A passenger on a British Airways flight from Vancouver (YVR) to London (LHR) complained to a flight attendant early into the trip that she saw bed bugs in her row and wanted to be relocated ASAP. However, the woman and her eight-year old daughter were not allowed to change seats as the flight was completely full according to the BBC. For the remainder of the nine hour flight, the two of them sat with the bugs and had several red bites upon landing in London.
Once on the ground, she could not get in touch with a live British Airways agent to warn them of the problem (not sure why a gate agent would not have sufficed) and so she tagged BA in her Twitter post with pictures of the bites. That got the job done, with the customer receiving an apology and an upgrade to business class on the way home.
A spokesman for BA told The Guardian the following:
“We have been in touch with our customer to apologise and investigate further. British Airways operates more than 280,000 flights every year and reports of bed bugs onboard are extremely rare. Nevertheless, we are vigilant and continually monitor our aircraft.”
The responses below are not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser. Responses have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser's responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.
2 comments
It happens. Passengers aren’t screened and bed bugs can hitch rides in/on clothing. It’s a wonder it doesn’t happen daily. If it’s a full flight, I can see why they weren’t relocated, but the air and ground crews should have done something upon landing.
Maybe a spraycan with insecticide as part of the onboard equipment would help? There’s all sorts of critters hitching rides on humans..