A plus-size travel influencer claimed she was discriminated against by an airport employee who refused to push her in a wheelchair because of her weight.
Jaelynn Chaney, 27, recounted her experience with a wheelchair attendant on an airlift after a recent landing at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.
“My terrible experience at SeaTac airport will surprise you,” Chaney, from Vancouver in Washington, said in a TikTok. Chaney, who can walk, detailed how he requested wheelchair assistance on a recent flight, as he always does.
However, Chaney claims that when she attempted to disembark the plane, the employee assigned to help her began to walk away when he realized he was supposed to help the plus-sized woman and not one of the smaller passengers.
The travel influencer said that as the employee walked away with the wheelchair she was making comments about her size. Chaney, who had previously demanded free extra seats for fat passengers subsidized for thinner passengers, says her ordeal left her breathless.
Chaney, 27, recounted his experience with a wheelchair attendant at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.
“Even when I told her I really needed the chair and to 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 an airplane.
“Then they forced me up one of the longest airplane bridges I’ve ever encountered and she didn’t stop,” the 27-year-old continued in her speech.
When Chaney was finally allowed to reach the wheelchair and sit down, his lips were white, his oxygen levels had dropped and he nearly passed out, he claims.
According to Chaney, by assuming she could walk and not push her off the jet bridge, the employee was discriminating against the plus-sized woman.
The travel influencer said that as the employee walked away with the wheelchair she made comments about her size.
When Chaney was finally allowed to reach the wheelchair and sit down, his lips were white, his oxygen levels had dropped and he nearly passed out, he claims.
“Remaining silent is no longer an option,” Chaney said of the “discrimination” he faced. “If you’ve faced something similar, you’re not alone.”
She continued, “Discrimination is real and I don’t want ANYONE else to experience something like this.”
Users in the comments quickly showed their support for the 27-year-old. “I’m so sorry darling,” one wrote.
‘Sending positivity! “No one should be discriminated against because of their body or abilities,” wrote another.
Chaney also used the experience to promote his push for airlines to provide free extra seats to obese travelers who may not fit in a standard airplane chair.
She says the “size passengers” policy gives basic human rights to fat people, but has previously admitted that fares for thin passengers may have to increase to cover the cost of paying for the additional needs of overweight travelers.
This was the travel influencer’s first time traveling without oxygen and he uploaded a TikTok documenting the experience.
Chaney also recently uploaded a video to her TikTok channel in which the plus-size influencer proudly flies without her portable oxygen tank for the first time in four years.
Chaney explained in the video’s caption that he had been traveling with an oxygen machine since doctors at a hospital suspected he had suffered a stroke.
Chaney uploaded a video to her TikTok channel that shows her proudly sitting on a flight without her respirator.
He explained to his followers that he had previously needed supplemental air to ensure he could breathe comfortably in the plane’s pressurized cabin.
At one point in the video, Chaney lifts his seat belt and smiles as he demonstrates how far it is extended.
Chaney, whose TikTok account has more than 135,000 followers, narrates his concerns as a plus-size steering wheel in the background of the video.
Dramatic music plays and Chaney ponders: ‘What if I have a medical emergency on the plane?’
Then he asks, ‘What happens if I cause an emergency landing?’
But she stops and announces: ‘No, forget it. No matter what they say or what it seems, traveling is for everyone.’
The video then shows Chaney being carried through the airport gate and onto the plane.
Chaney is then shown in his seat, where he shows how much his seat belt has loosened.
The TikTok ends with a close-up of the plus-size influencer’s smiling face.
In his caption, Chaney explains the context of his flight and tells how for the past four years he has relied on “supplementary oxygen” when flying.
“It all started in 2019, after a hospital stay where they suspected he had suffered a stroke,” Chaney wrote.
‘It turns out that it was pulmonary hypertension and since then I needed oxygen therapy. Traveling was no longer the same.’
Chaney’s TikTok also explores his polyamorous lifestyle. The influencer has collaborated with companies ranging from Google to McDonalds
The plus-size influencer, who has more than 135,000 followers on TikTok, has previously called on the FAA to provide overweight people with up to three free seats when they fly.
He said he went “from chasing waterfalls in Hawaii” to “everything being so different.”
After conducting intense research, the influencer found portable oxygen concentrators.
“I shared my discoveries online, thinking this was going to be my new normal.”
But Chaney considered portable oxygen concentrators “not a walk in the park.”
He said using the device was “expensive, stressful and downright terrifying.”
Her recent flight marked the first time in four years that she flew without an oxygen concentrator, an experience that made her “anxious and scared.”
‘But guess that? I did it and it turned out better than I could have imagined,” she wrote triumphantly.