A couple have claimed they sat in urine for up to 10 hours on a Qantas plane after finding a wet pair of children’s underwear on the floor in front of them.
The New Zealand couple, from Wellington, were on the first leg of their flight home from Bangkok to Sydney on December 30 when they noticed some of their items were wet.
They had placed a bag with $70 worth of duty-free items, a neck pillow and a Qantas pillow underneath the seat in front of them.
But when one of them pulled out the items, they noticed they were wet and the pillow was stained.
Initially thinking the dampness was just water that had been spilled, the couple put the items in the overhead locker and returned to their seats.
A couple have claimed they sat in urine for up to 10 hours on a Qantas plane after finding a wet pair of children’s underwear on the floor in front of them (stock image)
The man dried off the neck pillow, however, and used it on the flight.
It wasn’t until the end of their journey when they noticed the pair of children’s undies under the seat in front.
‘Now we know that we have been sitting in urine for a 10-hour trip,’ one of the travellers, who wished to remain anonymous, told NZ Herald.
‘And the travel neck pillow, well, I had been using that for the last couple of hours, under the assumption it was just a bit wet from water.’
The horrified couple called over a flight attendant who removed the underwear and said she would speak to her supervisor.
The couple said they were offered 10,000 Qantas points, which they refused as they no longer want to travel with the airline, and instead demanded a refund for the $3,827 flight.
Qantas initially knocked back the request for a refund in an email sent on January 10, saying the ticket had been fully utilised.
The couple responded and said it was ‘simply unacceptable’.
It wasn’t until the end of their journey when they noticed the pair of children’s undies under the seat in front (stock image)
Qantas is understood to have issued a full refund to the couple ‘as a gesture of goodwill’.
A Qantas spokesperson said all international aircraft are cleaned in-between flights, including vacuuming and disinfecting.
‘All our international aircraft are cleaned between each flight, including vacuuming seats and disinfecting surfaces,’ the statement read.
‘We are looking into what has occurred and have raised the issue with our cleaning supplier in Bangkok, which cleaned the aircraft prior to departure.’
The spokesperson claimed cabin crew were only made aware of the situation moments before the plane began to descend.