A businessman who paid more than £1,200 to fly to South Africa with British Airways was given a seat that a previous passenger had urinated over.
And to add insult to injury, he claims that when he protested, a British Airways stewardess handed him wet wipes to clear up the mess himself.
IT consultant Andrew Wilkinson, 39, says it happened when he boarded a flight at the end of July to jet out from Heathrow to see his parents.
Mr Wilkinson was on board a BA flight to South Africa when he sat in the seat covered in urine
After finding his seat in economy, he noticed it was damp. Mr Wilkinson, from South-West London, said: ‘I called the stewardess who agreed the dampness was urine. She went to the toilet and came back with some wipes and expected me to clean up the mess myself.
‘I told her, “I can’t sit here” but she just laughed. Her response was, “I can see you are going to work me really hard on this flight, aren’t you?”‘
Mr Wilkinson, who paid £1,242 for his round trip, said: ‘In the end, I put a plastic bag over the seat and covered it with a blanket.’
After Mr Wilkinson took to Twitter to vent his anger, BA spotted his tweets and offered him 5,000 of their Avios reward points in compensation. It then upped its offer to a flight voucher worth £435, or a free upgrade on his next flight to Cape Town.
He said: ‘I am not bothered about compensation. I’d just like a proper apology. The one they sent me was clearly a general response.’ Last night, the union which represents flight crews said Mr Wilkinson’s ordeal was evidence of how BA standards had been hit by cost-cutting.
IT consultant Andrew Wilkinson, 39, says it happened when he boarded a flight at the end of July to jet out from Heathrow to see his parents
Unite’s Oliver Richardson said: ‘The Cape Town route is staffed by cabin crew who earn a pittance and have been taking industrial action. This passenger’s experience suggests the service is being hit.’ Last year, BA scrapped free food for economy passengers on short-haul flights in favour of selling M&S sandwiches.
Then in May, the airline was hit by a huge IT crash, which saw 726 flights cancelled and 75,000 passengers stranded and cost it an estimated £80 million in compensation and lost business.
A BA spokesman said: ‘We have been in touch with our customer to apologise and make amends.’