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!

OP, next time just say 'I'd rather be fat than a nasty bully like you' 🤷

I've no patience for people like this. They need calling out.

I'm perplexed by people saying OP is acting like a victim/is over reacting. Would you say that to a child if someone acted like that towards them? Op's feelings are valid, and this woman was being hurtful. Normal people keep those sort of thoughts in their head.

I don’t doubt it but it’s utterly ridiculous to suggest that going down the aisle to see the stewardess would result in them finding you somewhere better to sit.

Agree.

“They’d have moved you somewhere nicer” is just

You don’t ask, you don’t get 🤷🏼‍♀️

Seat belts are critical safety equipment and are intended to be installed or removed as one unit. If you have actual first-hand evidence of an airline that cuts and repairs belts as policy then please tell us, so we can avoid flying with them (as goodness knows what other maintenance procedures they are skipping).

@breakfastdinnerandtea 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

I never wrote that it was okay. I never wrote it was acceptable. It’s not. BUT you are always going to get people like this. Knowing it’s not okay and unacceptable is not going to magically wipe them from the earth. So, you need to deal with them without the victim mentality. You have a choice not to let people make you feel small.

Not What I said though, I was commenting to the poster who said all the OP had to do was toddle off to the front and they would be reseated somewhere better.

Your opinion of me is very wrong, but it doesn't concern me one bit. 🤣🤣🤣

*aisle.
Of course Ryanair just move people. What if the plane was full ?

ask someone else to move, that always goes down well

She is a very unhappy person

I’m really sorry you had that experience

If you know you found the right person (ie you got a photo) there’s nothing wrong with contacting her if you want - an note pointing out how unpleasant she was being might make her behave ever so slightly better next time

Well the OP felt unwell and has health complications, we all feel vulnerable sometimes - it doesn’t mean we have a victim mentality

There is the option. It’s called business class.

How would op have gotten a photo?
She would be very ill advised, not to mention cowardly, to track the woman down via an illicit photo (assuming she took one).
The time to tell her what she thought was when she was actually sitting beside her, and she didn’t do that.