Ever travelled in a space covered with vomit? Well, as ghastly as this question may sound, recently a passenger travelling from London to Seattle by British Airways experienced the horror.
Dave Gildea, vice president of a software company in San Francisco was booked on the flight to Seattle where he reportedly upgraded to business class at Heathrow Airport and was designated a seat covered in dried vomit.
The 38-year-old man said when he pulled down his seat’s footstall, he discovered it was covered in dried sick from a previous flight and that the walls behind his seat as well as the floor were equally dirty.
But shockingly when Gildea altered the staff about the situation, neither was he only denied an alternate seat for travel but also an apology.
The flight attendant at his request provided him with a blanket to cover the dried vomit so he could put his feet up and sleep.
After reaching his destination, he wrote to the airline via Twitter to lodge a complaint. As the complaint didn’t elicit any response, he shared the photo on Twitter to draw the company’s attention.
@British_Airways have DM'd you but haven't gotten a response so will try here. This was my seat from London to Seattle yesterday, covered in dried in vomit, no offer to move seats, just insinuation from the attendant that I had done it even though it was dried in for days pic.twitter.com/i3iVvlsPdC
— David Gildea (@davidjgildea) May 22, 2019
“Of course as I slept, I moved around on the blanket so I woke up with dried vomit on my feet. It was pretty disgusting. With the price I paid for the ticket, I was shocked,” he added.
The tweet instantly led to an outrage from the fellow Twitterati.
Unbelievable!!! Typical BA don’t care won’t change!! I had similar experience flying return to Vegas, never again!
— big mus (@bigmus8) June 6, 2019
https://twitter.com/juliorsillva/status/1136710752860016641?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1136710752860016641&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Findianexpress.com%2Farticle%2Ftrending%2Ftrending-globally%2Fba-passenger-forced-to-travel-on-seat-covered-in-dried-vomit-5769434%2F
Sympathy offered. I too had a terrible experience on a BA flight recently . They only respond to tweets . Good luck
— Martin Fry (@ABCFRY) June 6, 2019
How disgusting but I can’t say I’m surprised. I flew @britishairways last year on business class in the upper deck. The steward was really sick – eyes streaming, coughing, sniffing and when he served my food he sneezed right into my tray without covering his mouth. I refused 1/2
— Leigh Carrick-Moore (@leigh_lou) June 6, 2019
Seems like @British_Airways is vigorously vying for worst airline. Just compounding degrading service with poor response to complaints. #shame
— 𝐉ə-𝐫𝐨͞𝐨'𝐬ə-𝐥ə𝐦 🌹 (@Rodigeur) June 6, 2019
However, later British Airways issued an apology to him and said they are investigating the matter. “We pride ourselves on delivering a high standard of service and an enjoyable experience on board our flights, and we are sorry that on this occasion this fell short of our customers’ expectations,” British Airways said.
