Airline Makes Woman's Daughter Sit in Urine-Soaked Seat on 7-Hour Flight

Image: Interior of airplane with empty seats. (Photo via Bychykhin_Olexandr / iStock / Getty Images Plus)
Image: Interior of airplane with empty seats. (Photo via Bychykhin_Olexandr / iStock / Getty Images Plus)
Alex Temblador
by Alex Temblador
Last updated: 3:40 PM ET, Sat December 8, 2018

One mom is demanding a refund from British Airways after they made her daughter sit in an urine-soaked seat on a seven-hour flight.

Ann Fretts was flying from Rome to Boston Logan International Airport with her daughter on November 18, when they were made to move seats for a VIP customer.

Flight attendants offered Fretts' daughter an urine-soaked seat.

She told Sun Online Travel: "My daughter and I had a horrendous day on two British Airways flights. We had reserved seats on board the seven-hour flight from Heathrow back home to Logan International Airport in Boston."

"My daughter's seat was unusable as it was covered in urine which was all over the seat, floor and wall. There was a really bad smell of it, too."

She continued: "When I alerted staff, they confirmed that the smell was urine."

The cabin crew covered the seat with blankets, which didn't mask the smell. Fretts asked flight attendants to have it cleaned by a professional team but they told her it was impossible and would delay the flight.

Instead, they sprayed the seat with an anti-odor spray that irritated Fretts' nose and throat.

She added: "I wore my polo-neck as a mask over my nose and mouth for most of the flight."

Fretts asked to get off the plane and catch another flight but the flight attendants wouldn't let her.

To make matters worse, red wine had been spilled on the onboard entertainment system rendering it useless.

"There [were] sparks coming out of and there was static when the headphones were plugged in - and no sound came out of the headphones," Fretts said. "My daughter is an anxious flyer and would have liked the distraction of being able to watch a film but she wasn't able to."

This wasn't the first BA flight that Fretts had issues with. During the first leg of their British Airways flight from Rome to Heathrow, Fretts and her daughter were unbooked from reserved seats they had paid extra for and moved to seats they wanted to avoid.

Fretts said: "We had paid an extra $168 (£131) to reserve the seats wanted on top of the cost of the flights."

"But when we got on the plane, our seats had been unbooked and we were instead put into middle and window seats that we had paid to avoid."

"We were told by staff to sit there, or get off the plane."

After returning home, Fretts contacted British Airways for a full refund but they have only promised to refund her the $168 (£131) for the seats that she and her daughter had reserved.

They also offered her 10,000 miles but she refused, insisting that her money should be refunded. They have yet to do so.

British Airways told Sun Online Travel: "Our crew provided the customer with the same seat type, in another part of the cabin, due to a small stain on the carpet near her."

"We have apologized and remain in touch with our customer, and have made a generous offer as a goodwill gesture."


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