A stunning blonde flight attendant has told how she was rejected by one of the world’s most celebrated airlines for being too fat.
Astonished Josefina Macchi posted the story of her rejection on Twitter and has already been ‘liked’ 114,700 times in less than two days.
In an English translation of the Argentine’s original Spanish-language tweet, she wrote: “I never thought I was going to do this but today I am extremely puzzled.”
Josefina went on: “As many of you know, I finished my cabin crew course and what I want most is to fly.
“To that end, on Sunday the 24th I went to an Emirates Airlines interview.”
The fledgling aircrew girl explained how she worked her way through the selection process.
She said: “In the first instance, they put us in pairs. You had to talk to your partner and then I had to introduce her to everyone and she would introduce me with the information we gave each other.
“She had very usual mistakes and I helped her so that when it was her turn she wouldn’t make them, or avoid them.
“(By this I mean that her level of English was a little lower than mine.) Everything is in English, but luckily that was not a problem for me.”
Then, explained Josefina, recruiters started to separate successful and unsuccessful candidates.
She said: “They take everyone out of the room and then the recruiter says that the numbers she mentioned are going to enter the room, including mine.
“I entered and identified that there was a girl who did not speak in the previous instance because she did not know any English, so the first thing I thought was…’oops, I did not get in’.
“Then the recruiter told us that she had to say goodbye to us since we did not pass to the next stage…I thought well.
“But stop…my partner (the one I had presented) did not enter the room…that is to say, she passed!
“The recruiter said that she wanted two people to please stay in the room because she was going to tell them something and she didn’t name me among them.
“I knew my problem was not the English language. I knew it. And I was impeccable…what could be the problem?”
Then, said Josefina, they dropped the bombshell about her figure.
The astonished would-be hostess said: “I insist and wait for her to finish with those two people and then she calls me.
“I approach her and ask ‘what can I do to improve in the next search?’ to which she answers ‘honestly, you need to lose weight’.
“After that, the compliments came out from her mouth.”
Josefina went on: “‘You are very pretty, you have a very good level of English, but you need that. You have to wait six months and bla bla. Oh, and please don’t comment that I told you this because it doesn’t speak well of the company.
“‘It doesn’t speak well of the company. It doesn’t speak well of the company. It doesn’t speak well of the company.’
“And that’s all she cared about.”
Josefina accompanied the thread with several photos that show her looking far from overweight.
A January report claimed that former Emirates cabin crew said image and grooming officers – known internally as ‘weight police’ – monitored and punished flight attendants deemed overweight.
In response, Emirates declined to comment on its internal policies or procedures but said it believed being fit and healthy was a critical aspect in employees carrying out their duties safely and effectively.
At the time of writing, Emirates – which is based in Dubai and is the largest airline in the Middle East – had not commented on Josefina’s case.