Rather than fight that, getting to know the person next to you will hopefully alleviate some of the awkwardness, letting you make the best of the situation. The fact is airplanes are not made with people of size in mind. Getting to know the person next to you adds a human element to the situation, and now the person who was potentially a source of discomfort is someone you know, and therefore less likely to a be a source of frustration, discomfort, or embarrassment. Moreover, communicating with your seatmate is also a great solution, especially if there are no other seats available. Keep it discreet and have that chat in the galley - out of earshot of other passengers, so as not to offend anyone or cause someone any further discomfort - and ask if they know of any other available seats you might be able to move to. Communication is key, so talking to your cabin crew is always a good bet. If that doesn't happen though, there are a few things you can do, regardless of which party you are. Hopefully your crew are on the ball and able to move someone, eliminating the need for anyone else to ask questions that could be potentially embarrassing. Shuffling passengers around, like what happens when families get seated separately, is a routine part of our job and this is just one more circumstance in which we might have to do that. So what should you do if you find yourself in this potentially awkward situation? First and foremost, I sincerely hope that your cabin crew possesses enough situational awareness to assist discreetly, without being asked, so that nobody is made to feel uncomfortable, hurt or unwelcome. Still, I am never quite small enough to make anyone else comfortable."Īs part of the cabin crew, my job, of course, is to keep you safe, but it's also just as important to me that all of my passengers are comfortable, regardless of their class of travel, mileage-club status, or even size. I must make myself smaller and smaller, reducing and reducing endlessly, my stubborn body resisting at every turn. I am always too big, always too much, always unacceptable. I am watched - and judged harshly - as I try - and fail - to fit into a space that was made for someone else. " In that way, air travel is sadly familiar, a microcosm of what happens so often as a fat person. This quote from her beautifully written piece poignantly illustrates the feelings that many passengers of size feel when they fly: The author of this article on Quora discussed the sense of angst that passengers of size feel as a result of being forced to travel in ever-shrinking seats. So, while we all like to have a little space next to us when we travel, especially in the way of an empty seat, what happens when that seat is occupied by a "passenger of size" - or, when you are that passenger of size, and there's someone in that seat who you worry isn't comfortable?Īs a flight attendant, this is a situation that I've seen all too often, and one that is increasingly being talked about on social media and in the press. Not only that, today's economy seats would make even a kindergartener feel pressed for space. Nowadays, airlines optimize their business by trying to match frequency with airplane size, which means planes, more often than not, are full. Long gone are the days of half-empty 747s flying between New York and LA, when passengers milled about in plush piano lounges and sat in economy seats wide enough to comfortably accommodate Catherine the Great and her horse. Here, she explains how you can best deal with this potentially awkward situation, whether you're the passenger of size or the person sitting next to them. We came across this provocative article on Quora ("What it’s like to be that fat person sitting next to you on the plane") and asked our very own Flight Attendant Insider, Carrie A.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |