As passenger shaming stories go, this one has got to be pretty high up there… There was nothing premium about this Premium Economy passenger who allegedly urinated in her seat during a six-hour British Airways flight from Boston to London Heathrow last week.
The female passenger was already kicking up a stink when she boarded the plane, according to her poor seatmate, who was stuck in the window seat for the duration of the transatlantic flight.
The women next to me wet herself (BOS > LHR)
byu/idreamofkewpie inBritishAirways
Yes, that’s right, with BA’s World Traveller Plus set out in a 2-4-2 configuration, there was nothing stopping the woman from getting to the bathroom at any point during the flight.
And it’s not as if she was unable to move on her own, as she managed to get off the plane unaided after it had landed at Heathrow.
The woman’s seatmate described their experience on Reddit, saying, “Had the worst flight I’ve had in a long time. Instead of getting up and going to the bathroom, the woman next to me in 21J (who already didn’t smell great) urinated in her seat and then sat in it for the entire flight.”
Unfortunately, the behavior got even worse:
“They also put their bare feet through the gap between the seats in front of us. I was one of the last people off the plane and told the crew (when my suspicions were confirmed when she finally got up).”
Was alcohol a factor? Well, according to the woman’s seatmate, she didn’t appear drunk and there was even some positive about her behavior on board, with the passenger saying she “didn’t talk to me at all which I like in my seatmates.”
The question now is what happens to the seat that the woman was sitting in? Will someone else be expected to sit on the pee-stained seat?
Accidents happen from time to time, and airlines are very accustomed to swapping out stained seat covers and cushions before the next set of passengers boards the plane.
Sometimes, unfortunately, these procedures don’t always get followed. In December 2023, a Qantas passenger flying from Bangkok to Sydney says he ended up snuggling into his travel pillow, which was soaked with urine after he placed it on the floor area in front of his seat.
Initially, the man thought his travel pillow was damp because of a water spill, but hours later, another passenger discovered a pair of children’s underwear in the same area.
It transpired that a small child had an accident on the last flight, and the urine was never mopped up by the cleaning crew.
After the man’s story went viral in his native New Zealand, the airline offered a full refund as a ‘gesture of goodwill.’
At least the woman in this latest case only urinated on her seat. In June, a Frontier Airlines passenger says her carry-on bag was left soaked in urine, and she’s convinced the man sitting in front of her was responsible.
Again, the woman initially thought her bag was damp because of a water spill, but when she tried to dry it off, the paper towels came out yellow.
In that case, Frontier Airlines told the passenger that it could not accept liability or offer any further assistance.
