A few years ago – on a flight from Dallas, Texas to Portland, Oregon the overweight and asleep gentleman next to me urinated on his and, ultimately, on my seat. I promptly stood up – to avoid sitting on a urine-soaked seat, and asked the nearest flight attendant for permission to move to another seat (there were at least three empty seats on the flight). She told me to sit back down and said that, for security reasons, I could not change to another seat. I explained the situation to her again and she told me to sit down and stop complaining or I would be met at the gate by an air marshal. She was becoming angry with me and, taking her threat seriously, I crouched over my seat – doing my best to avoid actually sitting. She then returned – with another flight attendant – and they both informed me that, for my safety, I needed to sit ‘firmly’ in my seat. I explained about the urine to the other flight attendant and she said that that was not her problem and that I needed to sit down and relax. Two other passengers backed up my story – and the flight attendants told them to calm down as well. Eventually I ended up sitting on two folded-up blankets – for over two hours – and just had to tolerate the smell.
I took my story to the check-in desk upon my arrival in Portland – along with one of the passengers who very nicely agreed to support my story. They asked me what it would take to make me happy to which I responded “what would it take to make you happy after you had been forced to sit in somebody else’s urine for over two hours?”
What I eventually got – half of my round-trip ticket refunded. As far as I know, nothing happened to the flight attendants.
I have done everything in my power to avoid flying since – the flight attendants use the air marshal/authorities ploy too often and too easily.
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