Plus-size travel influencer who wants free extra seats for fat fliers says airport worker refused to push her up jet bridge in wheelchair because of her size – and forced her into walk that left her wheezing for oxygen

A plus-size travel influencer claims she was discriminated against by an airport worker who refused to push her in a wheelchair because of her weight.

Jaelynn Chaney, 27, shared her experience with a wheelchair assistant on a jet bridge after a recent landing at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.

“My ordeal at SeaTac Airport will shock you,” Chaney, from Vancouver, Washington, said in a TikTok. Chaney, who can walk, then talked about how she requested wheelchair assistance on a recent flight, as she always does.

However, Chaney claims that when she tried to leave the plane, the employee who was supposed to help her started walking away when she realized she was supposed to be helping the plus-size woman and not one of the smaller passengers.

The travel influencer said that as the employee walked away with the wheelchair, she commented about her size. Chaney — who previously demanded free extra seats for fat fliers, subsidized by slimmer passengers — says the ordeal left her gasping.

“Even when I told her I really needed the seat and that she should let me sit in it, she blatantly ignored me and kept walking,” Chaney complained in the dramatic TikTok – which showed her walking down the aisles of a plane.

“I was then forced to walk onto one of the longest jet bridges I have ever encountered and she didn’t stop,” the 27-year-old continued in her rant.

By the time Chaney was finally allowed to reach the wheelchair and sit down, her lips were white, her oxygen levels had dropped and she nearly fainted, she claims.

According to Chaney, the employee discriminated against the plus-size woman by assuming she could walk and not pushing her onto the jet bridge.

“Silence is no longer an option,” Chaney said of the “discrimination” she faced. “If you’ve dealt with something similar, you’re not alone.”

She continued, “Discrimination is real, and I don’t want anyone else to ever experience anything like this.”

Users in the comments were quick to show their support for the 27-year-old. “I’m so sorry honey,” one person wrote.

‘Send positivity! No one should be discriminated against because of their body or abilities,” wrote another.

Chaney also used the experience to promote her plea for airlines to give free extra seats to fat fliers who might not fit into a standard airplane seat.

She says the ‘size passenger’ policy provides basic human rights to fat people – but previously conceded that fares for short passengers may have to rise to cover the cost of paying for the extra needs of overweight travellers.

This was the travel influencer’s first time traveling without oxygen and he uploaded a TikTok to document the experience.

Chaney uploaded a video to her TikTok channel of herself proudly sitting on a flight without her breathing aid.

She explained to her followers that she previously needed supplemental air to ensure she could breathe comfortably in the pressurized airplane cabin.

At one point in the video, Chaney holds up her seat belt and smiles as she shows how much it has been extended.

Chaney, whose TikTok account has more than 135,000 followers, shares her concerns in a large flyer in the background of the video.

Dramatic music plays and Chaney ponders, “What if I have a medical emergency on the plane?”

Then she asks, “What if I cause an emergency landing?”

But she stops herself and announces, “No, forget that. Whatever they say and whatever it looks like, traveling is for everyone.’

The video then shows Chaney being driven through an airport gate to the plane.

Chaney is then shown in her seat, where she shows how far her seat belt is loosened.

The TikTok ends with a close-up of the great influencer’s grinning face.

In her caption, Chaney explains the context of her flight and talks about how she has relied on “supplemental oxygen” while flying for the past four years.

“It all started in 2019 after a hospital stay where they suspected I was having a stroke,” Chaney wrote.

‘It turned out it was pulmonary hypertension, and since then I have needed oxygen therapy. Traveling just wasn’t the same anymore.’

She said she went “from chasing waterfalls in Hawaii” to “doing everything so differently.”

After doing intensive research, the influencer landed on portable oxygen concentrators.

‘I shared my discoveries online, thinking this would become my new normal.’

But Chaney found portable oxygen concentrators “a no-brainer.”

She said using the device was “expensive, stressful and downright scary.”

Her recent flight was the first time in four years that she flew without an oxygen concentrator, an experience that left her “anxious and scared.”

‘But guess what? I did it, and it went better than I could have imagined,” she wrote triumphantly.