Ok we’ve all had to deal with them But I never quite know how to. I was on Qantas which flies from Sydney to Dubai and after a rather irritating and brief stopover decants people at Heathrow at some awful hour of the morning. It’s never a comfortable flight and I am frankly too mean to pay for business class. My disability means I can’t use an exit row so I choose seating as intelligently as I can.
With the new A380 configuration I opt for an aisle seat in the centre bank of seats, That way only one person gets to climb over me during the flight and I have access to the aisle. I am not a small person I have long legs and excruciatingly painful knees. I am not a wimp.
But when short blokes sit in the seat in front of me, push their seat back to the maximum for the entire flight even though it is obvious I am having difficulties, when they put their seat back when they have finished their meal, not after food service is finished and when they bounce in their seat to get comfortable, it is not funny. I was in a lot of pain but couldn’t take pills as it is best to be compos mentis when going through Customs, I’m ex Immigration and like to look like someone my host country would welcome. At Dubai I used the wheel chair because I was having trouble walking, and it must have gotten through because he sat upright till London. But really passengers, try to hobble a bit in our shoes. Less of the eye rolling and snorting when we need to lean on your seat to walk down the aisle and maybe let us have a meal, watch a movie and be a normal person for a part of the trip. And if, like this inconsiderate git, you are not tall, stop pretending. Disabled people do not travel on discounts, treat us like people. Thank you so much I really do feel better for having got that one off my chest!