Passengers Forced To Keep Their Feet Up On A 9-Hour Flight After The Toilet Overflowed
They only offered her 25% off her next booking...which she never plans on making.
aappp | Shutterstock A woman’s 9-hour flight turned into her worst nightmare after one of the toilets on board overflowed, seeping filthy water into the seat space in front of her.
However, what was possibly even more disgusting was the response she received from the airline after she made them aware of the incident.
After the toilet overflowed on the plane and the woman was forced to keep her feet on her seat for over 9 hours, she was only given a 25% off coupon for her next flight.
When Katie Wood booked a girls’ trip to Vienna with her mom, sister, and niece, none of them could have predicted that it would involve raw sewage.
However, that is exactly what they experienced while flying home from their vacation back to Toronto when one of the toilets on their Air Canada flight overflowed, spewing dirty water into their seating area.
VVF | Canva Pro
They were forced to pull their legs into their chests to keep their feet off the floor for the entirety of the 9-hour flight.
Wood shared some of the gag-inducing footage in a since-deleted TikTok video.
While she reported that the flight attendants were apologetic and did the best they could to control the situation, the airline company was not so helpful.
After they landed, the passenger contacted customer service for Air Canada and even sent them the footage of what happened on the flight, expecting to be compensated.
Instead, they offered her a different alternative.
“They said, ‘Oh okay, well, here’s 25% off your next booking,’” Wood reported.
The offer felt like a slap in the face to Wood. Not only did she never plan on booking with Air Canada again to protect herself from E. coli, but she also never received her upgraded seats with more legroom and was put in economy on the flight to Vienna.
Now, all she is seeking from the company is reimbursement for the seats she never got along with compensation for the entire flight since she and her family spent the duration of it dodging sewage water.
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“I know that this happens often because when you go to contact them, there’s an entire section that’s like, ‘I didn’t receive an upgrade that I paid for,’ and all you have to do is click that button,” she said.
“If you guys prepared for this on your website, you know that this happens.”
When Wood insisted on a refund, she was asked to prove that she wasn’t seated in the upgraded seats on the flight, thereby providing a photo of her boarding pass. However, since it had been a month after the flight, she reasonably no longer had her boarding pass.
She later received an email from the company stating that they could not fulfill her request.
“The goodwill compensation offered was for the inconvenience you experienced due to the washroom issue. While we realize this does not meet your expectations, we earnestly hope you will accept this in the manner it was intended,” the email read.
“Respectfully, we are unable to offer additional compensation as requested.”
The passenger said that the airline's original offer of 25% off her next booking was not enough, given what happened.
“Full refund for that flight is the only fair option,” one TikTok user commented.
“That’s insane! They owe you all of your money back, in my opinion,” another user wrote.
“Dispute the credit charge,” another recommended.
Although every airline company has its own policies regarding refunds and deals, if passengers are faced with a biohazard during a flight or do not receive the seats that they paid for, they deserve to be fully compensated.
Customers want to book their flights with reliable airline companies that will provide them with the utmost respect and appropriate services — and hopefully, ones that have an impeccable plumbing record to avoid any sewage from flooding into their seats!
Megan Quinn is a writer at YourTango who covers entertainment and news, self, love, and relationships.