Ryanair seat belts & mean passenger

[Lacacahuete]

It’s sad to see so many people worrying about seat belt sizes, some almost to the point of cancelling their holiday.

I’m 176cm tall and since my early thirties I’ve fluctuated between a UK size 16-20 due to various reasons. At any of those sizes, I’ve never needed an extender when flying.

Today I flew on Ryanair and I was sat in the very last row window seat.
As I got to my row, there was a woman in my seat, I guess waiting to see if anyone would take it. I asked if I could have my seat and she got out. I got in and fastened my belt and noticed it was the tightest I’ve ever felt a Ryanair belt. I have never needed an extender and only a few months prior I’d travelled on Ryanair and had four inches spare on my belt.

This time my belly was sort of cut in half, but I was so tired I just put up with it and sank into my seat.
The woman next to me kept looking over at me. I wasn’t spilling over onto her, nor was I using the armrest but she seemed so irritated with me and my body.
I ignored her, but then later in the flight caught her looking again. I had my headphones in but nothing playing and she started saying stuff like ‘look at that, I can’t imagine being like THAT’ to her boyfriend next to her on the aisle seat. She actually pointed at my belly. Then when I looked at her she stopped but wouldn’t make eye contact. She wanted me to feel bad and I wondered if it was all because I asked her to move out of my seat?!
After that she seemed to spread out more and put her elbows over both armrests, and stuck her book and bottle down the side of the seat so they pushed onto me on my side.
She obviously has her own insecurities.
As I was tired and unwell I chose not to engage, but a few more times she was looking me up and down.

It was such pathetic, awful behaviour from a grown woman of at least 35. I felt so upset, I was trying to not sleep so I could make sure my legs and body were not near her, crushing myself up into the corner as much as possible.
After we landed I took my belt off and had a really bad muscle pain.

I feel sad this I let this dumb idiot bother me when I wasn’t even in her space.
I’m posting here because I want others to not feel shame in asking for an extender, and also to ask slimmer travellers to think before they make comments or looks at people.

Who knows what a strangers body has been or is going through. I want to lose weight and am active, but operations I’ve had make it harder.

I’m probably being overly sensitive but i also deserve peace and space. I hope that anyone reading this in a bigger body can stand up for themselves better than I did.

Also, WTF Ryanair!

No, it’s not any kind of rule.

Yeh this is pretty much what my partner said! It’s true, it could have been anything.

But it’s still the same point. Even if OP was a supermodel, what makes it okay to slag her off for anything just because she’d sat in her own seat? It’s nothing to do with her being pissed off about the seat, it’s just an awful thing to do whether she’s saying she’s overweight or has a big nose or unflattering clothes. Why should OP take the brunt of her pissed off-ness? She should have just fumed quietly but instead she’s released her bitchiness into the world making OP feel less than. She doesn’t know what effects those comments had on her. If she’d have commented on supermodels big nose that she was already self conscious about it would be the same. This is about a bitch making people feel small.

It wasn’t a problem she was using the armrest. My bad if my initial post said that. It was more to say I wasn’t using it / near it and she had space.

I agree with this comment about people projecting. Some of the nasty comments I have received (not that many) have been about them not me.

I normally now say ‘are you ok? I’m a bit worried about you - everything ok?’

our neighbours is pickly and snappy but it’s her not us. She’s just pretty aggressive and snappy. Eg we drill for 5 minutes on a Saturday afternoon and she is moaning saying ‘it’s my peace and you are been drilling inside for 5 minutes’ yet it’s fine for her workman to make a racket for 5 hours yesterday whilst we are trying to work from home. But she’s is like that and it’s more about her and what she is going through, she’s looking in and not considerate. But she’s just moved as her husband left her and she got a divorce and she’s very raw.

Imagine encouraging someone to LIE about having ovarian cancer....Ridiculous!

OK. rule is probably not the right word.

Custom.
Courtesy.

But there's plenty - and you're obviously one of them - who don't observe these little niceties that make bring crammed into an aeroplane a little bit less awful for everyone.

Some people are just shitty. You had the bad luck to be stuck next to one. Try not to let her shittiness get to you. She's most definitely not worth it.

Think how you would like to respond if it were to happen again, and practise the scenario in your head. Then you may feel able to respond if it were to happen again. Visualisation is a powerful tool.

Oh you were serious? I thought you were being sarcastic!

if you make up stupid things in your head. Then it shouldn't come as a surprise when people don't comply!!

@Lacacahuete

I'm sorry she was horrible.

you were silly not to have asked gif an extender & caused yourself pain.

you need to stop saying you've never used an extender as some kind of brag.

people carry their weight differently. I've used extenders. I'm short.& carry my weight around my tummy right where the seatbelts go. My friend who I've travelled with loads weighs a lot more than me, she is 'bigger' everywhere else (shoulders/arms/legs) so doesn't need the extender. We just have different shapes , neither 'better' than the other.

& yes, seatbelts vary when needed & when 'trimmed'.

Oh, I'm pretty certain she made sure OP could hear her. She wasn't talking about her, she was talking at her.

She was an absolute cow, of course.
Ryanair seats are the smallest/tightest ive ever flown on. I was in the window seat recently and tbh did feel crammed in by the man next to me even though he wasn't particularly big.

If you fly with them again might it be worth going for an aisle seat so you've at least got a bit of room to one side? Also means you can get to the loo if needed -I imagine nurse mcbitch would have huffed the house down if you'd had the temerity to ask her to move.

I know you have to pay to choose a seat but if you arent bothered about which section of the plane you sit in from what I recall the cheapest options were only about £8

Why didn’t you just get the extender?
You knew from the off that the belt didn’t fit, presumably long before this woman made any comment at all? She was a bitch, but she’s not to blame for you sitting there with a belt that didn’t fit for the entire flight?

I mean that people who are habitually nasty to other people are often very unhappy with themselves too. You just don't hear their inner dialogue where they beat themselves up.

A psychiatrist once summed it up to me by saying that people are a bit like baths with the tap running. If you walk past a bathroom with an open door, all you notice is the tap running. But you don't know if there's an inch of water in it, or if the bath is almost full and about to overflow. Some people have their bath permanently almost full and it doesn't take much to spill over.

Nothing to add but I totally agree about the Ryan Air seatbelts. I am a 14/16 and on the last Ryan Air flight I was on it was a tight fit when it never has been before.

If the seat belts get frayed they do cut them down in size and repair them - hence they are not as long.

This happened to me on our last Easy Jet flight and I had to ask for a seat belt extender. I have never ever had to ask for one before but the belt was visibly shorter.

No. Don’t lie about having ovarian cancer.

Oh yes, Ryan Air are known for their luxurious planes with a choice of spare seating if you don’t like the one you booked or the person you’re sat next to 😀. They’re also know for their super helpful and customer focussed staff.

It’s not about luxury though, it’s about addressing a rude and discriminatory customer. I’m sure if I could be bothered to go through their website, I would find in their policy that it’s unacceptable behaviour.

In the time it took you to accuse me of making it up, you could've quickly googled and avoided making such a tit of yourself.

This is just one of many, many artcles on the subject. https://www.forbes.com/sites/garystoller/2024/01/28/armrest-who-gets-it-inflight/

As I said earlier, there's always a 'me, me' me' contingent who refuse to follow along with this sort of thing but it's ridiculous to suggest that I'm the only person to have ever observed it.

What an awful person, she can't be happy in her own life to treat people so badly.

I can believe this. I’m a size 12 and the seatbelt was snug last time I flew Ryanair.

I dont know how anyone can know that about the passenger, yes they could be considered rude but no one except them knows what thry were thinking

I put it same as 'they are just jealous' an equally childish response

Her behaviour was shocking! No excuse for it and I hope you never feel like this again.

I really hope airlines bring in the option to purchase wider seats in the way there are extra leg room seats for the comfort of everyone.

Please dont beat yourself up about not saying anything OP. You to a calculated decision based on the fact that you were on your own, confined space etc - no easy way to deal with any fallout if it had escalated into an argument.

Instead, comfort yourself with the fact that you are clearly a nice, well mannered person who knows better than her. She probably has a mean life and doesn’t know what she’s missing if you can be nice to others.