Here’s an interesting story, as flagged by PYOK, which raises the question of what liability airlines have for the personal belongings of passengers.
Continue reading: Yuck: Frontier Airlines Passenger Discovers Urine Soaked Backpack
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
If it were an international flight it’s likely covered by the Montreal Convention. Any decent airline could remunerate the customer, and then claim it back via their insurance, even if it’s not their fault.
At least Spirit has cleaners. Frankly, all the Spirit planes I’ve flown on are tidier than AA’s.
Ben, you make a good point that it would take a lot of whatever substance to get something truly soaked since the fluid would tend to come through the bottom rear of the seat. My feet are usually to each side of my backpack under the seat and I’d think they would have also gotten wet.
Ultimately it’s a bit of a catch-22. No airline is technically responsible for the actions of their passengers, but you’d think a token voucher that would be about the cost of dry cleaning the backpack would be the least they could do.
Frontier FA just reminded everyone flying Frontier.
Your flying on bloody sh*t.
As the British would say, Frontier are "taking the piss" with their customers. Literally.
I don't think you'll find any airline at least in the US who would cover this, especially at the point where it was presented to the carrier as damaged. Every airline has something in its contract of carriage (Montreal Convention notwithstanding) that it does not have liability for bags either remaining in a passenger's personal possession or, in several cases in the half dozen CoC's I just referenced, they define damage liability in reference to checked baggage and by omission exclude non-checked baggage.
Or United:
"In the case of unchecked baggage, the Carrier is liable only to the extent the damage resulted from its fault, or that of its servants or agents. The Carrier is not liable for baggage carried in the passenger compartment of the aircraft and remaining in the personal possession of the passenger.
NOTE: Assistance provided by crewmembers to properly store such items does not transfer liability to the Carrier."
So word to the wise... if you have a bag checked from the airplane cabin due to no overhead space... make for darn sure you get a receipt with something identifying you or the bag. I recognize that sometimes this isn't always possible... I had a reroute on AA where they put me through an out station to get between hubs and at the mid-point they said due to staffing they were dumping all gate check bags from the delayed arrival - waiting for the NC Lt Gov at the time - maybe he was too engrossed in his naughty slave photos - (PSA CRJ so everything with wheels....) at the baggage claim outside. I had a choice of either go get my bag and get stuck or make my connection. AA (or rather the outsourced baggage service agents at CLT) said we aren't responsible for carry-on bags that are delayed, pointing to the CoC. I won that one anyway out of spite as I could have driven 90 minutes and gone to get my bag, but I wanted it to cost them money.
As far as this being on Frontier, well, it could happen on any airline. I do agree with Ben's assessment of the physics of the whole thing though... depending on the aircraft, some of the Frontier seat models are basically a bench just with fake contoured cushions. And also would be very obvious, unless of course the person who urinated had dried it up. But enough to soil a bag underneath would be quite a bit.
I was on a Delta flight, in First Class, out of ATL one night where a woman so drunk she had to be helped on in a wheelchair by a red coat (I wanna know who she knew) and plopped into row 1 ended up not only giving us a peep show when she went to pull off the sarape top she had on and took her t-shirt with it, but also loudly informed the F/A during climb out/turbulence that she just peed herself since "you won't let me use the potty."
I've had my bag end up wearing an alcohol beverage or two thanks to seatmates or people in front of me, and yeah, nothing you can do about it. Unless you want to file a suit for damages against that person, subpoena passenger list to find out who it was, etc.
The fact it was Frontier is irrelevant, and if it even happened as described, unless you're a top tier FF who gets some club agent or F/A to toss you a $25/2500 mile voucher, you're gonna be told to pound sand.
Maybe she liked getting some on her? I once fired a ramp manager after one of the agents he was sleeping with beat the crap outta him in the airport parking lot one night and he didn't come to work for 3 days and wouldn't say why (then showed up with a black eye, but I knew that as I'd seen the video footage from at least a half dozen witnesses by that point). When asked why he failed to report it, as an assault on an employee, he said he kinda got off on it and enjoyed it. I took his ID and told him he'd hear something via FedEx within a week.
Probably a pack of apple juice spilled from a bag of precious passenger, not cleaned properly and we the new passengers bag?
I feel like that sounds more plausible then someone peeing in the seat, or that pee makes it under the seat.
@Ned, I’m curious - was the termination for job abandonment, fighting on airport property, failure to report the incident, or D) All of the above?
@Tim: Failure to report the incident and I forget the exact phrase use but lack of judgement as a manager for sleeping with one subordinate, borrowing money from her, in order to take another subordinate on vacation to sleep with her - all of which was admitted after the fact. Person who hit him got terminated as well.
I think we can all agree that urine has a distinct odor. We all know it when we see it.
I am a Registered Nurse and can state that urine is almost always the cleanest fluid in ones body. Nonetheless it is considered a bio-hazard and the seat in question should have been thoroughly cleaned and taken out of service until dry.
And yet.... it's Frontier we are discussing so ....yeah
A similar incident happened to my wife years ago. We were flying cross country after a TATL flight and a typical JFK-style delay. We were absolutely worn out and fell asleep once we sat in our seats. When we went to deplane, my wife put on her shoes only to slide into a puddle of vomit. Apparently someone in the family in front of us had been sick and some of that sickness made it into her shoes. She pulled it and her (now puke-covered) sock off and hobbled to the restroom to clean everything off.
I think that on the previous flight there was a pet in the kennel under the seat. The pet obviously peed and that's what the passenger found when she pulled out her backpack. Pretty disgusting if you ask me.
I flew on AirTran from Atlanta to Chicago. I put my fabric purse on the floor under the seat in front of me. When we were getting off the plane, I discovered my purse was wet & it smelled like coffee. I took it as a learning lesson for the next time. I treated it before I washed it & the damage was already done inside & out. I do not drink coffee, so it must have come running under the seats.
Guess what?
Frontier did not make it into the top 100 World Airline Rankings …. I wonder why?
https://www.worldairlineawards.com/worlds-top-100-airlines-2025/
I am a Frontier employee and I am an aircraft appearance agent. I can honestly tell you that we do clean the airplanes. We also consider, blood, vomit, and feces as a biohazard. It is also required that we complete and pass a biohazard course during our training, and are required to take and pass it again every 6 months. The majority of the deeper cleans are done at night, in Denver, at their main hub. During the day, when aircrafts are busy coming and going we are not given a lot of time to clean the planes. It is basically get the trash, vacuum and clean the restrooms. FA's are to let us know if they had a bio onboard, so that it can be taken care of properly.