A travel blogger who documents her holidays says companies should 'do more' for plus sized people after going viral on social media. Kirsty Leanne - who founded plussizetraveltoo - has amassed a whopping 24,000 Instagram followers, @kirstyleannetravels, and 50,000 TikTok followers, @kirstyleannetravels.
She shares tip and tricks she learned on her trips to help “plus size babes travel the world with confidence". Tips include everything from getting a seat belt extender on planes to finding the best seats with more leg room.
But, Kirsty recently went viral for calling out the travel industry and claiming that airlines need to do more to help plus sized people travel comfortably, reports the Daily Star. In a TikTok video, the 29-year-old showed her flight from London Stansted Airport to Hamburg, Germany with Ryanair.
The clip garnered 1.9million views and over 6,000 followers. She captioned the video: “Flying Ryanair with no upgrades.”
Kirsty then documents the process by showing the seat she is assigned, how much legroom she had and having to ask for a seatbelt extender. The travel blogger was sitting next to an empty seat so moved herself over to the aisle.
However she then showed that the tray table was a “big fat no” as it got stuck on her stomach and couldn’t sit fully flat. Kirsty then documented that bathrooms were “also a no go” and she didn’t use it as it was too small so she waited until she got to the airport.
The influencer noted: “Door opened fully rather than in half making it difficult to enter or exit the loo." In the comments, Kirsty added some extra context and said: “Wow, okay. So this got way more views than I thought and I think people missed the point entirely.
“I’m sharing my experience as a plus size person on Ryanair so others can see what it’s like but yes… I do think airlines should do more to be accessible for plus size people. That doesn’t mean I’m blaming them for me being fat. It’s pretty simple.”
Some viewers criticised the plus size blogger for her video. One person said: “This is like saying my jeans are too small for me it’s Levi’s fault for not making them bigger.”
While another added: “Just pay for extra legroom seats its not so expensive only 6$ more and way bigger seats.” A third wrote: “Honey it's not the airline's fault.”
But, Kirsty maintains that she was simply documenting the experience to show what flying is like for plus size people. She said: "One of the reasons I did the Ryanair video was because I had loads of requests asking me to make a video for a Ryanair flight which have been known for having smaller seats et cetera.
"I hadn't paid for an extra seat, or a seat with extra legroom or pay extra to choose my seat because I believe we should all be able to travel on a budget and not have to pay for extras. Also, if you pay for an extra legroom seat by the emergency exits, you cannot have a seatbelt extender."
Kirsty added that many people were unhappy with her video, but that she was simply being honest about the experience, reports the Express and Star. She said: “If something is small, I'm going to call it small, I'm not going to dress it up for something else. Airlines should be doing a lot more for plus-size travellers.”
