of a flight after complaining that an obese passenger beside him took up part of his seat.

A user on the social media site Reddit — who indicated he was 18 years old and had been taking a flight to his unspecified “home country” — posted an account of being forced to deboard a plane after alerting a flight attendant to his difficulty taking his seat. The user claimed upon boarding the plane, he found “an obese man … was taking up a good chunk of my seat.”

The user described himself as “not a small guy” and noted his height and “broad shoulders” make plane seats a tight fit for him even under normal circumstances. As a result, he claimed, having his neighbor’s large body encroach on his space made it impossible for him to take his seat. 

“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,” the user wrote. 

After he continued to complain, the user claimed, the flight attendant called him “rude” and “double[d] down on me getting kicked off the plane.” 

He also wrote that the obese passenger accused him of being “fatphobic” and that other passengers gave him disapproving looks.

The user complained that he had been unfairly penalized by what he interpreted as the airline’s policy of overbook but noted he was able to catch a different flight the next day.

Other users had mixed opinions about the alleged incident. 

Some users criticized him for how he broached the issue with the flight attendant, with one user writing, “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.”

However, other users wrote that they understood the original poster’s frustration.

“This guy knew what he was doing,” one wrote. “I’ve seen people book multiple seats to accommodate the space they are taking up.”

Others questioned the veracity of the story, with one user claiming the same user had posted and deleted another story involving an obese person just days before, leaving the commenter “wondering how accurate this story is.”

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