Involuntary shower in C
 

Yesterday flying from SIN to DXB I was given a champagne/orange juice shower by one of the cabin crew as he dropped his welcome drinks tray. My hair was soaked as was the whole left side of my shirt. Luckily the seat remained unscathed. They were unable to do anything other than give me a couple of towels to clean myself up with. So I ended up flying to Dubai as a sticky (and at the beginning) a wet mess. The crew member apologised, but that obviously didn't solve the problem.

My question to you is: would you just drop it in the spirit of ".... happens" or would you take it further (although I'm not quite sure how...)?

I dont think there is much you can do. I am sure the person that spilled it on you felt embarrased already. I would just chalk it up as **** happens. I had it happen to me but it was on my pants.

Definitely ask for renumeration if you had to pay for your shirt to be laundered or it or was ruined, but apart from that I'm not sure there's much to be done. The crew member did not do anything wrong, per se, it seems a genuine accident, which can happen to anyone.

Perhaps you could drop EK an email telling them how much you enjoy travelling with them, apart from this time due to the suprise "baptism by bucks fizz", in the hope they will respond with an offer of some sort of compensation.

In future perhaps it would be worth tucking a change of clothes in your hand luggage for just this sort of unforeseen circumstance @:-)

If someone seated at the next table to you in a restaurant spilled a drink on you, would you do anything? I would assume that what you would do (likely nothing) ought to be no different on a plane.

But if it was the waiter ...then you would!

Accidents do happen...

But it would be nice if this type of incident should be reported by the cabin crew, customer services follow up this and contact you (before you contact them) to apologise and a least offer a small token of gratitude if you are not pursuing any claim.

or maybe offer you a pyjama from F to change into, especially if its an overnight flight.

I had something similar a few years ago and ended up flying wrapped in a blanket as they took my trousers away to dry them off. I suggested in a letter to Emirates that they should think about carrying some clothes to deal with these situations. A pair of "one size fits all" joggers or something would do. In their response they gave me several thousand Skywards miles (I can't remember exactly how many) so it's worth writing a letter and spelling out what you expect in return, accident or not.

Had a similar incident on board an EK flight from BOM-DXB last year in business class. Stewardess banged the drinks trolley into my seat and an open bottle of red wine ended up in my lap. I was given a laundry slip on board and told to submit it to my local EK office with the dry cleaning receipt. I did so and a cheque arrived in the post together with (rather ironically) 3 bottles of red wine.

If you were not given the laundry slip definitely write to EK.

Thanks for your feedback. I am not generally someone who seeks compensation for every small thing (having worked in the business many years ago, I know that .... happens). But, I was interested to know how my fellow FTers viewed the situation.

I will be flying DXB-ZRH tomorrow (and will probably pack a change of clothes and a raincoat in my carry-on, just in case ;).

Just as a further comment though for anyone who may be interested. When I arrived at my hotel (Kempinski Mall of the Emirates), the girl checking me in was being supervised by a Manager. They asked how the flight was and I told them what had happened and that I was having a bad day! He asked whether Emirates had upgraded me and I chuckled and said no. His reply was that in that case and to end my day on a happy note, they would and promptly gave me the key to a junior suite. That certainly put a smile on my face and I will give the hotel a big ^ for turning my day around real quick.

Now that's called service!

And I don't know about EK, but I imagine that is what most airlines would have done many years ago.

*cues up a song*

...Red, Red, Red wine.... stay close to me..... :D^

A waiter knocked a full glass of red wine over me the other week in a restaurant.

What can you do? There's no point ranting and raving, just put it down to 's*it happens'.

I dried out after a while, the wine amazingly washed out of my shirt, and I got a couple of bottles of cheap plonk free as we left.

Laugh it off.

Cheers,
Rick

I would have only requested compensation if there is a tangible cost to start as a base such as dry cleaning or you stopping in for a hair wash at a salon. Then from there I would mention the discomfort of my hair being sticky, but this would only be the case if the plane had no water and you couldn't rinse out your hair in the bathroom.

If this were an A380, I would insist on the use of the F shower, and pyjamas to wear during the flight while my shirt dried.

I also usually carry a change of shirt, socks and underwear with me on the plane for contingencies like this.