“It’s Your Responsibility”: Couple Gets Refunded After Sitting In Pee For 10 Hours On Flight
A New Zealand couple suffered a less-than-pleasant flight after sitting in a passenger’s urine during a 10-hour international flight from Bangkok to Sydney. The revolting incident unfolded just before New Year’s on December 30, 2023, as two Kiwis flew from Bangkok, Thailand, to Sydney, Australia, en route to their motherland, the New York Post reported.
- Couple sat in urine on a 10-hour flight from Bangkok to Sydney.
- Their belongings got wet under the seat, initially thought to be water.
- Qantas offered 10k points, deemed inadequate by the couple.
- After refusal, Qantas issued full refund plus an apology.
One of the unidentified travelers from Wellington described the moment they realized they had been stuck in a total nightmare: “Now we know that we have been sitting in urine for a 10-hour trip.”
A New Zealand couple suffered a less-than-pleasant flight after sitting in a passenger’s urine during a 10-hour international flight from Bangkok to Sydney
Image credits: Pascal Borener/Pexels
According to The Post, the couple’s flight took a turn for the worse when one of them placed their Qantas pillow and other belongings underneath the seat in front of them.
When the aforementioned traveler retrieved their pillow, it was reportedly damp, as was their duty-free bag with $70 worth of items, a headphone case, and a portable neck pillow.
At first, the couple pinned the wetness of their belongings on some spilled water and went on to simply store some of their items in the overhead bin.
Image credits: Clique Images/Unsplash
The pair proceeded to ask a cabin crew member to replace their soggy pillow.
“We called an attendant who was confused and took the pillow away,” said the couple, who eventually realized that the source of the moisture was far more nauseating, as per The Post.
Following a couple of hours in flight, the passengers reached under the seat to find a pair of children’s underwear. That’s when they made the horrifying realization that the alleged “spilled water” was, in fact, human pee.
Subsequently, the couple had been sitting in urine for their 10-hour flight, unbeknownst to them.
Moreover, one of the passengers claimed to have used the soiled neck pillow for several hours “under the assumption that it was just a bit wet from water,” The Post reported.
“Now we know that we have been sitting in urine for a 10-hour trip,” one of the passengers said
Image credits: Robert Penaloza/Unsplash
Upon making the repulsive discovery, the travelers reportedly discarded the allegedly spoiled travel pillow as well as the duty-free bag and its contents upon landing.
The appalled couple proceeded to ask to speak with an airline supervisor, who reportedly offered them 10,000 Qantas points for their trouble.
According to The Post, the flyers deemed them inadequate reparations for sitting in “biohazard waste,” adding that the points were useless as they didn’t plan on flying with the carrier again.
After pleading with Qantas to issue a full refund, the couple’s request was initially denied because their “ticket was fully utilized,” per an email the airline sent the couple on January 10.
After initially opposing the couple’s request for a refund, Qantas eventually issued the travelers a full reimbursement of their plane tickets
Image credits: Pew Nguyen/Pexels
They found this response “simply unacceptable” and demanded $3,827 — the cost of the Bangkok-Sydney leg of their trip, Yahoo News reported.
While they acknowledged that the urine was likely the fault of the contracted cleaning crew in Bangkok, Qantas was ultimately responsible.
“They are contracted through Qantas so it is your responsibility that you must own,” they wrote before noting that Qantas had recently recorded record profits and record complaints, the New Zealand Herald reported.
After going back and forth several more times, the Australian airline finally conceded and issued the travelers a full reimbursement as well as an apology for the disgusting ordeal.
“We have apologized to the customer and will be providing a refund as a gesture of goodwill,” a Qantas spokesperson told the New Zealand Herald.
Airline reps added that they were “looking into what has occurred and have raised the issue with our cleaning supplier in Bangkok, which cleaned the aircraft prior to departure.”
The couple told the Herald they were disappointed it took such lengths to get the desired outcome, but they were “really happy” about getting a full refund.
Some readers wondered why the passengers “couldn’t smell the urine”
Urine does smell very acidic, like ammonia, but it takes some time for that to happen. Fresh urine might have bad odor if the person has eaten foods like broccoli, or if they have a UTI, but normally it doesn't smell like ammonia right away! I raise dogs, so ..... Lots of experience!
Yep! I was primary caregiver for my disabled father for 21 years and I changed A LOT of diapers. He would also wet the bed/chux often because the diapers didn’t fit well, so I’ve also changed a LOT of peed-on bedding XD My dad had a catastrophic brain injury, and had a feeding tube, and we gave him liquid nutrition and water several times a day, so his urine was usually quite dilute and had little smell unless you let a wet diaper sit on him. A lot of the times we didn’t even KNOW he’d wet the bed, because there was no smell! Plus, an airplane is close quarters with a lot of other people - so there were likely a lot of other smells going on in there. I can’t blame the passengers for NOT realizing it was urine, especially since why would they be expecting it to be anything other than water? XD
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Gesture of good will? I hate that, sounds like a favor. This wasn't a favor it was making amends for a mistake
It wasn't QANTAS's 'mistake'. People in front let their kid wee all over the place and some got on the pillow. Not sure how the airlines is responsible for this. Also, as someone else said - who on earth puts a pillow under the seat in front of them where feet have been? Seriously?
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Obviously very dilute urine. I was in hospital for a (non-epilepsy-related) outpatient appt and had a tonic-clonic seizure and was sent off to A&E while sleeping (it's usual to sleep deeply for a while directly after a tonic-clonic/Grand Mal). During the seizure I'd wet myself; I was wearing close-fitting jeans and was severely dehydrated so my pee was concentrated. I had to sit in my soaked jeans for a couple of hours before I had the privacy to take them off and when I did, I had a blister 1x2in on my inner thigh from how caustic my pee was - it literally gave me a 2nd degree chemical burn. They gave me a gown to go home in lol.
Urine does smell very acidic, like ammonia, but it takes some time for that to happen. Fresh urine might have bad odor if the person has eaten foods like broccoli, or if they have a UTI, but normally it doesn't smell like ammonia right away! I raise dogs, so ..... Lots of experience!
Yep! I was primary caregiver for my disabled father for 21 years and I changed A LOT of diapers. He would also wet the bed/chux often because the diapers didn’t fit well, so I’ve also changed a LOT of peed-on bedding XD My dad had a catastrophic brain injury, and had a feeding tube, and we gave him liquid nutrition and water several times a day, so his urine was usually quite dilute and had little smell unless you let a wet diaper sit on him. A lot of the times we didn’t even KNOW he’d wet the bed, because there was no smell! Plus, an airplane is close quarters with a lot of other people - so there were likely a lot of other smells going on in there. I can’t blame the passengers for NOT realizing it was urine, especially since why would they be expecting it to be anything other than water? XD
Load More Replies... Gesture of good will? I hate that, sounds like a favor. This wasn't a favor it was making amends for a mistake
It wasn't QANTAS's 'mistake'. People in front let their kid wee all over the place and some got on the pillow. Not sure how the airlines is responsible for this. Also, as someone else said - who on earth puts a pillow under the seat in front of them where feet have been? Seriously?
Load More Replies... Obviously very dilute urine. I was in hospital for a (non-epilepsy-related) outpatient appt and had a tonic-clonic seizure and was sent off to A&E while sleeping (it's usual to sleep deeply for a while directly after a tonic-clonic/Grand Mal). During the seizure I'd wet myself; I was wearing close-fitting jeans and was severely dehydrated so my pee was concentrated. I had to sit in my soaked jeans for a couple of hours before I had the privacy to take them off and when I did, I had a blister 1x2in on my inner thigh from how caustic my pee was - it literally gave me a 2nd degree chemical burn. They gave me a gown to go home in lol.
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