Airplane passenger claims he had to sit in vomit-stained seat

A British Airways passenger claims he had to sit for the duration of a flight from London to Seattle with what appeared to be dried vomit on his seat and wasn't offered an alternative place to sit.

Passenger Dave Gildea upgraded to business class for the May 21 flight and made the discovery while up in the air, according to Sun Online Travel.

"I had upgraded to business class at the airport in London Heathrow and was assigned seats 64K,” the 38-year-old told the website. "I didn't notice anything until about two hours into the British Airways flight when I popped down the foot stool so I could get some sleep and saw the vomit on the seat.”

A nonstop flight from London to Seattle can take more than nine hours, according to London Heathrow.

Gildea, who works at a Silicon Valley software company, told The Sun it was also “splashed on the wall behind and the floor below.”

He then said that he told cabin crew about it, and they asked him if he had been sick on the seat himself, according to Sun Online Travel.

"I went to the cabin crew and the attendant's first response was 'was this here when you boarded?' but it was clear it was dried in,” Gildea told the website.

"He didn't offer a seat change or an apology, so I asked for a blanket to cover it up so I could put my feet down,” Gildea continued. "Of course as I slept, I moved around on the blanket so I woke up with dried vomit on my feet.”

Gildea posted an image of the stained seat on Twitter.

“@British_Airways have DM'd you but haven't gotten a response so will try here,” he wrote. “This was my seat from London to Seattle yesterday, covered in dried in vomit, no offer to move seats, just insinuation from the attendant that I had done it even though it was dried in for days.”

Gildea said that, as a British Airways Silver Member, he was surprised about the lack of response he received from the airline. He said apart from being told they were looking into it, he heard nothing about the incident for two weeks.

“It was pretty disgusting. With the price I paid for the ticket, I was shocked,” he told the website.

Gildea admitted that he often receives “very good service” on British Airways and that the rest of the flight was fine, but said it was "poor" how the incident was being handled, according to Sun Online Travel.

“I tend to travel a lot - this was a very poor experience and the handling of the experience at the time and since then has been where the problem is,” he told the website. “It's frustrating how they can take your money in a second for a ticket, but when it is a problem it takes weeks.”

A British Airways spokesperson provided the following a statement in response to Gildea's claim:

“We pride ourselves on delivering a high standard of service and an enjoyable experience on board our flights, and we are sorry that on this occasion this fell short of our customers' expectations.”

“We are investigating and are in contact with the customer to apologize and resolve this matter.”

This story was reported from Los Angeles.

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