drmish1

Well I will be surprised if there has been a post like this before - but according to the cabin crew this morning this has happened a number of times.... Hmm...

We have just returned from our first First trip, and come back on the overnight flight from Rio.

My wife ordered the peach & passionfruit smoothie with her breakfast this morning.... and a glass allegedly containing this was swiftly delivered.

She took one gulp of this and nearly vomited. Passed it to me and I took one closer look and we both clicked that this was a glass of what we thought was raw eggs.

Instantly called the crew over, who inspected, and apologised profusely saying that it is because the cartons that are loaded on containing the egg mixture is the same as that of the smoothies. They then explained that in fact this is a pasteurised egg mixture and therefore hopefully shouldn't make my wife ill.

Suffice to say we did not want to eat our breakfasts due to feeling quite nauseous, which is still on-going for my wife (after a connecting flight and now arriving back home).

Speaking at length with the crew more than one of them gave the impression that this is almost a regular occurrence, due to the cartons being so similar... Something that I am shocked and concerned about.

The CSM was very apologetic about this incident, and initially offered us a bottle of champagne to take off with us - since we were connecting we couldn't do this anyway. He then said he was logging everything on his iPad and would see what compensation he could offer - he came back to say he could offer us a £75 voucher or 17k avios.

After a lengthy chat about the health implications of this we agreed that this was not satisfactory, and he was sending all the details to customer services to see where we go.

Suffice to say this completely ruined our First experience on the return, and my wife is feeling very nauseous still now. Hopefully she will not develop gastroenteritis or anything more sinister, but even if she does now, I would like to know what the FT community think about this incident.... Surely this cannot be a regular occurrence?! And what would be an acceptable compensation do people think?

Thanks

Kgmm77

She's no more likely to get sick from pasteurised eggs than the smoothie.

This is what happens when the ingredients are all yellow pack lowest common denominator muck.

corporate-wage-slave

Very unfortunate this, and yes a poor way to remember your First flight.

As a farmer / chicken owner: Pasteurised egg is safe to eat, if properly handled and served rapidly after decanting from the container. It's similar to pasteurised milk in that respect. Eating raw eggs is not common in the West, but in other cultures it's quite acceptable, plus of course things like mayonnaise and salad dressings come from raw eggs. For some people with protein issues in their diet, eating raw eggs is how they start their day. So there's no reason to feel nauseous from that (narrow) perspective.

As to whether 17k Avios is acceptable, in a way that's a very personal issue. The fact that you rejected the offer suggests that it didn't work for you, and that's quite understandable. Hopefully your wife only had a small amount and will recover shortly.

Can I help you

Sorry to hear about this, I have never heard of this happening and it really down to the crew being careful.
The CSM was right to pass this on to CR if you cannot come to a satisfactory conclusion.
I have often had raw egg when I was younger and never has a problem, it must have been very unpleasant for your wife but I personally don't think she will come to any harm.
Hopefully CR will be in contact with you and offer you something that you feel is acceptable.

Fruitcake

How eggsasperating.

That must have been a nasty eggsperience. However, it sounds a genuine, if rather silly, error. At least they were apologetic and able to offer health reassurances. But certainly not good for First.

My bad puns, btw, are not to minimise your bad experience.

hugolover

What a pity. While the containers may look similar they will most definitely be labelled differently and if it happens a lot then surely whoever is supervising F service should know to avoid the mix-up.

Don't LH use fresh eggs? I definitely had fresh eggs on LX...

Just saying' .

Cassie55

Why should she get gastroenteritis?

Plenty of foods have raw eggs as an ingredient and whilst I wouldn't choose to eat a raw egg by itself, it won't poison anyone, especially if it's pasteurised.

IAMORGAN

This is not really very good, but she will almost certainly not get ill.

I think 17k Avios is fair enough. Don't expect anything from Customer Relations. Surely the crew would smell eggs and not smoothie though!!! Lack of experience I think.

paul4040

A raw egg does not smell.

Dave Noble

Is this a "something fairly minor occurred, how much compensation can I screw out of the airline"

Passenger ordered a drink
The wrong thing was delivered
Passenger took a taste and realised it was completely wrong
The item itself is of no health concern - eggs are not dangerous

As far as reasonable compensation, I would have hoped that for such a situation , a genuine apology should be all that is expected and that GBP75 is very generous

Can I help you

But a smoothie does.

Lobengula

Hang on, 17K Avios for tasting a raw egg? Seems to me to be a very generous compensation.


With that said, it's unfortunate that this happened on your very first First.

lorcancoyle

And clearly pax didn't smell or notice anything untoward until tasting

AtlanticX

I don't see any reason why you would need the worry about such a thing.

Pasteurised eggs are completely safe for consumption. They're usually used instead of raw eggs, because of some safety concerns with the latter, especially for vulnerable groups, such as very young children and the eldery.

The process of pasteurization heats the product, so that most pathogens are destroyed, without affecting the quality of the product itself.

There's, of course, always the chance that one could get some illness from eating any food, but from a scientific perspective the vegetables on a salad you have on-board are just as much a risk as this egg mix.

I can be quite the shock to taste something very different than expected (we all have experienced the situation, some time in our lives). All that happened was that it was a somewhat more exotic product.

To me, the compensation offered seems generous and taking into account that it was experienced somewhat more visceral than say, mixing up coffee and tea. In the end, the extent of 'harm' is rather similar.

orbitmic

I can only confirm what others say, in the sense that while I fully understand that raw egg in the morning - especially when you did not expect it - can feel quite nauseating, it is absolutely not an unsafe thing to have (although I'd personally much prefer a raw fresh cracked egg than pasteurised rubbish from a carton). Your wife will not be sick and has not been exposed to anything dangerous, however unpleasant the experience may have been and I'm sure that it was.