I felt quite embarrassed when I heard about someone who is able-bodied refusing to give up her front row seat on a flight for a wheelchair-bound woman.
Tanya Black, a 39-year-old television producer who broke her back after falling down a flight of stairs five years ago, says she was
left humiliated when the woman kicked up a fuss, refusing to take a seat two rows back for the hour-long flight to Wellington last week.
Airline staff had seated Ms Black at 1A, the first seat on the plane where there is more leg room, because an "aisle chair" needed to transport her back to the third row was not immediately available. The narrow, wheeled chair is used to move disabled people on planes.
When the other woman boarded the plane an air hostess asked her to sit in Ms Black's original seat.
She refused, apparently telling a stewardess her frequent flyer status entitled her to sit in 1A. Air New Zealand's website states that Gold Elite Airpoints members are among the first in line for any available premium seating.
