Pregnant influencer asks flight attendant for help with her bag, but the response leaves her stunned

A pregnant woman wondered how this was possible after a flight attendant refused to lift her carry-on bag into an overhead locker. Dominique Elissa, a model from Australia expecting her first child, claims she explained that she was pregnant and had previously injured herself doing the same task, but the crew member still told her to check the bag in, according to Ladbible.

Elissa shared the experience during a recent episode of the Big Small Talk podcast, where she also spoke about what she sees as a lack of respect for pregnant women. The 31-year-old claimed her husband had specifically told her to ask for help rather than risk lifting her luggage herself. 

She estimated that her carry-on weighed around 4kgs and said she asked the flight attendant to place it in the overhead bin. While flight attendants are there to help, she recalled that he apparently refused, telling her he could not help. She then explained that she was pregnant and had injured herself while lifting a bag in the past. But the crew member allegedly told her that if she could not lift the luggage above her head, she would have to check it in.

Other people came to help

“I was just so shocked,” she recalled. The influencer said she began frantically texting her husband because she did not know what to do with the bag or how she would retrieve it after landing. The flight attendant did not return to help, she claimed, but a fellow passenger eventually noticed her messages and offered to lift the luggage for her.

“I feel this lack of respect for pregnant women at the moment, now that I’m pregnant,” Elissa said. The guidance put out by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) also advises cabin crew to ‘provide minimal assistance with passenger carry-on baggage and encourage passengers to stow their own baggage’. It recommends that flight attendants avoid lifting bags into overhead lockers whenever possible.

If assistance is unavoidable, the guidance says crew members should assess the luggage and seek help if necessary before attempting to lift it. ‘If the baggage is considered too heavy to lift, it should be placed beneath passenger seats or removed to the aircraft hold,’ it adds.

The CAA also advises airlines to clearly communicate and enforce their baggage size and weight limits to reduce the risk of injuries caused by manual handling.