A “plus-size” travel influencer says an airport worker in Seattle refused to push her in a wheelchair when she saw how large she was. Forced to walk up the jetbridge herself, she nearly fainted due to a lack of oxygen.
Plus-Size Passenger Saus Airport Worker Refuses To Help Her In Wheelchair, Forced Her To Walk, Leaving Her In Desperate Need Of Oxygen
I’ve written about 27-year-old Jaelynn Chaney before, a travel influencer on TikTok who went viral for suggesting smaller passengers should subsidize larger seats for passengers of size like her.
> Read More: Passenger Of Size Demands Larger Seats On Taxpayer’s Dime
In her latest post, she shares of an incident that took place at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SEA) after her flight:
My ordeal at SeaTac Aiport will shock you. This experience I’m about to share with you is yet another example of why employee sensitivity training…is desperately needed.
I’m a plus-size wheelchair user and on a recent flight to the SeaTac airport, I requested wheelchair assistance, as I always do.
When it came time for me to deplane, I saw the employee who would be assisting me with my wheelchair waiting for me in the entry of the jet bridge. As l approached her and she realized she’d be assisting me and not one of the smaller passengers she started to walk away with the wheelchair while making comments about my size.
Even when I told her I really needed the chair and needed her to let me sit down in it she blatantly ignored me and kept walking. I was then forced to walk up one of the longest jet bridges I’ve encountered and she didn’t stop.
By the time she let me reach the wheelchair and sit down my lips were white, my oxygen levels had dropped, and I almost fainted. This was my first time flying without oxygen.
This woman first assumed I could walk and would rather me do that instead of her having to push someone my size up the fet bridge. All the other attendants wheeled their passengers up the jet bridge but my needs were disregarded.
This is discrimination. NoBODY should be treated this way.
@jaebaeofficial Wasn’t sure when I’d share this, but staying silent isn’t an option anymore. If you’ve faced something similar, you’re not alone. Discrimination is real, and I don’t want anyBODY else to ever experience something like this. I don’t plan on stopping the fight for change in the travel industry and beyond. EveryBODY deserves respect and dignity, regardless of size, ability, or any other factor. Let’s stand together to ensure equality for all. • • • #BodyEqualityInTravel #TravelForAll #AccessForAll #PlusSize #PlusSizeTravel #FlyingWhileFat #TravelingWhileFat #FlyingWhilePlusSize #PlusSizeTravelPetition
♬ Sad song by piano and violin(886018) – NOVA
I don’t believe that we should coddle the overweight by offering them one or two extra free seats, as Southwest Airlines does, but that’s not all the point of this story. Here I am outraged, but outraged in defense of Chaney.
> Read More: On Empathy And Compassion, Concerning Passengers Of Size
First, it is shameful if this woman was abandoned by an airport worker because of her size. I realize it might be difficult to push someone so large in a wheelchair, but that does not mean she can just be left to fend for herself. Indeed, if I were her attorney, I’d be exploring litigation. Also, if she truly could not walk the jetbridge (and it appears she could not), she should have refused to move at all until a wheelchair was brought to her. I don’t blame her for that, but just because a specific airport worker acts like a jerk does not mean you have to walk if you cannot walk.
But more importantly, this is a woman whose presence on social media is geared toward “fat positivity” and embracing plus sizes. I hope that this incident will push her to more soberingly confront that she cannot travel without oxygen or walk more than few feet without stopping to catch her breath. This is no laughing matter and this is not scorn: her weight and lifestyle are crippling and for anyone who thinks that they can be proud of a body like that, just look at her panting for breath and requiring a portable oxygen tank when she travels.
CONCLUSION
Folks, it is unacceptable that an airport worker would determine that a woman did not need wheelchair assistance: that is simply wrong. But please wake up: Chaney is on a path toward very premature death and that is nothing to be proud of. I hope that the airport worker is held accountable. But I hope that Chaney uses this incident to even more aggressively transform her life in a positive way. Her current body, as we so clearly see in this story, is nothing to be celebrated. I wish her great success in changing her lifestyle.
image: jaebaeoffical / TikTok
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