<p>CTTC- very funny about PA’s- you must be reading the controversial PA thread that is going right now!</p>
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<p>All I can think of is (in the movie “Stand by Me”)…It was a Big Barf-o-rama…</p>
<p>^^^ What a vision…</p>
<p>It was a very bad idea to check into this thread over the lunch hour.</p>
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Indeed I am!</p>
<p>These stories are awful! I’ll be searching my seat area much more carefully on my next flight. Maybe I’ll bring gloves. I don’t fly that much but the worst I’ve ever had to deal with is a crying baby. Given the amount of complaining I’ve heard from nearby passengers when their seatback TV doesn’t work, you have every right to report this anywhere you can. They should have taken the incident more seriously and moved you to first class right away.</p>
<p>I would focus on the health aspects, as that’s most likely to cause airlines legal trouble if they don’t address it. The World Health Organization has guidelines on airline sanitation, although they don’t require seatback cleaning for stopovers of less than 60 minutes. But the guidelines also talk in detail about cleaning “after an event,” which is what collegeshopping experienced:
Guide to Hygiene and Sanitation in Aviation
<a href=“http://www.who.int/ihr/ports_airports/guide_hygiene_sanitation_aviation_3_edition_wcov.pdf[/url]”>http://www.who.int/ihr/ports_airports/guide_hygiene_sanitation_aviation_3_edition_wcov.pdf</a></p>
<p>I am flying in October…can’t wait ;(</p>
<p>I haven’t read the whole thread, just the first and last page. Does anyone else have an ad for Edgar Snyder (personal injury attorney) on the sidebar? I guess he thinks you have a case!</p>
<p>Didn’t the book “The Hot Zone” start with a airplane vomiting incident involving someone ill with Marburg virus? It’s the “lite” version of Ebola. </p>
<p>Viruses love air travel. Remember how Bird Flu went from Asia to Toronto so easily?</p>
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IDK, Maybe it’s just me, but I find this puzzling. I would never think to leave this behind for someone else to find. I liken this to leaving a dirty diaper behind.</p>
<p>On a flight from Bangkok to the U.S., I sat next to a CDC immunologist who just got done attending a conference on infectious diseases. He said the film “Contagion” was pretty realistic. </p>
<p>Glad to see our public servants flying economy class. ;)</p>
<p>GMT, there are all kinds of regs on fed employee travel. The only time the feds pay for DH to fly something better than coach is if he has at least a 14-hour flight. He uses personal frequent flyer miles for occasional upgrades if he is flying out Sunday for a meeting that will take place Monday morning European time (i.e., he leaves here at 6 pm, arrives there at 6 am – 1 am our time – and then goes directly to an 8 am meeting). On the flight, he works and then tries to catch some sleep, since once he gets to Europe, he will work a full day with his colleagues, then go back to his room and work from 6 pm - midnight keeping the balls in the air for the rest of his job, since it’s only 1 pm in DC.</p>
<p>Please don’t disparage fed employees. Sure, there are some bad apples, but I have seen plenty of those in corporate America, too. There are also a lot of fed employees who bust their tails – DH used to work in a big law firm, and I can tell you he works MUCH longer hours in the gov’t. 60-70 hours/week (before commute) are the norm.</p>
<p>OP, one would think that the flight attendants would have noticed the smell and alerted the cleaning crew when the plane landed…kind of hard to ignore!</p>
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<p>I fly United a lot internationally, and I like it just fine. OK, sure, the flight attendants are not competitive on youth and appearance with the major Asian airlines, but they are usually friendly enough… </p>
<p>Also easy to get free tickets from Star Alliance partner airlines such as Lufthansa.</p>
<p>@CountingDown,
I was not disparaging federal employees. On the contrary, I am impressed that they are so frugal w my tax dollars for business travel. :)</p>
<p>@sorghum,
Ever wonder why the flight attendants on the Asian carriers are perpetually young-- it’s not some miracle facial creme. They typically get a contact that lasts only a few years, renewable at the management’s discretion. The airlines use them, then dump them for a younger and hotter number.</p>
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That’s what I keep wondering. Aren’t the flight attendants onboard before the passengers? How could they not have noticed? And do the cleaning crews wear masks so they wouldn’t pick up the stench? (And DO masks completely obliterate the stench?)</p>
<p>I’d take an older, experienced flight attendant-male or female any day over a young one…as long as they are friendly and not burnt out. The older ones are some of the best, and some of the worst. I don’t care one bit what they look like.</p>
<p>greenwitch, I, too, immediately thought of The Hot Zone. But the man had Ebola, not Marburg, IIRC.</p>
<p>^Oh, that makes me feel better!</p>
<p>I’m flying Delta tomorrow… Hope Im not flying a “vomit comet”, because I’m already ticked off that Delta just bought a bunch of those other airplanes instead of the good ones!</p>
<p>I think I already told the story about a little kid barfing in the first class cabin as we were about to land… I felt so sorry for his mom! The flight attendants were already in their jumpseats as the plane was approaching Seatac. Mr B and I collected every piece of napkin we still had around and passed them across the isle it to the poor mom. She was really tired and so embarrassed!</p>