Ryanair responds to accusation of ‘fat shaming’ customer over window seat

Some Twitter users took Ryanair's witty joke too far, accusing the airline of fat-shaming. Photo / Twitter, Unsplash

Ryanair has long held a reputation for its sassy replies on social media, often posting harsh quips about current events or unsatisfied customers.

The airline did not hold back recently after it was accused of “fat-shaming” a customer during an interaction on Twitter.

Posting on Twitter under the name Plattsie, a passenger shared a photo complaining about his “window seat” on a recent flight.

In the photo, the passenger is seen sitting in one of the rare rows with a blank wall instead of a window, giving the camera a sarcastic thumbs-up.

“Where’s my WINDOW SEAT?” read the caption, followed by two angry goblin emojis.

Where’s my WINDOW SEAT? 👺👺@Ryanair pic.twitter.com/UuimdruA25

— Plattsie (@plattsie28) May 11, 2023

“Pay for the baggage you’ve stored under your jumper & we can talk,” Ryanair replied.

The comment appeared to make light of how the photo was taken zoomed out, which made the man’s body seem much larger than his head.

However, some took ire with the reply.

One said Ryanair seemed to have an attitude, to which Ryanair passive-aggressively replied “Thank you” with a red heart emoji.

Another asked whether people still used Ryanair, prompting the airline to reply: “16 million people did in April, to be exact”.

One Twitter user accused Ryanair of making a dig about the original poster’s weight, but suggesting he had luggage under his sweatshirt.

Another interpreted the reply as a dig about the customer’s weight.

“Fat shaming isn’t cool‚” they commented.

Some people took issue with the way the airline responded to the complaint. Photo / Twitter

Ryanair doubled down on explaining the logic behind its reply, which wasn’t related to weight.

“Tell us you don’t get the 0.5 lens joke without telling us you don’t get the 0.5 lens joke,” it posted, referring to how the original photo appeared to be taken at a 0.5 zoom setting to distort the proportions.

For added effect, Ryanair updated its Twitter bio line to read: “We sell seats, not windows” in direct response to the passenger who complained.