When Noah Ellis found himself having to squeeze into a tiny airline seat, his legs squashed by the seat in front, an idea came to mind.
He was flying with 10 friends on-board budget airline Ryanair from Greater Manchester, UK, to Krakow, Poland on Thursday when he decided to contact the airline about his situation in the hope of getting a response from them.
Shortly before takeoff, the 20-year-old student, who is 1.98 metres tall, posted a photo on Twitter showing him cramped in his seat saying: “Please can there be bigger seats without paying 20 quid (AUD$38) @Ryanair”.
He was left shocked and amused at the airline’s response – saying he actually had not expected a reply at all.
After landing he discovered that it had responded with what some Twitter users called a “savage” tweet, which has been viewed more than 1.5 million times, in which it cut and pasted Noah’s head onto a photograph of a child in a car booster seat.
Stunned Noah, a geography student at the University of Nottingham, told news.com.au: “In the past, I’ve paid for extra legroom. But the flights were quite expensive and it would have been 40 quid for both ways so I just thought to myself, ‘I’ll be fine.’
“But I could barely move my legs. I knew what I paid for but I think it was the early morning flight with a lack of sleep made it even more uncomfortable.
“To be fair the lady on the plane let me move to an aisle seat so I could stretch my legs, so that was good of them.
“I just took the photo to show my mates and then we thought we’d tweet it because you see them taking the mick out of people all the time and we might get a laugh out of them.
“It wasn’t a proper complaint, it was just a bit of a joke. And to see if we could get them to say something
“I wasn’t expecting them to reply if I’m honest.”
He said he found the post “really funny” and his friends were “loving it”.
Amused, Noah said he had been given no sympathy by his friends or most other social media users, and had already booked extra legroom on the way back.
“I definitely didn’t expect their tweet to get 1.5 million views, their reply was very funny as well, it got a big laugh at dinner when they replied,” Noah said.
“My friends are just typical mates telling me to get over it, I don’t expect much sympathy, it’s my fault for not booking extra legroom.”
However he pointed out that while there is always the option to pay, all the extra expenses can add up.
“I’m a student and 40 quid extra when the flights were already expensive feels like a lot.”
Ryanair has also made another post about his situation.
Ryanair is well-known for its cheeky and creative responses to customer complaints, including over issues such as legroom and window seats.
News.com.au has contacted Ryanair for comment.