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Fame for weighty flyer
Source: Cairns.com.au
http://www.cairns.com.au/article/2009/02/06/27151_local-news.html
Matt Taylor
Friday, February 6, 2009
© The Cairns Post
AN overweight woman who made international headlines when Jetstar charged her for two seats on a Cairns flight, then booked them on either side of the aisle, has had the same bungle happen a second time.
Early yesterday, Samantha Scafe, who says her 160kg body has “taken a beating” through illness and the process of changing from a man into a transgender woman, discovered that Jetstar had made the same seating mistake again for her return flight from Coolangatta to Cairns tomorrow.
“You wouldn’t believe it, would you, but when I logged on to double-check my booking for the return flight, I was allocated to B and E seats,” IT expert Ms Scafe told The Cairn Post, which broke the story on Tuesday.
A Jetstar spokeswoman said due to a “system quirk”, it may have appeared the seats were split, but in fact she had been allocated seats next to each other.
Ms Scafe, who has lodged a complaint with the Queensland Anti-Discrimination Commission over the matter, said she had been overwhelmed by the response to her story, which yesterday made international headlines, on top of 30,000-plus hits and a stirring discussion on cairns.com.au.
Yesterday, she was interviewed live on American television on top-rating US breakfast show, Fox and Friends.
Ms Scafe was interviewed for more than two minutes, under the headline “Charging Fat Flyers More” and “Australian Airline Defends Practice”, referring to the 45-year-old’s catalogue of problems with the discount airline.
Much of the discussion on cairns.com.au has called for Ms Scafe to try to lose some weight.
However, she revealed yesterday she had several medical problems that made weight-loss virtually impossible and said she had already alerted Jetstar to her situation before last month’s booking.
She takes steroids and insulin for chronic asthma and Type 2 diabetes, and has numerous allergies.
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3 Replies
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Amanda I think this has the potential to be fairly divisive matter and have refrained from commenting after initially deciding to put in my two penny worth. I think maybe it should be stopped before people get hurt emotionally. It truly is a weight issue rather than a TG matter.
June
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It may be a divisive topic and there may be extenuating reasons for obesity…at the end of the day people need to to take responsibility for themselves. Anyway you never hear the full story…obesity is a lifestyle thing, not a TG thing or a prescription drug problem at all. This is is an obese person who just happens to be transgendered.
Having sat next to obese people on planes I think them having to buy two seats is probably fair enough. On flights they have generally been loud, obnoxious and demanding.
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Point taken – I was only reporting the news coverage and not trying to start a debate. If you look at the blog on the cairns web site it is not exactly supportive.
Thread locked to avoid it becoming a topic of debate here as well.
