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Frenchman ‘too heavy to fly’ will go home by boat

A young Frenchman who weighs 230 kilograms (500 pounds) arrived in New York on Tuesday where he will catch the boat home to Europe with his family after he was deemed too heavy to get on a plane.

Published: 13 November 2013 09:04 CET
Frenchman 'too heavy to fly' will go home by boat
After treatment for a hormone disorder, Kevin Chenais and his family were stranded in Chicago when British Airways said he was too big to fly home to France. Photo: CBSChicago/Screengrab

Kevin Chenais and his parents arrived at Penn Station in New York by train from Chicago. They will stay at a hotel in Brooklyn until they catch the Queen Mary 2 for England.

Chenais, 22, has a hormone imbalance and came to the United States from France in 2012 for obesity treatment at the Mayo Clinic in Chicago.

He had planned to fly home in late October but British Airways refused to let him board the plane on the grounds he was too fat.

The family spent more than a week at a hotel near Chicago airport as they tried to resolve the situation.

On Monday they decided to take a train to New York, from where they will sail for England on November 19.

"It is mainly my parents who are angry," he told reporters, looking tired after the 19-hour train trip from Chicago.

His father Rene criticized British Airways for paying just five nights in a hotel, where in the end they spent 13 days. He said the carrier has yet to refund their tickets.

An airline spokesman said the carrier tried to find a solution but in the end it was not possible to tend to Chenais safely.

Chenais needs oxygen constantly and medical oversight, so the week-long trip from New York to Southampton will not be easy.

Chenais has mobility problems and gets around in an electric-powered wheelchair.

As he arrived in New York, with the help of the French consulate, police and staff from the rail company Amtrak helped him off the train and out of the station.

On Tuesday, his father said that two or three days after British Airways refused to let him fly, their travel agent said Air France and Swissair were willing to take him. But the family was out of money.

"We paid $1,200 for the train and then $2,000 for the ship. We cannot pay any more," Rene Chenais said.

He added he was considering legal action against British Airways.    

"For now Kevin has to hang in there. We are going to try to visit New York a bit and disconnect," Chenais senior said.

A doctor will examine Chenais in the coming days, and staff on the Queen Mary 2 have been friendly, the father said.

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TRAVEL

German beach hotel bans overweight guests

A hotel on Germany’s North Sea coast has banned overweight guests due to worries they’ll break the resorts ‘elegant designer furniture’.

Published: 6 June 2020 17:56 CEST
German beach hotel bans overweight guests
The beach in Cruxhaven, near the Beachhotel Sahlenburg. Photo: DPA

The Beachhotel Sahlenburg in the German city of Cuxhaven is hoping to welcome everyone back to the beach after the coronavirus lockdown ends, however not everyone is welcome on the sand. 

In order to stay at the hotel, you need to be 130 kilograms (286) pounds or below. 

“For reasons of liability, we would like to point out that the interior is not suitable for people with a body weight of more than 130 kg,” says the hotel. 

The reason for the restriction? The hotels elegant design furniture is far too sensitive and cannot support the weight of anyone upwards of 130kg. 

Hotel Operator Angelika Hargesheimer, speaking with German media outlet Buten and Binnen, says her hotel’s classic furniture is not made for big butts. 

“The designer chairs downstairs, they’re real classics. When a person over 130 kilograms sits on it, they sit there with one buttock and the chair does not last long.”

“But I want to have a designer hotel and I want to have nice furniture – not brutal furniture made of oak.”

Once bitten? 

Hargesheimer says she won’t get fooled again when it comes to chubby guests, saying that a larger visitor broke one of her hotel beds previously – which was the moment she decided to bite the bullet. 

She also said that the design of the chairs make them uncomfortable for larger people, while the showers are too small for the big boned. 

Although there were some suggestions that the move was illegal, a legal expert interviewed by Bild said that it would only amount to discrimination if the guests were so obese that they were considered to be disabled. 

“Only if an obese person reaches the threshold of a disability does protection against discrimination exist. Therefore, it should be difficult for those affected to take legal action against provisions such as in the hotel described, with reference to the AGG (General Treatment Act),” Sebastian Bickerich, from the Federal Anti-Discrimination Office, told Bild. 

 

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