Airline hits back at Aussie woman's rant: 'Wedged between two obese people'

An airline has responded to an Australian-American woman’s Twitter tirade about being “wedged between two obese people” on a recent flight — but it’s not the response she was hoping for.

Sydney Watson, a political commentator who now lives in the US, documented her “uncomfortable” three-hour American Airlines flight, which she claims left her “shrieking internally”, in a series of online posts on Tuesday.

“I am currently — literally — WEDGED between two OBESE people on my flight,” she wrote.

“This is absolutely NOT acceptable or okay. If fat people want to be fat, fine.

“But it is something else entirely when I'm stuck between you, with your arm rolls on my body, for 3 hours.”

Pictures posted by Ms Watson show her rubbing shoulders with the passengers, who she claimed were siblings.

“I don't care if this is mean. My entire body is currently being touched against my wishes,” the political commentator continued, arguing that if a passenger needs a seat belt extender then they are “too fat to be on a plane”.

“I can't even put the arm rests down on either side because there's no f***ing room.

“I’m sick of acting like fatness to this extent is normal. Let me assure you, it is not.”

Ms Watson said she offered to move so the siblings could sit together, but the male passenger responded “no, that’s okay” while smiling.

“And then I started shrieking internally,” she wrote before tagging American Airlines on Twitter.

The airline was quick to respond, publicly rebuffing Ms Watson’s complaint.

“Our passengers come in all different sizes and shapes. We’re sorry you were uncomfortable on your flight,” American Airlines said.

Angered by the company’s reaction, Ms Watson reiterated that she had just “been subjected to hours of no personal space”.

“And your response if essentially ‘too bad’? Is that what I’m getting here?” she said, to which the airline said it would “follow up internally” and asked her to send a private message.

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Woman's flight rant sparks backlash

While numerous people agreed with the political commentator’s gripe, others slammed her for being “fat phobic” and asked why she didn’t book an aisle seat or a first class ticket.

Ms Watson said a company who flew her out booked the seat, and when she went to change it there were none available.

“What class of ticket did you pay for? Seriously, if you don't want to be treated like a sardine, you have had to pay for that,” one Twitter user commented.

“Seriously, though, what do you want them to do to remedy your situation?” another wrote.

“What your experienced wasn’t nice. However, maybe you would have got a better response from the airline had you not been so publicly nasty to other clients of theirs,” a third person commented.

“You are right where you belong. I feel sorry they have to sit next to such an ugly person,” a fourth added.

In a follow up post, Ms Watson said she had been targeted by online trolls in the wake of her Twitter posts going viral.

Yahoo News Australia has contacted American Airlines for comment.

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