Air Tran Lets You Sit In Urine-Soaked Seat - Consumerist Comments

Air Tran Lets You Sit In Urine-Soaked Seat

cp87 — Sun, 23 Dec 2007 18:56:45 EST

Don't the seat cushions double as flotation devices? Shouldn't this mean that they are removable? And if it is an emergency device, wouldn't it be a good practice, or even the law, to have extra ones on hand?

cp87

Air Tran Lets You Sit In Urine-Soaked Seat

VoxPopuli — Sat, 22 Dec 2007 04:49:30 EST

AirTran: America's #1 airline.

I've flown AirTran without incident many times. I guess I'll have to start checking the seats now before I sit down.

VoxPopuli

Air Tran Lets You Sit In Urine-Soaked Seat

gman863 — Sat, 22 Dec 2007 00:15:01 EST

Maybe they should replace the barf bags with Depends.

gman863

Air Tran Lets You Sit In Urine-Soaked Seat

Elle Rayne — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 21:13:55 EST

I think people in service positions sometimes just get numb to the existence of people where they work. What else could explain the flight attendants' casual dismissal of the consequences of not blocking off or cleaning a seat soon to be used by another passenger?

Elle Rayne

Air Tran Lets You Sit In Urine-Soaked Seat

Xerloq — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 12:29:49 EST

@Buran: No, but I play one at my keyboard! I'm also jury and executioner. There's a dry cleaners in the back.

Xerloq

Air Tran Lets You Sit In Urine-Soaked Seat

girly — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 12:15:11 EST

Check out our piddly fares!

girly

Air Tran Lets You Sit In Urine-Soaked Seat

melmoitzen — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 11:50:19 EST

If I were the flight attendant, I could perhaps see keeping my mouth shut if the flight were completely full and I faced the wrath of Corporate for taking the seat out of service (loss of revenue, plus the cost of some comps for a bumped passenger).

Maybe she thought she'd get lucky and find the seat was assigned to a senile, incontinent person who would figure they pissed it themselves?

But if you read the article, the passenger took another seat after shedding her wet clothes.

Bad AirTran.

melmoitzen

Air Tran Lets You Sit In Urine-Soaked Seat

mzs — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 11:13:38 EST

In Norway SAS offered me a bag with free clothes and toiletries when they lost my luggage, I was so impressed I said no thanks. That was service. Then when I got to my destination a cab had already arrived and my luggage was waiting for me in my room! That just broke some laws of Physics.

mzs

Air Tran Lets You Sit In Urine-Soaked Seat

Brad2723 — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 10:17:38 EST

And she probably gave up her rights to sue the airline by purchasing a ticket. I'll bet you anything that there is an arbitration clause in there somewhere.

The problem is that the majority of us have grown accustomed to accepting whatever conditions these businesses force upon us.

Brad2723

Air Tran Lets You Sit In Urine-Soaked Seat

SpenceMan01 — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 09:38:17 EST

Alright, just came up with this doozie:

ValuJet Airlines -> AirTran Airlines -> Incontinental Airlines

SpenceMan01

Air Tran Lets You Sit In Urine-Soaked Seat

drjayphd — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 02:05:29 EST

@homerjay: "In the event that your seat cushion is too urine-saturated to use as a flotation device..."

drjayphd

Air Tran Lets You Sit In Urine-Soaked Seat

MrEvil — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 01:27:44 EST

@Buran: Urine isn't technically sterile. IT IS STERILE. All it is is excess water, electrolyte, and other unmetabolized nutrients. The smell comes from Urea which is how one's body rids itself of excess Nitrogen. There was no threat to the passenger's health.

However, the passenger should not have been forced to sit in it. The airline also should have freakin cleaned the aircraft prior to the next flight boarding. I also would not personally want to sit in urine for a typical airline flight's duration.

MrEvil

Air Tran Lets You Sit In Urine-Soaked Seat

Max2068 — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 00:03:45 EST

@lazyazz: Dammit!

I scanned down the whole thread, hoping nobody would make this joke.

"Ur-ine for big savings!"

That's what I get for coming late to the party.

Max2068

Air Tran Lets You Sit In Urine-Soaked Seat

dysthymia — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 22:31:33 EST

damn, it took a long time to get to the comment box this time. anyway, I've been in similar situation (dont ask me, and no I was not me) but we were in the middle of the ocean and we had that situation.

with not an empty single seat in the house (ha! funny) what the airline people did was to change the whole seat. Not the metal structure but the cushion that works as floating device. In matter of seconds they took the wet one, cleaned the floor and placed a new (and smelled like it) one in place.

Because in this case was no-body's fault, or if you want to blame an elder woman be my guest, they just made everybody feel better with some goodies.

well, this was pre 9-11 and international flight. Doesn't sound incredible that we have been taking so much crap from the airlines for that long does it?

dysthymia

Air Tran Lets You Sit In Urine-Soaked Seat

CurbRunner — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 21:48:05 EST

Makes me wonder what Air Tran's response would have been if someone had left a turd on the seat.

I'd sure check my in-flight meal real close if that occurred.

CurbRunner

Air Tran Lets You Sit In Urine-Soaked Seat

LaurenKitsune — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 21:14:44 EST

@mrsultana: You make a good point, but I have to laugh at "unscheduled crash." Do they schedule some these days? :)

I'd also like to know if anyone here has suggested what the airline should have done. You didn't like the plastic over the seat idea. Blocking off the whole row? Uh, then you would have 3 people complaining they were bumped off the flight?

Replacing the seat sounds like the best option, especially since they knew about it. They could have gotten one from an unscheduled plane while they were switching passengers.

LaurenKitsune

Air Tran Lets You Sit In Urine-Soaked Seat

hals000 — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 19:32:18 EST

[www.airliners.net]

Read the above forum on this issue, there apparently is A LOT more to the story. It sounds slightly sketchy that they would not do anything about this if it were true... my favorite comment from the above cited forum:

"
Perhaps this was an "accident" she had herself for whatever physical reason of condition, and in her embarassment, she got up and formulated in her head the way out of a hard spot. Think about it - if it happened to you because you had a physical condition - would you not, at least for a few seconds, wonder if there were an easy way to excuse yourself out of it and blame it on someone else? Let's face it, it's quite fashionable (no pun intended) to cast ire at an airline these days, and even a fast way to get some publicity, or at least a featured spot on U-tube. At this point with all the icky stuff with Southwest, delay rebellions in the cabin, who'd NOT believe you?

I just have to have faith that AirTran and nearly any other airline - if the FA really did know about what happened, would just not likely just ignore such a problem and let someone sit there."

by Breaker1011

what do you guys think about that?

hals000

Air Tran Lets You Sit In Urine-Soaked Seat

ihavetogonow — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 19:26:46 EST

My suggestion is that they take this very seriously.

ihavetogonow

Air Tran Lets You Sit In Urine-Soaked Seat

Imaginary_Friend — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 19:12:08 EST

@lazyazz: WINNAR!

Imaginary_Friend

Air Tran Lets You Sit In Urine-Soaked Seat

Granolaheadesq — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 18:52:27 EST

(Must put on your best Jackie Childs voice first, for AirTran's new slogan)

"If your seat's got pee, then the flight's on me."

Granolaheadesq

Air Tran Lets You Sit In Urine-Soaked Seat

forgottenpassword — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 18:49:09 EST

So the flight attendant knew about the urine-soaked seat & did NOTHING? WTF?????

Oh yeah, just let someone sit in urine & hope they dont notice (sound like the typical customer-hating flight attendant to me).

Flight attendant & airline is at fault in this situation.

Remind me to pack a change of clothing in my carryon the next time I fly. Would hate to sit in a urine or shit-smeared seat that some flight atendant didnt bother to block off.

For the sake of good public relations.... they should have at LEAST had someone in the airport bring the woman a pair of pants.... is THAT such a hard thing to do? NAH! Lets just throw her a blanket, kick her off the plane & make her trapse through the airport in front of all to see!

forgottenpassword

Air Tran Lets You Sit In Urine-Soaked Seat

mrsultana — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 18:37:12 EST

"In the even of an unscheduled crash, you seat can, and probably will, be used for a toilet..."

Actually, since the seats are often detachable, couldn't they have just swapped her seat for one of the attendant's? Considering, you know, they didn't consider it to be that big of a deal...

mrsultana

Air Tran Lets You Sit In Urine-Soaked Seat

homerjay — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 18:10:05 EST

@wesa: I wonder if the cushion floated....

homerjay

Air Tran Lets You Sit In Urine-Soaked Seat

vaxman — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 17:58:40 EST

@pinkbunnyslippers: Your post makes it sound like the customer is at fault. The FA is entirely at fault. If I was made to sit in piss, oh you bet I'd start demanding new clothes, I'd demand to speak to anyone in the exec center, I'd be calling the local papers and news stations, I would raise HELL for the FA and Air Tran. And if any of my demands were not met, I would call the police into the airplane. And as for anyone suggesting that the woman should have looked first, when entirely saturated, or if made of dark fabric, looking first won't save you.

The woman was not at fault of anything, and to suggest that she was makes you a corporate lacky or just plain stupid.

vaxman

Air Tran Lets You Sit In Urine-Soaked Seat

wesa — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 17:40:50 EST

Why couldn't they switch the cushion out? They are removable.

wesa

Air Tran Lets You Sit In Urine-Soaked Seat

reznicek111 — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 17:37:10 EST

@ TWSS: was that on the #147 CTA bus last week? ;)

reznicek111

Air Tran Lets You Sit In Urine-Soaked Seat

olivia2.0 — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 17:30:04 EST

@Buran: I'm pretty sure urine is only consider sterile the instant it comes out of the body, and then only if it is yours. But still, it is a bio-hazard issue.

olivia2.0

Air Tran Lets You Sit In Urine-Soaked Seat

burgundyyears — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 17:29:57 EST

@num1skeptic: Ha! I don't think there was anything in the agreement about tolerating biohazards. She is entitled to a refund and more as far as I'm concerned. Blocking off a seat from use isn't rocket science.

burgundyyears

Air Tran Lets You Sit In Urine-Soaked Seat

Womblebug — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 17:25:23 EST

@Buran: @Petrarch1603: Petrarch is absolutely right. My husband has worked for AirTran for over 10 years, since it was ValuJet. SabreTech shipped nondisabled, nonemptied oxygen generators as cargo, while advising ValuJet that the canisters were empty. When the generating mechanism was activated inflight by the canisters' movement, the heat generated by the reaction set the cargo hold on fire.

The people who worked for ValuJet at the time were devastated. To imply that the company "pulled a stunt" that lead to the deaths of over 100 people is ignorant.

Also, no, allowing people to sit in urine soaked seats is in no way policy. The crew of the plane will have a lot of explaining to do. Boston is not a maintenance hub, but at minimum the seat should have been blocked off for use.

Womblebug

Air Tran Lets You Sit In Urine-Soaked Seat

dodongo — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 17:13:30 EST

@TWSS: "That said, butch up, lady. You haven't lived until a tubercular homeless man has coughed blood in your face while you're packed onto a beer-and-sweat smelling bus like a sardine. Good times!"

You must be from San Francisco. Want to get lunch sometime?

dodongo

Air Tran Lets You Sit In Urine-Soaked Seat

dadelus — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 16:56:55 EST

Slogan idea...

Airtran: Now with added urine. Because we couldn't get any shittier!

dadelus

Air Tran Lets You Sit In Urine-Soaked Seat

Bunklung — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 16:55:02 EST

My big question:

Was asparagus involved?

Bunklung

Air Tran Lets You Sit In Urine-Soaked Seat

rjhiggins — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 16:43:54 EST

@phospholipid: Keep arguing, buddy. With each post you just sound dumb and dumber.

rjhiggins

Air Tran Lets You Sit In Urine-Soaked Seat

FightOnTrojans — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 16:42:35 EST

@DrGirlfriend: Exactly! That is the office prank I pull on my fellow cubicle dwellers: Get a cup of water, pour it on their chair, observe from a distance as they sit down then immediately get up as they feel the squishiness of the chair and the water soak their backsides. Now they have a choice to make: run and hide in the bathroom, allowing everyone to notice that you had a little "accident" or sit back down on the squishy seat. Hilarity and fun for all!

Back on topic: The AirTran employees were just wrong to let this happen, especially since they knew the seat was wet and did nothing to forewarn anyone of the situation.

FightOnTrojans

Air Tran Lets You Sit In Urine-Soaked Seat

Wormfather — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 16:38:41 EST

@TomK: I lol'd

Wormfather

Air Tran Lets You Sit In Urine-Soaked Seat

sly100100 — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 16:37:03 EST

@Xerloq:
I'm with you! my pants would suddenly become pure gold! lol

sly100100

Air Tran Lets You Sit In Urine-Soaked Seat

Dave_Surfs — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 16:15:20 EST

As if sitting on it wasn't bad enough...this one brings a whole new meaning to "your seat cushion may be used as a flotation device." How about putting your arms through the straps and holding it tight to your chest?

Dave_Surfs

Air Tran Lets You Sit In Urine-Soaked Seat

pegr — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 16:15:13 EST

I just threw up in my mouth a little...

pegr

Air Tran Lets You Sit In Urine-Soaked Seat

Suaveydavey — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 16:11:37 EST

In the event of a urine landing, your seat cushion may be used as a refund device.

Suaveydavey

Air Tran Lets You Sit In Urine-Soaked Seat

levenhopper — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 16:10:34 EST

@Xerloq: Just like the judge's pants when he sued that dry cleaner?

levenhopper

Air Tran Lets You Sit In Urine-Soaked Seat

SpenceMan01 — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 15:58:20 EST

@joemama321: I'm surprised it took that long for someone to mention swapping cushions. My FIRST thought was "Well if the flight attendants knew about it, why wasn't the cushion changed? Lest the flight attendants forget their little safety spiel: They can be removed!"

Had the flight attendants been unaware of the "accidend", it might be excusable. The fact that they knew and still did nothing means that AirTran owes this lady much more than a refund and a pair of pants. If I were her, I'd be on the phone with a lawyer (and I'm not sue-happy).

SpenceMan01

Air Tran Lets You Sit In Urine-Soaked Seat

magus_melchior — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 15:56:57 EST

@BobCoyote: I'm with you. The ones who didn't think keeping people off that seat as a priority need to be looking for another job, preferably in a field that doesn't deal with people.

magus_melchior

Air Tran Lets You Sit In Urine-Soaked Seat

croeso — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 15:46:03 EST

A few years ago I was on a cross country flight on the late lamented SunJet when an incontinent passenger decided to smell up the plane. While he stood embarrassed in the isle two flight attendants wrapped his seat with a split open garbage bag and taped it in place. Not exactly rocket science and it worked.

If little three plane SunJet had this figured out I'm amazed to hear that AirTran doesn't!

croeso

Air Tran Lets You Sit In Urine-Soaked Seat

lazyazz — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 15:40:48 EST

New Motto

AirTran, Urine for a big suprise.

lazyazz

Air Tran Lets You Sit In Urine-Soaked Seat

Reeve — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 15:37:34 EST

@Curiosity:
IIED is very difficult to get. NIED is even harder to get. Courts really shy away from upholding such claims except in the most extreme circumstances.

Reeve

Air Tran Lets You Sit In Urine-Soaked Seat

lazyazz — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 15:36:42 EST

@hypnotik_jello: Blood is also sterile

lazyazz

Air Tran Lets You Sit In Urine-Soaked Seat

youbastid — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 15:22:45 EST

@Balisong: Don't forget about the wavy lines of odor! She should have noticed those too.

youbastid

Air Tran Lets You Sit In Urine-Soaked Seat

joemama321 — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 15:18:16 EST

I never thought I'd say this, but Delta evidently excels at something.

A kid pissed on what was to be my wife's seat prior to our flight. They actually delayed the plane by 10 minutes to swap out to a piss-free seat cushion. It would be enough to be nose-deep in stale fart in the event of a water landing, but piss? That crosses the line.

Props to you, Delta.

joemama321

Air Tran Lets You Sit In Urine-Soaked Seat

num1skeptic — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 14:55:07 EST

@PracticalMagic: yeah make a big stink on an airplane and let us know how it works out.

num1skeptic

Air Tran Lets You Sit In Urine-Soaked Seat

tamoko — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 14:54:21 EST

Wow... I may be standing on plane flights from now on.

tamoko

Air Tran Lets You Sit In Urine-Soaked Seat

homerjay — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 14:54:01 EST

@phospholipid: Why don't you just do us all a favor and verify your theory. Book a flight, get on the plane, piss all over the seat (it helps to get REALLY liquored up first) and then take a bunch of pictures, especially where its 'dripping wet.'
Then come back and post them. That'll show em. That'll show em all!

homerjay

Air Tran Lets You Sit In Urine-Soaked Seat

badgeman46 — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 14:52:55 EST

The Golden Showers Bring May Flowers Fare Sale!

badgeman46

Air Tran Lets You Sit In Urine-Soaked Seat

econobiker — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 14:52:41 EST

I have seen a young girl who wet herself get up after the plane landed and her mother wrap a sweatshirt around the child. And the seat, covered with a leather or vinyl type material, was visibly moist after they de-planed.

Just another good reason to carry a towel while traveling. (HHGTTG)

econobiker

Air Tran Lets You Sit In Urine-Soaked Seat

DeeJayQueue — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 14:50:41 EST

@hypnotik_jello: @Buran: The Urine of a healthy person is sterile for a short time after it leaves the body.

However, any kidney or liver problems, drug problems or any number of other afflictions can leave traces of infection, blood, pathogens, etc.... Just because the germs are dead doesn't mean there aren't other harmful things in it.

Also, who knows what kind of condition the previous passenger was in... obviously there was something wrong with them, they peed the seat.

Just because in lab conditions urine is sterile doesn't mean I'm not going to treat it like a biohazard if I encounter it IRL.

DeeJayQueue

Air Tran Lets You Sit In Urine-Soaked Seat

flypay — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 14:45:50 EST

New Fare Sale Slogan - "Want a hot seat at a hot price? Ur-ine Luck!"

flypay

Air Tran Lets You Sit In Urine-Soaked Seat

PracticalMagic — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 14:44:17 EST

I think that I'd have insisted on taking the flight attendants seat, and he/she could have the one assigned to me. I'd have made a BIG stink about it too, (when they refused to do so) so that everyone else including the pilots heard it. I'll bet that attendant wouldn't have sat in that seat, even if it meant saving their job. What a cold, heartless jerk.

PracticalMagic

Air Tran Lets You Sit In Urine-Soaked Seat

SacraBos — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 14:40:33 EST

@TWSS: "You haven't lived until a tubercular homeless man has coughed blood in your face while you're packed onto a beer-and-sweat smelling bus like a sardine. Good times!"

Don't you mean, you have lived... much longer?

SacraBos

Air Tran Lets You Sit In Urine-Soaked Seat

rolla — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 14:39:37 EST

guess the seats weren'y leather. What do you expect?...its Air Tran.

rolla

Air Tran Lets You Sit In Urine-Soaked Seat

SacraBos — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 14:38:57 EST

@phospholipid: Don't really understand what "foam" is, do we? It's basically a synthentic SPONGE. Foam (forget the upholstry) can feel dry on the surface, but once compressed by sitting on it, you'll suddenly notice how much liguid it's still holding.

SacraBos

Air Tran Lets You Sit In Urine-Soaked Seat

TWSS — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 14:37:10 EST

@phospholipid: Having once sat in a bus seat that was liberally doused in urine, I can tell you that two common conditions can contribute to not noticing even if you do a quick visual inspection:

1) Dark upholstery. There's a reason why they use it, it hides stains. Honestly, I've sat in much worse on the bus, and it's always the dark upholstery with the random pattern that requires an up-close-and-personal sniff test before I'll put my heiny on it anymore.

2) Darkened cabin. Especially this time of year, when you're taking an oh-dark-thirty morning flight or an evening red eye. The cabin ceiling lights are on, but the open overhead bins throw a shadow over the seats. Unless you take the time to reach over (with that magical spare third arm you've got when you're hauling all your crap onboard) to turn on the overhead light, you wouldn't see a large housecat on your seat.

If the passenger in question wasn't intimately familiar with the ins-and-outs of public transit, I can't really blame her for not being rigorous about checking her seat for bodily fluids before sitting. That said, butch up, lady. You haven't lived until a tubercular homeless man has coughed blood in your face while you're packed onto a beer-and-sweat smelling bus like a sardine. Good times!

TWSS

Air Tran Lets You Sit In Urine-Soaked Seat

Balisong — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 14:32:08 EST

@phospholipid: Well of course she should have noticed the squiggly circle of bright yellow liquid resting on top of her seat. ...that's what urine always looks like right? I suspect it congeals that way.

Balisong

Air Tran Lets You Sit In Urine-Soaked Seat

SacraBos — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 14:31:04 EST

@Xerloq: Well, they were my lucky pants, and since I was starting my new judge job, they were worth $89,000,000!

SacraBos

Air Tran Lets You Sit In Urine-Soaked Seat

Curiosity — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 14:25:33 EST

@num1skeptic:
I would love to read the terms and conditions that contains a "#1" clause. They don't even think that a renter has to endure such conditions if they complain via the "implied warranty of habitability".

Curiosity

Air Tran Lets You Sit In Urine-Soaked Seat

smoothtom — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 14:24:23 EST

Why piss away your money? Fly AirTran for the lowest fares!

smoothtom

Air Tran Lets You Sit In Urine-Soaked Seat

DrGirlfriend — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 14:23:34 EST

@phospholipid: Since you clearly always inspect your seats thoroughly before setting your behind on them, then I can see how it could be inconceivable to you that, much like a sponge, damp foam cushioning under a thin layer of upholstery could still secrete a certain amount of moisture once pressure is applied to it.

DrGirlfriend

Air Tran Lets You Sit In Urine-Soaked Seat

CumaeanSibyl — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 14:22:29 EST

@phospholipid: "your thinly veild sarcasm makes you a great asset to this forum."

... why yes, in fact, it does. It's so nice to see you acknowledging the contributions of other commenters when you're not being hilarious.

CumaeanSibyl

Air Tran Lets You Sit In Urine-Soaked Seat

hypnotik_jello — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 14:17:24 EST

@Buran: Actually urine isn't sterile as it can contain blood particles which are nearly undetectable to the naked eye.

hypnotik_jello

Air Tran Lets You Sit In Urine-Soaked Seat

Curiosity — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 14:15:06 EST

@UCLAJason:
There is always IIED - Intentional infliction of emotional distress [en.wikipedia.org] or NIED - Negligent infliction of emotional distress [en.wikipedia.org]

Curiosity

Air Tran Lets You Sit In Urine-Soaked Seat

phospholipid — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 14:13:23 EST

@ideagirl: your thinly veild sarcasm makes you a great asset to this forum.

no, i am not suggesting that everyone pee's everywhere. i'm suggesting that i take a 1-2 second glimpse [at best] at my seat to see if it's wet, has an object on it, or even remains of an object. it takes literally 2 seconds, but your belligerent comment suggests only urine. I also didn't state anything about "gets when they deserve", the comment was a "that sucks, if she checked it would have helped".

As for the seat soaking comment, I find it hard to believe without empirical evidence that seat cushion of could withhold that much urine, and not be dripping or noticeably wet, to the point where she sat down and her pants became wet, AND AFTERWARDS he pants remained visibly wet.

phospholipid

Air Tran Lets You Sit In Urine-Soaked Seat

ideagirl — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 14:08:16 EST

@phospholipid: Absolutely. With the way people walk around just peeing themselves in public places these days, it only makes sens to check. When I travel, I ALWAYS examine my seat for the urine of the previous passenger before sitting down. Anybody who doesn't and ends up in this situation deserves exactly what they get. Crybaby.

/sarcasm

ideagirl

Air Tran Lets You Sit In Urine-Soaked Seat

catnapped — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 14:07:42 EST

@causticitty: "Don't worry sir...we'll just place this nylon slipcover (plastic bag) over the seat...you won't smell a thing afterward!"

catnapped

Air Tran Lets You Sit In Urine-Soaked Seat

Reeve — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 14:07:28 EST

@Black Bellamy: what would the lawsuit be for? she already got the price of her pants and the ticket.

Reeve

Air Tran Lets You Sit In Urine-Soaked Seat

DrGirlfriend — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 14:03:30 EST

@phospholipid: It is possible for a seat, especially one that is upholstered, to still be damp underneath, in the cushioning, and be relatively innocuous-looking on the surface.

DrGirlfriend

Air Tran Lets You Sit In Urine-Soaked Seat

forever_knight — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 14:01:13 EST

@Buran: urine is sterile as it comes out of the body. then it starts to get unsterile real fast...

forever_knight

Air Tran Lets You Sit In Urine-Soaked Seat

PinkBox — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 13:58:17 EST

Ugh, the smell alone had to be awful. I feel sorry for all of the passengers who had to sit close to that seat.

PinkBox

Air Tran Lets You Sit In Urine-Soaked Seat

phospholipid — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 13:56:49 EST

Hah, thanks for all the comments. Sure, argue away that it's the airlines fault, because it is. This shouldn't have happened. My comment was I couldn't believe that they didn't do the 2 second look down at your seat. Is that so hard? Isn't that a common act before one sits down? Or should I be able to comfortably sit anyone, just because the circumstances permit that by the fallacy of "common sense" that something should be done to my seat before I sit, especially because I paid for my seat? This mistake is unforgivable from the airline, but seriously, if the urine was in a puddle to be soaked up into the pants, and she didn't notice it at all?

phospholipid

Air Tran Lets You Sit In Urine-Soaked Seat

Arlovski — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 13:56:25 EST

@Petrarch1603: You are exactly correct.

If the phone service in my house went out because some drunken idiot wrapped his car around a telephone pole and took out the phone lines, I wouldn't blame the contractor that built my house for the absence of phone service. I would blame the idiot that took out the phone lines.

In this case, the crew members and employees that knew about the pissy seat and did nothing should be severely punished. That is just disgusting. If Airtran treated all of their customers this way on purpose, then there would not be an Airtran. This is just very poor judgment by a small group of people that happened to be wearing an Airtran name tag.

Arlovski

Air Tran Lets You Sit In Urine-Soaked Seat

algormortis — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 13:54:00 EST

i dunno but if i'm paying 400 bucks to be crammed into a tiny seat and treated like crap, i think the least they can do is make sure that the seat isn't, you know, covered in bodily fluids.

then again i am flying United this weekend, where flight crews that hate you are the norm and they enjoy leaving you in denver. this really feels like something UAL or USair would do...

algormortis

Air Tran Lets You Sit In Urine-Soaked Seat

strixus — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 13:53:11 EST

This almost beats the freshly (non cleaned) vomit encrusted seat and wall I had to endure for six hours on Southwest once.
Almost.

strixus

Air Tran Lets You Sit In Urine-Soaked Seat

MMD — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 13:50:43 EST

I believe it would be a "fare sale"?

MMD

Air Tran Lets You Sit In Urine-Soaked Seat

ManicPanic — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 13:49:10 EST

@zibby: I have heard that was SouthWORST but that is good to know.

I don't know about anyone else, but I hate being THAT person who holds up the entire line so I do just plop down in my seat expecting it to be free of human excrement. I generally sit down right on top of the pillows and blanket.

By the way, my friend was a flight attendant, and NEVER use the pillows or blankets. Just your friendly holiday travel tip.

ManicPanic

Air Tran Lets You Sit In Urine-Soaked Seat

stevemis — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 13:47:40 EST

Here comes the new slogan... "AirTran: What a pisser!"

stevemis

Air Tran Lets You Sit In Urine-Soaked Seat

i wonder why comments have been disabled? Nobody told me why. — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 13:36:36 EST

if i remember right, the valuejet crash was because a shipping company shipped some oxygen canisters in a tight enclosed box, one of those canisters opened (which causes it to get really really hot) and a chain reaction explosion occured.

i wonder why comments have been disabled? Nobody told me why.

Air Tran Lets You Sit In Urine-Soaked Seat

TomK — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 13:33:01 EST

Shenanigans.

If this happened while flying into Boston the airport would of shut down, and the woman would of been arrested at the gate, charged with interfering with a flight crew, failure to obey the instructions of a flight crew, disturbing the peace, possession of more then 3 ounces of liquid on a plane, possession of biological agents, terrorist threats, and held for 17 hours for questioning without water or a bathroom, before being put in jail for 6 months, fined 2.2 million dollars, put on the no flight list, and prohibited from wearing terrorist pants ever again.

I call bullshit. No way this happened in Boston without the woman getting arrested. If it did, Boston has improved a lot in the last year. In context this is pretty good treatment for Boston.

TomK

Air Tran Lets You Sit In Urine-Soaked Seat

num1skeptic — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 13:29:27 EST

i'm sure someone's going to say that when she bought the ticket, she agreed to their terms and you are committing fruad if you get your money back because she clearly had a choice to buy a ticket elsewhere, where they had a urine refund policy. lol.

num1skeptic

Air Tran Lets You Sit In Urine-Soaked Seat

youbastid — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 13:28:55 EST

a href="#c3409756">catnapped: I flew in a plane once that had a plastic bag over one of the seats. Just figured the seat was broken or something. People didn't really freak out.

youbastid

Air Tran Lets You Sit In Urine-Soaked Seat

ancientsociety — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 13:28:42 EST

This stuff is a regular occurence on the CTA

ancientsociety

Air Tran Lets You Sit In Urine-Soaked Seat

testsicles — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 13:28:29 EST

I would have dropped trou and left a steamy turd on the seat.

testsicles

Air Tran Lets You Sit In Urine-Soaked Seat

sethom — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 13:25:25 EST

yummy

sethom

Air Tran Lets You Sit In Urine-Soaked Seat

youbastid — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 13:24:30 EST

@phospholipid: HA! I was wondering how someone was gonna blame the victim this time. At first I thought someone was gonna say "That's what you get when you fly cheap," but this is much better. Thanks for clearing that up for me, chief!

youbastid

Air Tran Lets You Sit In Urine-Soaked Seat

davebg5 — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 13:23:28 EST

Fly the new and improved AirTran...now with more pissy goodness!!!

davebg5

Air Tran Lets You Sit In Urine-Soaked Seat

neithernor — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 13:20:22 EST

I think AirTran just discovered its new marketing demographic.

neithernor

Air Tran Lets You Sit In Urine-Soaked Seat

Amelie — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 13:19:41 EST

@phospholipid: God forbid you should actually know what you're talking about.

It's fairly difficult to sit down in a plane without looking at the seat, BUT considering the synthetic upholstery used on these cushions, the covering was most likely dry, while the inner materials/foam was still soaked.

Amelie

Air Tran Lets You Sit In Urine-Soaked Seat

pinkbunnyslippers — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 13:16:27 EST

@catnapped: Then maybe block off that entire row? Not let anyone sit there? Good point.

I just find it deplorable that there isn't some sort of protocol for handling a situation like this. And if this IS their protocol, Air Tran should be ashamed of themselves.

pinkbunnyslippers

Air Tran Lets You Sit In Urine-Soaked Seat

DrGirlfriend — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 13:15:33 EST

@phospholipid: Oh, brother.

DrGirlfriend

Air Tran Lets You Sit In Urine-Soaked Seat

UpsetPanda — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 13:15:17 EST

The flight attendants should be at fault for this...they're responsible for reporting incidents such as this, and I know when planes get to an airport, crews go through and pick up trash, take items left behind, etc. It's not possible that NO ONE aside from one or two flight attendants noticed the smell or was told there was a situation with a previous passenger.

And what about the guy who peed? I don't care if he's 95 years old, getting up to go to the bathroom isn't difficult.

UpsetPanda

Air Tran Lets You Sit In Urine-Soaked Seat

Black Bellamy — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 13:14:19 EST

that's totally lawsuit material

Black Bellamy

Air Tran Lets You Sit In Urine-Soaked Seat

homerjay — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 13:13:13 EST

@phospholipid: You can't be serious.

homerjay

Air Tran Lets You Sit In Urine-Soaked Seat

DeeJayQueue — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 13:13:00 EST

@phospholipid: Yea, because it's reasonable for everyone to assume that the person before you pissed the seat.

DeeJayQueue

Air Tran Lets You Sit In Urine-Soaked Seat

zibby — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 13:10:08 EST

@sassenach: You're damn right. I flew them once and it was like the Port Authority Bus Terminal with wings.

zibby

Air Tran Lets You Sit In Urine-Soaked Seat

catnapped — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 13:09:56 EST

@pinkbunnyslippers: But if they did put plastic over the seat, wouldn't the adjacent passenger(s) get a wee bit suspicious?

"Oh not to worry--somebody just had a little weewee accident on the seat--your seat right next to it is perfectly fine"

Somehow I don't think that would reassure them...

catnapped

Air Tran Lets You Sit In Urine-Soaked Seat

Curiosity — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 13:07:50 EST

Somehow a refund does not seem like enough.

Curiosity

Air Tran Lets You Sit In Urine-Soaked Seat

Buran — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 13:07:34 EST

@sassenach: I've never flown them. Never will, considering their little stunt in the Everglades. (Yes, folks, AirTran is really ValuJet).

Buran

Air Tran Lets You Sit In Urine-Soaked Seat

sassenach — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 13:07:08 EST

Air Tran makes Greyhound seem like the Orient Express. I avoid them at all cost.

sassenach

Air Tran Lets You Sit In Urine-Soaked Seat

Buran — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 13:06:50 EST

@Xerloq: Are you a judge?

Buran

Air Tran Lets You Sit In Urine-Soaked Seat

RAREBREED — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 13:04:57 EST

OMG! Why wouldn't the staff BLOCK OFF THE SEAT if they KNEW beforehand that someone had urinated on the seat!? That's DISGUSTING, unsanitary, and unhealthy! Remember WACO, TX!? The were throwing body waste at the officers that cordoned off the compound! How could someone allow another person to sit in a urine soaked seat?!!! Are we now supposed to paper test seats on airlines before we sit in them?!

RAREBREED

Air Tran Lets You Sit In Urine-Soaked Seat

pinkbunnyslippers — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 13:03:52 EST

I think the flight attendants' response wasn't adequate whatsoever, but it's one of those scenarios where you ask "well what else *could* they do?". You're already on the plane, which means you can't leave. They can't get your bags for you, so getting upset at them at that is futile. So in this instance, a FA should have at least offered to change her seat, to "close" the urine-one off, wrap it in plastic or what have you, or if no other seats were available, to ask the customer if she wanted a voucher for the next available flight.

What did *she* want them to do? She wanted a "clothes voucher"?

And I'm pretty sure there are some sort of regulations against them handling your bags at certain points pre/post flight.

This is a scenario in which better communication probably would've made for a happier consumer...

pinkbunnyslippers

Air Tran Lets You Sit In Urine-Soaked Seat

hideouslywrinkled — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 13:03:15 EST

It will be the "Our prices are so low... you'll piss yourself!" sale.

hideouslywrinkled

Air Tran Lets You Sit In Urine-Soaked Seat

Xerloq — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 13:03:14 EST

If they offered me a refund for my pants, they would suddenly inflate in value to over $20,000,000.

Xerloq

Air Tran Lets You Sit In Urine-Soaked Seat

phospholipid — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 13:03:03 EST

god forbid you actually look down before you sit.

phospholipid

Air Tran Lets You Sit In Urine-Soaked Seat

BobCoyote — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 13:02:48 EST

I suppose its too much to hope that the flight attendants who did nothing to mark the seat as off-limits get fired?

BobCoyote

Air Tran Lets You Sit In Urine-Soaked Seat

UpsetPanda — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 13:02:10 EST

Shouldn't have clicked on this while I'm a) eating lunch and b) sitting.

UpsetPanda

Air Tran Lets You Sit In Urine-Soaked Seat

coan_net — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 13:02:08 EST

I would understand if the flight attendentd did not know about it - but it sounds like they knew someone there pissed in the chair - you would think they would have at least tried to dry it off, or something.

coan_net

Air Tran Lets You Sit In Urine-Soaked Seat

Buran — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 13:02:05 EST

You would think this would be actually illegal under laws regarding biohazards (and body fluids are biohazards). Yes, urine is technically sterile and should be harmless, but still...

Buran

Air Tran Lets You Sit In Urine-Soaked Seat

catnapped — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 12:59:47 EST

Just to save the others the trouble of posting...

EWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!

catnapped

Air Tran Lets You Sit In Urine-Soaked Seat

IrisMR — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 12:59:06 EST

When will someone invent the IT?

IrisMR