Gigantor

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/17/op...ml?ref=opinion

Apparently, the bedbugs also get to feast while travelling in UA C-class... on the passengers!

TBD

I've been unimpressed with the condition of UA cabins. This doesn't surprise me.

Paella747

Eeeewwwwwwww! Is that the new C ?!?!

Doug 1029

I'm less impressed with the passengers that carry the bedbugs into the cabin.

Maybe its the new passengers.

FoxFlyer

This has happened to me and another colleague on UA flights between IAD and LAX... Though we thought the bugs might be in the blankets. Doesn't surprise me if they were in the seats!

GoingAway

New York seems to be having a major outbreak of bedbugs at the moment from personal residences to hotels to clothing stores, etc ... I keep seeing articles in the paper and on the news and its skin crawling. I'm not surprised this via the NY Times. They aren't the only area having this problem so it was only a matter of time before something like that happened.

I'm curious if the guy sent his note to only the paper or if he actually did something about notifying UA about which of their aircraft has the issue and whether his chair was the only one with a problem ... sounds like he was slow to realize. Major ick regardless but worse if UA doesn't know and has taken no action

Paella747

True 'dat! They did have to come from somewhere!

mherdeg

In this case, the passenger is reporting bedbugs in C on a LAX-IAD flight; I don't think the three-cabin widebodies that operate those flights see much NYC action (certainly not p.s. C!)

Which is not to say bedbugs aren't a problem in LA or DC. In both cities, everyone knows you don't take a couch off the street, and you should probably even think twice about that futon from Craigslist.

It's possible that he notified UA but those details were trimmed from the published version of the letter -- the NYT is pretty stingy with letter length.

goalie

did they earn miles? (hey, somebody had to ask, right )

flyinbob

Sounds more like a passenger preparing some sort of complaint or even lawsuit. A letter to the editor isn't the most reliable source.

I'd check an entomologist and see how likely that is. Can they live in the dryness of an airplane, in the pressurized atmosphere? Where exactly on a plane do they live? I thought bedbugs only came out to feast on you while IN bed, but they lived in wood or other areas around the bed. Such areas on a plane?

Story seems "buggy" to me...

dsquared37

Might they be included in a NFL?

tcook052

I thought UA only put the bite on economy passengers.

snic

The letter writer, David J. Anderson of Pasadena, appears to be a world-famous CalTech scientist, although not an entomologist himself. Somehow I doubt he has either the time or the inclination to write letters to the NY Times just so he can get more compensation out of UA.

The bedbug article on Wikipedia makes it pretty clear that bedbugs can live in many different hiding places, and that the low humidity on airplanes is no problem at all. If you think about it, there are plenty of nooks and crannies in and around airline seats. I'm surprised that aircraft bedbug infestations haven't been reported earlier.

(The Wikipedia article is fascinating. Here's a sample of one of several bizarre factoids: "All bedbugs mate by traumatic insemination. Because the female has no genital opening, the male pierces her abdomen with his hypodermic genitalia and ejaculates into the body cavity.")

767-322ETOPS

Oh man, that is way TMI

epiding

that's ENTOMOLOGIST. 'Entymologist' would be studying the origin of the word bedbugs in the English language