cybernight

Hi, I was trying to find a place to get out information about bed bugs on American Airlines. I flew back from DFW to DCA on Flight 2439 on May 18th 2015 and brought home bed bugs. I didn't stay in hotel in Dallas and my friends have confirmed that they do have have them (they had their house inspected in case I brought them with me on the flight down). I wanted to try and warn other folks -- they have been a nightmare to deal with. And American Airlines response -- gee we are sorry - come fly us again sometime. They didn't seem to take it very serious so that plane could still be infecting people. If there is a more appropriate place to post something like this -- let me know.
--C

Indelaware

Bedbugs are common on airliners and in hotels (even the best).

http://www.forbes.com/sites/melanieh...-bed-bug-free/

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...ton-hotel.html

Rather than worrying about having picked up bedbugs from an AA flight, maybe it would be best to concentrate on how to get rid of them.

http://www2.epa.gov/bedbugs/getting-rid-bed-bugs

jackal

As this question is specific to AA, we'll go ahead and move this over to the AA forum for further discussion.

jackal
Moderator, Information Desk

sdsearch

Yes, but didn't you go anywhere else between your friends' home and where you noticed the bed bugs? How do you know you didn't pick them up on the shuttle bus / taxi however you got to the airport in each direction (if it wasn't your friends driving you all the way and you driving yourself back upon arrival)? How do you know it wasn't where you sat at the gate (or in the lounge, if you went there)? DId you pay attention to how close you put your bags down to someone else? Oh, did you check bags? If so, are you sure they didn't jump from another bag on the conveyor belt?

Some of these are AA's territory and some are the airport's territory (and not under AA's real control), and some may be neither.

So while I can see why you could suspect AA, I'm not clear on how you can be sure that the flight itself is where you picked up the bed bugs.

Arsey00

Or, we could look at this from the other side, how can AA be sure they weren't the culprit? If there's even a chance, they need to fumigate (and do so properly, bedbug eradication isn't the same as general insecticide). Even if the OP did pick them up in one of the places you suggest and was Infector 0, which I highly doubt, AA still would need to acknowledge and deal with the problem.

A little off topic, I'm desperately allergic to bedbug bites. Like, hospital allergic. I put my bags in the bathtub on arrival in every hotel room and check the room thoroughly. It has never dawned on me to check my airplane seat, which would be very difficult anyway because of the patterned/speckled material on most seats. Of all the possible reasons FTers list that would stop them flying (FFP devaluations, service decline, security theatre, etc), this would be it for me. I'd move back to my parents' town and stay right there forever.

skylady

Take precausions no matter where you go to avoid bedbugs. There really is no way to tell where you got them, so spray, spray spray! I spray every single room I go to, no matter what hotel, or crew bunk! The bugs hate scents. Cinnamon is my favorite.

Himeno

FWAAA

Welcome to Flyertalk.

Lemme get this straight: you stayed with friends in Dallas and their home is infested with bedbugs. And yet you think AA was the source of the infestation?

Sounds to me like your friends' home is the problem, not AA. They should call an exterminator and you should think twice about staying with them next time you go to Dallas.

Nowhere did you post that you even saw a begbug on an AA flight. Only that you flew AA and now you have bedbugs. I see the correlation, but I'm having difficulty seeing the causation.

FAA1996

I rememet reading about them on BA a few years back : http://www.businessinsider.com/zane-selkir-bedbugs-british-airways-2011-2

Exec_Plat

I'm pretty sure op left out a "not" in regards the friends house.

Op ..there are people that fly hundred of thousands of mikes a year on this forum ... I did a million in 6 years ... If AA had a significant issue don't you think we'd heard one of two folks sayin "yeah, me too". You might have simply been sharing a blanket, pilot, headrest, etc with someone who had an infestation.

And what makes you think AA ignored you? For all you know that have an early warning procedure. When a plane gets a bedbug compliant it gets a special cleaning...you'd never know. Do you really think in this age of Flyertalk, Twitter and CNN they would say 'yes we had a bedbug infestation' ???

NYTA

Spray with what?

ashill

It's normally very, very difficult to identify the source of bed bugs. They can move between bags in the hold or overhead bins on the plane, for example, something that is essentially impossible for the airline or anyone else to prevent. So I'm not sure what anyone expects them to do. Poisons and sprays basically don't work either, and there are no practical effective preventative measures that an airline could use to keep them out.

If the bugs are in the seats on the plane (as happened to BA several years ago, and probably happens to other airlines but they probably try to take care of it quietly if at all possible), then the airline does need to give the plane a heat treatment (130°F for several hours). However, in this case, the risk of infesting your home is probably smaller than if they're moving around in the baggage since bedbugs don't like to hang out on people: they bite and then go back to their hiding places, presumably in the seats in this case. Though they can of course hide in your bags, especially your under-seat bags, in which case you could bring them home.

Having had an infested apartment once (years ago), I just assume that my bags are contaminated after every trip and give them a heat treatment (the only effective way to kill bedbugs) either in the oven or leaving them in the car on a hot sunny day (the latter may not be all that effective, but se la vie). Bed bug infestations are fairly rare but really suck when they happen; I largely consider it a hazard of travel that I take practical steps to mitigate (inspect hotel beds, keep bags off of soft surfaces) but accept a certain risk. Assigning blame is damn near impossible.

phlwookie

A flamethrower? They're resilient little suckers and it can take a fair bit of heat to kill them. You can't just walk using an aerosol bug spray and expect anything useful to happen.

skylady

Bed bug spray. Rest Easy is the best, and it comes in 2oz bottles.

Exec_Plat

hmmm

https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/pres...gedly-unproven