A plus-sized American traveler is complaining about being hit and insulted by a fellow passenger who called him “too fat to fly.”
Branum was aboard a Delta Air Lines jet when the fracas broke out, and according to him, the attendees even took a moment to consider his size after the cranky passenger made the statement.
This incident comes after TikTok influencer Kirsty Leanne defended not booking two seats on an aircraft in a video and drew backlash.
Highlights
- Plus-sized passenger says a man jabbed him in the ribs and insulted him.
- Flight crew reportedly came to see if he was “too fat to fly.”
- The clash follows earlier backlash to influencer Kirsty Leanne’s stance on booking two seats.
The larger traveler, Guy Branum, usually traveled business class
Image credits: Daniel Shapiro
The larger man, named Guy Branum, posted the video on Instagram’s Threads and described his brush with his fellow traveler as an “exciting adventure.”
He explained that he usually paid a bit extra to travel business class, but this time, he could not afford it.
And so, with his anxiety welling up, he settled for the middle seat in the plane’s comfort plus area.
It was not long before his fears were realized, and he saw the manifestation of it even before it confronted him.
Barnum alleged that the traveler elbowed him with all his might
Image credits: Arno Senoner
According to Branum, a contentious man in his sixties caught his attention when he “freaked out” at a woman for storing her bags in the overhead stowage bins near his seat.
The same man would then plop down next to Branum. The sixty-plus traveler, Branum alleged, was immediately angry with him and asked him to move over.
The larger traveler responded with “No, I can’t,” and the situation deteriorated to the point that the larger traveler caught an elbow in the ribs.
Image credits: guybranumcomedy
According to Branum, the man put all his effort into the blow, and the injured man showed off a bruise to prove his point.
The man seemed unfazed by the fact that Branum was filming and even smiled into the camera
Branum’s video then cuts to footage of the two sitting beside each other with the plus-sized traveler telling the camera that his unhappy fellow traveler had “elbowed” him because he was “too fat to fly.”
In this footage, the allegedly contentious scrapper can be seen beaming from ear to ear, not denying the accusation but saying instead, “Yeah, who wouldn’t believe that?”
Image credits: guybranumcomedy
Branum then asked: “Do you think you would be happy if I elbowed you back?” and received the answer: “Well, there is not enough room for me here.”
The white-haired aggressor argued that he paid for the seat, before asking Branum if he could “at least share the armrest” in a reasoning tone.
Branum shot back and claimed he was not even using the armrest.
The man said that he was a member of Weight Watchers, and seemed on the verge of recommending that Branum take the same route
Image credits: guybranumcomedy
The larger man then asked his adversary how he thought they could solve the problem, to which the white-haired man replied:
“You’re not gonna believe this,” and was cut off by Branum saying, “You’re hardly svelte yourself.”
The man continued to say that he was a member of Weight Watchers. “I swear,” he said. “I can show you on my phone. And that is how I lost weight.”
Branum, seeking a more immediate solution, was not impressed and replied: “So in the next 20 minutes?”
The attendants actually appeared to seriously consider Branum being too fat to fly
The larger man circled back to his white-haired travel companion’s explanation about his participation in Weight Watchers with irritation in his voice.
Image credits: guybranumcomedy
“Do you think I have never tried to lose weight?” he asked, his tone turning more aggressive.
“I don’t know,” the man seated on his right said.
Branum then complained to the flight attendant about being hit while his foe told them that he (Branum) was “too fat to fly.”
According to Branum’s tale, attendants actually took the accusation seriously and gathered round to observe whether he (Branum) was too portly or not.
The scrapper was then moved to another part of the plane while the woman he swapped with received free travel miles
Image credits: billow926
Delta then allegedly sent in a “red coat lady” who pulled the sexagenarian aside, supposedly to explain to him that Branum would be staying on the flight, irrespective of his assessment.
The individual was then made to swap seats with a woman in another part of the plane, and Delta offered said woman traveler miles for her sacrifice.
When Branum heard this, he demanded free travel miles and received the response, “Sure.” But it appeared that the attendant wanted something in return. She asked him to delete his video of the debacle.
Image credits: guybranumcomedy
The plus-sized man refused, and the request was dropped after other passengers told the attendant that the man who elbowed Branum was problematic, at fault, and responsible for a string of other spats from the moment he set foot on the plane.
Kirsty Leanne, a plus-sized traveler, tried to defend not booking two seats earlier this year
In July 2025, Bored Panda reported on plus-sized traveler Kirsty Leanne, an advocate for travelers of Branum’s disposition, defending her reasons for not booking two seats.
“Booking two seats can be incredibly expensive and for a lot of people it’s out of their budget to spend that much on something they’re not sure will work 100%,” she noted on TikTok.
Her motivations were not well-received. “The reason you book two seats is not for you. It’s for people with whom you may be sharing their seat,” one netizen hit back, summing up the general sentiment in her comment thread.
While many feel aircraft seats are small, many feel that plus-sized passengers are responsible for not imposing on other passengers
In an ensuing Bored Panda poll, “Who should take responsibility for tight seating on planes?”, 48 percent of respondents answered “The airline. Seats are too small to begin with.”
Thirty-eight percent felt that the buck stopped at the larger passenger, while 15 percent felt that everyone was responsible, as flying “is already a nightmare.”
Branum, it seems, has won the internet's empathy
