160kg passenger's flight fury
A Cairns woman says there is fat chance she'll fly with Jetstar again after she claims she was discriminated against for being overweight.
Samantha Scafe (pictured) , an IT expert who weighs 160kg, said she was forced to pay for a second seat for herself "for other people’s comfort" when she flies from Cairns to Coolangatta today.
After making the initial booking on January 15, she claims she was then told twice on January 18 by Jetstar not to worry about paying for a second fare because "we can get around the policy of charging a big person for two seats".
"I was told by Jetstar to phone the night before my flight to book excess luggage and not to worry about paying for the second seat," Ms Scafe told The Cairns Post yesterday.
"Then on Saturday, they advised me to book and pay for a second seat for other people’s comfort because of my size … and, would you believe, they then made a further mistake which I later noticed on the web by splitting up my seats so they weren’t next to each other."
Jetstar late yesterday apologised to Ms Scafe but said it was not policy to provide overweight customers with a two-for-the-price-of-one deal.
Ms Scafe said she had cited in discussions with Jetstar a Canadian court ruling last November that overweight people could have two seats for the price of one.
She said she had filed a complaint with Anti-Discrimination Commission Queensland.
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Insulted: Samantha Scafe was instructed to buy two seats on a flight due to her large size.
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