On Wednesday, Joe and her husband were returning from Greece on an EasyJet flight to the UK. The lady, who had requested a seat near the window, decided to change it because hers was near the toilet. To do so, she simply intended to swap places with her husband. But she hadn’t expected the remark the steward was going to make to her.
“I’m just switching places with my husband,” she told him. The latter then retorts: “Oh Madam, no, it is an emergency seat, people who need more space cannot sit there”. “Oh, that’s great, thank you for this information, I don’t need it,” she finally replied, settling in her man’s place.
Joe explains the scene in a video posted on TikTok. “I don’t know how I didn’t burst into tears. I think four rows of people on both sides of the plane heard it, turned around, looked at me and I was like, ‘Yeah, that’s me, I’m fat, thank you very much’, that’s it what I thought in my head.
The lady had not requested an extension for her seat belt. “I didn’t need it, damn it!” Even though I’m fat, obese, morbid, whatever you want to call it, and I’m overweight, I’m aware that there was a good quarter inch left on my waistband, so there was plenty of room.” , she insists.
EasyJet reacted to this video by stating that “the safety of our customers is our crew’s top priority and whilst it is important that all customers in an emergency exit row are made aware of the safety restrictions in place for these seats, we are very sorry that Ms Bartholemew felt that this was not communicated in a sensitive manner”.