Advice please on plane incident
May 9, 2019, 1:11 am
#61
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May 9, 2019, 3:00 am
#62
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May 9, 2019, 4:37 am
#63
Join Date: Sep 2010
Posts: 610
This is so disgusting and is a health and safety issue. In the NHS, we dont deal with vomit without gloves so the fact that this passenger had to actually sit in it blows my mind and i would be likely to go to the press if i had pictures/eas not ensured that the staff would be retrained in this.
But what this thread HAS made me consider is checking my seat pocket before i relax when im on a plane.
But what this thread HAS made me consider is checking my seat pocket before i relax when im on a plane.
May 9, 2019, 10:32 am
#64
Join Date: Dec 2013
Location: Near the Beach.
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Hi,
I was hopeful of some advice.
On a recent flight with my family from Orlando we boarded the plane and settled down. My son said his seat smelt funny but I thought nothing of it. A few minutes later he taps me on the shoulder and gives me a bag with sick in. I thought he had just been sick but he says he pulled it out of the seat pocket. I looked in the seat pocket and there was indeed sick in it. I took the sick off him and called over the stewardess who was mortified but as the plane was about to taxi she couldn't help me clean up.
I got read of the sick and when I came back to the seat I could see there was another sick bag on the floor which had wipes that had obviously been used to clean up sick. I explored the seat some more and his table was splattered with sick also. I started to clean up but the plane was taking off so we had to sit in the seat whilst it took off. By the time the stewardess came back over I was cleaning it all up myself. There was no other seats to move into so we were stuck there for the night flight. Naturally my kids and wife were worried the whole time about catching a bug.
I spoke to the Customer Services person who noted everything down and was very apologetic. When back in UK I fully expected an apology from BA for not cleaning the seat but nothing. I had to phone and eventually they found the report and the CS person said as a goodwill gesture he would give me 10,000 air miles. I don't want air miles, I have too many air miles. He offered the air miles to my son as well which is pointless. What really got me was that no one actually said sorry. I harassed them a bit on Twitter and someone said they would write directly to my son to apologise, this was OK in my book and should have bought the matter to a close. Again there was no sorry in the letter.. just some nonsense about investing in specialist cleaning equipment (like checking if a seat pocket is dirty?).
So the advice I am after is that BA have not actually said sorry. No acknowledgment at all that they did not clean the seat. The wording is all very particular, 'I am sure this experience was distressing', ' I understand it was upsetting', but no actual sorry. Is there any way I can make this happen? Has anyone actually got BA to say sorry? I checked to take the dispute to CEDR but they do not cover this type of incident.
I have not accepted the airmiles, nor will I. I won't be flying with them again after the next flight which is already paid for (which I asked if they would let me cancel and waive the fees .... they said no!).
Cheers
I was hopeful of some advice.
On a recent flight with my family from Orlando we boarded the plane and settled down. My son said his seat smelt funny but I thought nothing of it. A few minutes later he taps me on the shoulder and gives me a bag with sick in. I thought he had just been sick but he says he pulled it out of the seat pocket. I looked in the seat pocket and there was indeed sick in it. I took the sick off him and called over the stewardess who was mortified but as the plane was about to taxi she couldn't help me clean up.
I got read of the sick and when I came back to the seat I could see there was another sick bag on the floor which had wipes that had obviously been used to clean up sick. I explored the seat some more and his table was splattered with sick also. I started to clean up but the plane was taking off so we had to sit in the seat whilst it took off. By the time the stewardess came back over I was cleaning it all up myself. There was no other seats to move into so we were stuck there for the night flight. Naturally my kids and wife were worried the whole time about catching a bug.
I spoke to the Customer Services person who noted everything down and was very apologetic. When back in UK I fully expected an apology from BA for not cleaning the seat but nothing. I had to phone and eventually they found the report and the CS person said as a goodwill gesture he would give me 10,000 air miles. I don't want air miles, I have too many air miles. He offered the air miles to my son as well which is pointless. What really got me was that no one actually said sorry. I harassed them a bit on Twitter and someone said they would write directly to my son to apologise, this was OK in my book and should have bought the matter to a close. Again there was no sorry in the letter.. just some nonsense about investing in specialist cleaning equipment (like checking if a seat pocket is dirty?).
So the advice I am after is that BA have not actually said sorry. No acknowledgment at all that they did not clean the seat. The wording is all very particular, 'I am sure this experience was distressing', ' I understand it was upsetting', but no actual sorry. Is there any way I can make this happen? Has anyone actually got BA to say sorry? I checked to take the dispute to CEDR but they do not cover this type of incident.
I have not accepted the airmiles, nor will I. I won't be flying with them again after the next flight which is already paid for (which I asked if they would let me cancel and waive the fees .... they said no!).
Cheers
May 9, 2019, 7:53 pm
#65
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Hmm... ok, but in this case, being charitable towards BA comes at the cost of being rather uncharitable to the person who was sick. Imagine them reading this, they might feel a little scapegoated! Past performance would suggest that whilst your assumption that the person was sick unbeknown to crew may well be true, it may just as well be untrue, and it is entirely possible that 1) the passenger may have been sick in full knowledge of the crew who may not have reported this specifically or, 2) may have been sick in full knowledge of the crew who may have reported this specifically to no effect. I must say that personally, I would not feel confident assuming things either way.
May 9, 2019, 8:34 pm
#66
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Hmm... ok, but in this case, being charitable towards BA comes at the cost of being rather uncharitable to the person who was sick. Imagine them reading this, they might feel a little scapegoated! Past performance would suggest that whilst your assumption that the person was sick unbeknown to crew may well be true, it may just as well be untrue, and it is entirely possible that 1) the passenger may have been sick in full knowledge of the crew who may not have reported this specifically or, 2) may have been sick in full knowledge of the crew who may have reported this specifically to no effect. I must say that personally, I would not feel confident assuming things either way.
WE don't have any further information that would be able to identify who was to blame. The previous pax may or may not have informed CC on the inbound flight, said CC may or may not have reported it, cleaners may or may not have acted on that report if one has been received, cleaners are unlikely to have noticed the issue (neither did the OP at first), they are unlikely to have left it if they had.
Given no health consequences, legal proceedings don't seam a good course of action- it was unpleasant but hasn't as far as we know affected anyones health (many posters appear to be over-estimating the biohazard risk here which is low - although not zero). Alternative routes have been ruled out by OP. Taking the avoid has been ruled out by the OP as they feel that this would indicate satisfaction with the outcome from BA. OP has a further flight booked with BA but has stated an intent not to fly with the airline again. Seams a logical course of action to me given the reasoning presented.
Sadly, this won't be the first case of vomit on a plane, I'm sure it won't be the last. They are mostly caused by air-travel sickness (unlikely in a hospital where infective cause is more likely) so the risk is lower than a vomit situation elsewhere, but should still be treated with appropriate care.
May 10, 2019, 12:51 am
#67
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WE don't have any further information that would be able to identify who was to blame. The previous pax may or may not have informed CC on the inbound flight, said CC may or may not have reported it, cleaners may or may not have acted on that report if one has been received, cleaners are unlikely to have noticed the issue (neither did the OP at first), they are unlikely to have left it if they had.
May 10, 2019, 1:19 am
#68
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May 10, 2019, 1:21 am
#69
Join Date: Sep 2010
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Given no health consequences, legal proceedings don't seam a good course of action- it was unpleasant but hasn't as far as we know affected anyones health (many posters appear to be over-estimating the biohazard risk here which is low - although not zero). Alternative routes have been ruled out by OP. Taking the avoid has been ruled out by the OP as they feel that this would indicate satisfaction with the outcome from BA. OP has a further flight booked with BA but has stated an intent not to fly with the airline again. Seams a logical course of action to me given the reasoning presented.
Sadly, this won't be the first case of vomit on a plane, I'm sure it won't be the last. They are mostly caused by air-travel sickness (unlikely in a hospital where infective cause is more likely) so the risk is lower than a vomit situation elsewhere, but should still be treated with appropriate care.
This is only the case if someone doesnt have ANYTHING wrong with them. You do not know if the "vomitter" had anything wrong with them. What if they had HIV? Or Hep B? or even noro virus? Yes, this is not in hospital conditions but as noone has the medical history of the person who vomitted, there is a huge biohazard risk.
May 10, 2019, 1:39 am
#70
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As someone who has taken many cruises I know that in the case of norovirus if someone vomits near you then move away... far away! The virus can be spread in the micro-droplets from the vomit so it is airborne. You really don't want to be nearby. I realise that in a plane environment it is sometimes unavoidable but if someone throws up it might not be because of airsickness... they may be ill in other, more serious, more contagious ways. I treat all vomit as a biohazard!
May 10, 2019, 7:48 am
#71
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This is only the case if someone doesnt have ANYTHING wrong with them. You do not know if the "vomitter" had anything wrong with them. What if they had HIV? Or Hep B? or even noro virus? Yes, this is not in hospital conditions but as noone has the medical history of the person who vomitted, there is a huge biohazard risk.
Sorry but it does really annoy me when someone adds to the stigma of HIV in-necessarily. It is a treatable chronic condition. If the person is on treatment and their viral load is undetectable, there is ZERO risk of transmission (U=U). Even if the person has a high viral load and you have blood to blood contact, the risk is still low, even if someone was sharing needles with someone who is HIV positive the risk of transmission is low. Most people with HIV diagnosed early due of unrelated medical problems in old age.
Meanwhile back to vomit as I said. It is a low but not zero risk. And this is the case not knowing for certain what caused the person to vomit and contrary to what you have stated, if the person had nothing wrong with them then the risk of infectious disease would be zero.
As someone who has taken many cruises I know that in the case of norovirus if someone vomits near you then move away... far away! The virus can be spread in the micro-droplets from the vomit so it is airborne. You really don't want to be nearby. I realise that in a plane environment it is sometimes unavoidable but if someone throws up it might not be because of airsickness... they may be ill in other, more serious, more contagious ways. I treat all vomit as a biohazard!
as I said it is a Low risk which should be taken seriously but equally shouldn’t be exaggerated (I for one wouldn’t want a plane to have to divert every time someone vomits onboard for example as some here seam to be advocating).
Last edited by navylad; May 10, 2019 at 10:22 pm
May 10, 2019, 10:42 am
#72
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I see the country differences though...I would guess that all official aviation businesses have moved away from the older term, even in the UK?
May 10, 2019, 5:53 pm
#74
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May 10, 2019, 5:58 pm
#75
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