LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM — A British man who paid more than £1,200 to fly to South Africa with British Airways says he was very unhappy after he was given a “damp seat” to sit on.
Andrew Wilkinson, a 39-year-old IT consultant, boarded a flight from Heathrow to South Africa at the end of July to see his parents. When Wilkinson arrived at his economy class seat, he noticed it was damp, and the staff admitted to him that the wetness was, in fact, urine that was left by a passenger from a previous flight, British news outlet Metro reported.
Instead of helping Wilkinson to clean it up, a British Airways flight attendant gave him wet wipes from the lavatory instead, expecting him to take care of it himself. Wilkinson then said he could not sit on a wet seat like the one he was given, the attendant laughed and said, “I can see you are going to work me really hard on this flight, aren’t you?”
Wilkinson ended up putting a plastic bag over the seat then covering it with a blanket.
After complaining about his experience on Twitter, British Airways contacted Wilkinson and offered him 5,000 of their rewards points and a flight voucher worth £435, or a free upgrade on his next flight to South Africa. However, Wilkinson said that he was not concerned about the compensation, and he simply wants a proper apology.
British Airways told the Metro that they were very concerned and have apologized to Wilkinson, they also added that the cabin’s cleanliness is of utmost importance, and they perform frequent spots checks to make sure high standards are met.