‘YOU’RE TOO BIG’: AIRLINE STAFF GET TAPE MEASURES OUT AHEAD OF FAMILY’S BUSINESS CLASS FLIGHT
Mother, daughters ‘too big’ to fly business class
An Auckland woman and her two daughters were traumatised after Thai Airways staff said they were “too big” to fly business class.
Huhana Iripa, 59, and daughters Renell, 28, and Tere, 37, were accosted with measuring tapes before their Bangkok to Auckland flight. Crew said seatbelts would not fit around them.
Iripa said the experience was “horrific” and feels she and her family have been discriminated against because of their body shapes, which at the time ranged from size 22 to 26.
“We were utterly humiliated in front of all the other passengers. We went up to business class check-in and the member of staff on the desk looked at us and said ‘sorry you can’t’.
“The next thing, there were about five members of staff all around talking in their native language, shaking their heads and looking at us as if we’d committed a crime. A staff member then came forward and started saying ‘no, you’re too big, you’re too big’.
“She then pulled out a measuring tape and wrapped it around my daughter Renell, moving her arms outstretched, before trying to do the same to me and Tere.
“At this point, I broke down in tears. Everyone was just standing staring at us. The whole thing was disgusting.”
Social worker Iripa had gone to Thailand to support her two daughters as they underwent weight-loss surgery, and had each paid $2650 for flights including business class seats on the way back to ensure greater comfort. She said their original economy journey to Bangkok with Thai Airways had gone smoothly but they were refused the business class seats on the return flight and moved to economy.
“I’ve never felt discriminated against before because of my size, so this experience left me completely in shock,” Iripa said.
After the ordeal, Iripa and her daughters complained and were offered a meeting with two representatives from Thai Airways.
The family asked for a full refund of their business class seats, but were offered only the difference between the economy and business class price which amounted to $1250. The airline apologised and offered $450 in compensation, but Iripa and her daughters believed this was simply not enough and requested the full balance of the tickets as recompense.
After being contacted by the Herald on Sunday, Flight Centre — the travel agency the family had booked through — offered a full refund.
Thai Airways made headlines in 2018 for banning “fat people”. They disallowed those with waists bigger than 56 inches (142cm) to fly in their new Dreamliner 787-900 business class seats — the aircraft type the Iripa family were travelling on. The reason for this is the seatbelts have airbags in them and for safety reasons the seatbelts cannot be extended.
Iripa was not told at the time of booking that plus-size passengers could not fly business class.
Flight Centre general manager product Victoria Courtney said: “I was shocked to hear of Huhana’s experience. We have apologised to her directly and refunded her in full. We are now reviewing our processes to ensure this doesn’t happen again.”
Thai Airways International New Zealand spokesman Wayne Cochrane said: “The new 787-900 Dreamliner aircraft is fitted with integrated airbag seatbelts in business class. The extension seatbelt normally used to accommodate oversize passengers cannot be fitted to the airbag seatbelts; therefore passengers not able to fit the standard airbag seatbelt cannot be carried in business class.
“As this issue involves passenger safety, I am sure you will understand that we cannot compromise on this.”