https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/can-sit ... 07240.html

Making the rounds in the news and social media, a Medallion customer says he was told to either sit in a feces-stained seat or to not take the flight from ATL to MIA. He found his shoes and ankles were soiled (wear socks!) after he sat down. He says flight attendants told him they were busy with boarding but he could get off to talk to someone, then a “confrontational” manager told him he could either sit in the seat or stay behind.

I’m thinking there is more to the story, though with photos and other passengers as witnesses I’m not sure what it is.

That stinks.

I tend to be very pro airline before reading any stories like this, but this pax sounds pretty darn calm and credible. Sounds like a total breakdown of ownership on DL's part, constantly passing the buck.

Crazy how in 2018 the crew does not know that these things may go viral and turn into a much worse issue, especially for a diamond medallion. This may cost DL more in PR than it would have to delay the flight and take care of the sh*t that was all around. Bad decisions all around.

Makes me think of my flight yesterday HNL-LAX with the stench of urine in first...

That's what happens when the emotion support dog issue continues to plague the industry

JHwk wrote:

Makes me think of my flight yesterday HNL-LAX with the stench of urine in first...

Obviously wafting from economy.

I hope that as a Medallion status pax that he was compensated but no matter what, this was unacceptable on any level as to the health and safety of the complaining pax and all others on the plane. Since this was the last flight of the day and overbooked so impossible to move the pax and others in that area, the flight should have been held until a proper cleaning was done.

This is absolutely pathetic. I can not imagine that Delta would not want every passenger to see that the row of seats were properly cleaned. This is incredibly bad PR. There is no way that any of those Delta employees would fly in those seats. That power hungry “manager” needs some serious coaching.

All around a "Crappy" situation. lol.

I am a delta medallion and am generally happy, but in this case, it really does seem to be the case of... "last flight, let's get it out and make it someone elses problem."

Everyone just wanted to get home, including the FAs and there was no one and nothing that would stop them from getting into Miami so they can go "relax." At the end of the duty day when the guard is down, that is how you get crap happening.

Crap crew. Needs to go me thinks.

The PR disaster coming off this incident smells worse than the cack itself.

Sh#t happens, but it's how you deal with it that makes a difference. I agree that DL response is piss poor. 50.000 miles for flying covered in poop is insulting.
I hope he sues and gets a sh#itload out of the airline.

ATL agents used to be very good. But they cram so many flights through there now until everyone is burnt out. I would have gone to a sky club and had one of the agents there work it out. I've always had any travel issues sorted out to my satisfaction there. Of course be polite to the club agents, they had nothing to do with the flight issue.

Each time i see this kind of problem involving an american passenger with a US carrier i think that's just a false scandal to get compensations through court battle.

But this time there is proofs, and its despicable from the airline. And the 50,000 miles of compensation is an insult.

It is to bad that Delta does not have maintenance, cleaning crews, or spare seat covers in Atlanta.

As a Silver Medallion, soon to be Gold, and as a very loyal Delta customer (hence the Medallion Status), this is not acceptable. 50k Miles is certainly not enough to cover this incident, and he should have been compensated monetarily. I'm always pro-Delta, but this is just unacceptable and I have to separate my fanboy from reality here. Delta owes these passengers way more than what they gave and every single person involved with dispatching that flight should be fired. Did anyone even notify the flight deck about this before departure?

I once was flying first class from LGA-ATL (onto BHM afterwards) and I sat down in my seat (2A) to a booger caked onto the armrest. I notified the F/A and they immediately assisted. They gave me a wet nap and let me get up and wash my hands. Granted it was minimal compared to diarrhea, but the crew was kind, polite, and helpful in any way they could be. These were bad eggs which for all we know could have been the cause of the problem in the first place

It's the new thing! Some companies mandate reducing trash volume each year in order to meet "environmental goals." It is only logical that it reaches this point. I guess employees and customers are supposed to wallow in filth.

Reading these replies one would think that Delta's crime here was that it wasn't a regular rank-and-file pax who got the s--tty treatment.

Medallion status shouldn't enter into it. The bare minimum standard should be cleanliness and safety, whether this is your first flight or your five thousandth.

Don't they have a heavier duty seat cover as a temporary solution to things like this? Also, can't the senior FA radio ahead for a special cleaning crew?

Another reason why I try to avoid the "last flight of the day" when possible.

This story is getting very little traction in the national media, and considering this is election day, Delta will like dodge a major public relations bullet on this one. I don't see a single significant national news outlet sharing this. Only Yahoo and a handful of local news stations. On a slow news day, this would re-activate the "airlines suck" echo chamber well-tested by UA in the recent past.

If he files a lawsuit (and I would if I was treated like that), then this has another chance to do some damage to DL by reactivating the news cycle. Stock is down 1% so far today, but it is also ex-dividend.

frmrCapCadet wrote:

Don't they have a heavier duty seat cover as a temporary solution to things like this? Also, can't the senior FA radio ahead for a special cleaning crew?

They probably missed it until the customer saw it.

What to do then? On a completely full flight? My solution? Bump a nonrev. Other than that, not sure. The customer should be compensated (not just a normal delay situation) if the seat they paid for is inoperative.

frmrCapCadet wrote:

Don't they have a heavier duty seat cover as a temporary solution to things like this? Also, can't the senior FA radio ahead for a special cleaning crew?

They could, but my guess is the answer is a) space and b) weight. Regardless, unacceptable.

Should’ve treated it like an overbooked flight if getting that seat in shape was impractical or impossible at the moment. I’m sure there would’ve been some takers, maybe.

oldannyboy wrote:

Crap crew. Needs to go me thinks.

The PR disaster coming off this incident smells worse than the cack itself.

Sh#t happens, but it's how you deal with it that makes a difference. I agree that DL response is piss poor. 50.000 miles for flying covered in poop is insulting.
I hope he sues and gets a sh#itload out of the airline.

Ahahahahah all the puns!

Not saying it didn't happen but all I know, is when a issue like this happens for us, we call out the cleaners to clean and disinfect the area and change out anything that smells or looks soiled, seatbelts, seat cushions, cushion covers etc., whether it is waste or some spilled Sprite. Our Flight Attendants and Cleaners call us out to fix these issues.
With moving so many people all day, incidents do happen, and rarely they could have been handled better.
Especially at a hub, something seems out of whack with this story.
Could understand this type of event maybe happening at a outstation, but a hub ?

buzzard302 wrote:

It was a service dog that left the mess. I generally look at the seat/area before I sit. Why would anyone sit down into a soiled seat? And Delta should have halted boarding and cleaned that crap up before proceeding. No excuse.

Hmm may I doubt that?
Service dogs are so well trained that I find very hard to believe that one of them crapped on the seat / carpet.
Being a dog or a human, a plane has to be decent before the flight - it's not a public phone booth or a subway wagon or an outskirt bus, come on

FatCat wrote:

buzzard302 wrote:

It was a service dog that left the mess. I generally look at the seat/area before I sit. Why would anyone sit down into a soiled seat? And Delta should have halted boarding and cleaned that crap up before proceeding. No excuse.

Hmm may I doubt that?
Service dogs are so well trained that I find very hard to believe that one of them crapped on the seat / carpet.
Being a dog or a human, a plane has to be decent before the flight - it's not a public phone booth or a subway wagon or an outskirt bus, come on

All news articles are reporting that it was dog feces. I'm with you on the service dog behavior. Perhaps it was an "emotional support dog" with less training or predictable behavior. In any case, it's just ridiculous that Delta wouldn't handle this quickly and appropriately. Most likely the whole thing could have been resolved in 20 minutes without much harm to anyone.

TTailedTiger wrote:

ATL agents used to be very good. But they cram so many flights through there now until everyone is burnt out. I would have gone to a sky club and had one of the agents there work it out. I've always had any travel issues sorted out to my satisfaction there. Of course be polite to the club agents, they had nothing to do with the flight issue.

I agree with this Delta really abuses the CSAs in Atlanta but on the other hand they don't train them properly either in problem resolution they are nothing but a bunch of robots that get their marching orders as they're wound up every morning. While yes they are rude for the most part and this doesn't surprise me they are under a great deal of pressure to close the door for an on time departure even if it means the customer get screwed even when it's a Delta issue.

Flighty wrote:

frmrCapCadet wrote:

Don't they have a heavier duty seat cover as a temporary solution to things like this? Also, can't the senior FA radio ahead for a special cleaning crew?

They probably missed it until the customer saw it.

What to do then? On a completely full flight? My solution? Bump a nonrev. Other than that, not sure. The customer should be compensated (not just a normal delay situation) if the seat they paid for is inoperative.

It’s very simple. You stop boarding, clear the area of customers, and delay the flight until an appropriate hazmat cleanup can occur. Just deferring the seat is not acceptable as this is a health issue.

I know if I (as a Captain) had been informed of this situation, the plane wouldn’t move until it had been appropriately cleaned. I’m assuming the Delta pilots involved hadn’t been made aware of what was going on. If they had and pressed on anyway, well....

And shame on whoever owned that dog that didn’t report the issue to the inbound crew.

Flighty wrote:

frmrCapCadet wrote:

]
They probably missed it until the customer saw it.

But the stench....???

gatibosgru wrote:

Crazy how in 2018 the crew does not know that these things may go viral and turn into a much worse issue, especially for a diamond medallion.

As Batman says in "The Dark Knight Rises", when Catwoman has Daggett as a hostage as Bane's people close in:

"They know. They just don't care."

mm320cap wrote:

Flighty wrote:

frmrCapCadet wrote:

Don't they have a heavier duty seat cover as a temporary solution to things like this? Also, can't the senior FA radio ahead for a special cleaning crew?

They probably missed it until the customer saw it.

What to do then? On a completely full flight? My solution? Bump a nonrev. Other than that, not sure. The customer should be compensated (not just a normal delay situation) if the seat they paid for is inoperative.

It’s very simple. You stop boarding, clear the area of customers, and delay the flight until an appropriate hazmat cleanup can occur. Just deferring the seat is not acceptable as this is a health issue.

I know if I (as a Captain) had been informed of this situation, the plane wouldn’t move until it had been appropriately cleaned. I’m assuming the Delta pilots involved hadn’t been made aware of what was going on. If they had and pressed on anyway, well....

And shame on whoever owned that dog that didn’t report the issue to the inbound crew.

Great, this is beyond even my highest expectation as a (now) customer. I was thinking the "go-go" attitude of gate agents would never allow them to even think about deboarding people. We realize they are compensated for on-time departures, and that results in agents and FAs hustling people onboard like obstinate cattle, sometimes with reason, but often with too much force (especially on late turns). I saw the world's fastest turn of a full 737, probably 19-20 minutes, and they were still harassing people to hurry up so the employees can get their on-time sticker. But I digress. Cockpit crew whole different attitude.

buzzard302 wrote:

FatCat wrote:

buzzard302 wrote:

It was a service dog that left the mess. I generally look at the seat/area before I sit. Why would anyone sit down into a soiled seat? And Delta should have halted boarding and cleaned that crap up before proceeding. No excuse.

Hmm may I doubt that?
Service dogs are so well trained that I find very hard to believe that one of them crapped on the seat / carpet.
Being a dog or a human, a plane has to be decent before the flight - it's not a public phone booth or a subway wagon or an outskirt bus, come on

All news articles are reporting that it was dog feces. I'm with you on the service dog behavior. Perhaps it was an "emotional support dog" with less training or predictable behavior. In any case, it's just ridiculous that Delta wouldn't handle this quickly and appropriately. Most likely the whole thing could have been resolved in 20 minutes without much harm to anyone.

Come on guys. You do realize the whole "emotional support" animal thing is for the most part a complete scam, don't you? It was likely just some untrained mutt that had diarrhea.

Junction wrote:

buzzard302 wrote:

FatCat wrote:

Hmm may I doubt that?
Service dogs are so well trained that I find very hard to believe that one of them crapped on the seat / carpet.
Being a dog or a human, a plane has to be decent before the flight - it's not a public phone booth or a subway wagon or an outskirt bus, come on

All news articles are reporting that it was dog feces. I'm with you on the service dog behavior. Perhaps it was an "emotional support dog" with less training or predictable behavior. In any case, it's just ridiculous that Delta wouldn't handle this quickly and appropriately. Most likely the whole thing could have been resolved in 20 minutes without much harm to anyone.

Come on guys. You do realize the whole "emotional support" animal thing is for the most part a complete scam, don't you? It was likely just some untrained mutt that had diarrhea.

Realize it completely. Hence why I put emotional support dog in quotations.

FAs or cleaners are supposed to give the plane at least a once over after every leg.

This suggests some first class passengers on the previous leg were dealing with this stink. Can't believe there were no complaints.

In ATL, they should have been able to get new seat cushions quickly.

Something is missing here . . this smells to high heaven

FlyBitcoin wrote:

Another reason why I try to avoid the "last flight of the day" when possible.

This story is getting very little traction in the national media, and considering this is election day, Delta will like dodge a major public relations bullet on this one. I don't see a single significant national news outlet sharing this. Only Yahoo and a handful of local news stations. On a slow news day, this would re-activate the "airlines suck" echo chamber well-tested by UA in the recent past.

If he files a lawsuit (and I would if I was treated like that), then this has another chance to do some damage to DL by reactivating the news cycle. Stock is down 1% so far today, but it is also ex-dividend.

Actually, this story is spreading like wildfire from local news outlets, to national news outlets and financial outlets:

Newsweek - https://www.newsweek.com/delta-passenge ... ht-1203006
Fox News (national) - https://www.foxnews.com/travel/delta-ap ... -dog-feces
Inc.com - https://www.inc.com/chris-matyszczyk/a- ... to-do.html
Travel+Leisure - https://www.travelandleisure.com/travel ... -dog-feces

And many many more local/smaller stations. Delta has quite the PR mess on their hands and I don't mean the feces from this flight

jagraham wrote:

FAs or cleaners are supposed to give the plane at least a once over after every leg.

This suggests some first class passengers on the previous leg were dealing with this stink. Can't believe there were no complaints.

In ATL, they should have been able to get new seat cushions quickly.

Something is missing here . . this smells to high heaven

Within the Delta machine it's more important to get the plane out on time than to do right by the customers. Employee's are graded more on whether or not the plane leaves the gate on time than the over all customer experience. Perhaps getting a new seat cushion would have delayed the flight making all those involved with this situation look bad to Delta management.

Dysentery accidents can happen to anyone and at anytime and fortunately rare. Are airlines unable to minimize the consequences to the person and fellow travelers?

Flighty wrote:

frmrCapCadet wrote:

Don't they have a heavier duty seat cover as a temporary solution to things like this? Also, can't the senior FA radio ahead for a special cleaning crew?

They probably missed it until the customer saw it.

What to do then? On a completely full flight? My solution? Bump a nonrev. Other than that, not sure. The customer should be compensated (not just a normal delay situation) if the seat they paid for is inoperative.

No you don't do any of that. In this situation what should have been done is the aircraft should have been deplaned if there was no other aircraft available the flight should have been delayed so maintenance and the cleaning crew could completely deep clean and replace any seat covers and carpet. We are talking about ATL, Delta's mega hub this flight should have never departed ATL in this condition. I'm going to assume the flight left on-time and if so I commend DL for their on-time performance but in this situation the FA's got it wrong and sacrificed a customers comfort for an on-time departure.

But this also highlights a huge problem in the airline industry which is most of these aircraft are not being cleaned because airlines have such tight turn schedules that cleaners in most cases only have 5-8 minutes to "clean" an aircraft. Most cleaning or deep cleaning takes place when an aircraft RON's or goes to the hangar but if its a quick turn cleaners aren't truly cleaning anything except perhaps the lavatories which is why passengers probably should start bring sanitation wipes onboard and wipe down their own armrest, tray table and headrest. You shouldn't have to do this but if you want it clean one thing is for sure the airlines cleaning crew aren't doing this for you because they don't have time to do a proper thorough cleaning job.

Yuck! If it happened exactly as the passenger says it did, all involved employees need to face some sort of discipline. Never mind the poor passenger being told they have to sit in a feces-stained seat, it's entirely unacceptable to force everyone else to fly on an aircraft that hasn't been cleaned after a service animal became sick. This has to violate all sorts of health codes.

seat24charlie wrote:

Reading these replies one would think that Delta's crime here was that it wasn't a regular rank-and-file pax who got the s--tty treatment.

Medallion status shouldn't enter into it. The bare minimum standard should be cleanliness and safety, whether this is your first flight or your five thousandth.

Ding, ding, ding! It doesn't matter who the passenger is or what their status is, no one should be told to sit in that seat or else miss the flight.

I wonder if adjustments need to be made for service and emotional-support pets ( I personally think emotional-support pets usage gets abused a fair amount).
If you bring a dog on a plane some type of mat should be included unless it is a small pet that goes into a pet carrier.

At the end of the day a dog is still an animal and if they are sick, they are going to most likely do their thing.
Seems there should be some products designed to take care of a situation like this.

FlyBitcoin wrote:

If he files a lawsuit (and I would if I was treated like that), then this has another chance to do some damage to DL by reactivating the news cycle. Stock is down 1% so far today, but it is also ex-dividend.

... I'll join in in saying that Delta is in the wrong here; but let's not pretend even for a second that this will have any impact whatsoever on DL's share price... Additionally, a lawsuit would be settled quickly and quietly before it ever hit the airwaves.

Aircraft was N335DN. Not an old A321 by any means.

Animal in carrier eliminates this issue . . if it is too big for a carrier it should be on the floor.

They should be able to come up with some bag type carrier for those 1 and 2 pound dogs . . no lap dogs on lap

Another thing - what happened to the owner when the dog oopsied on the previous flight? And the seatmate??? I can't believe that there isn't a story from when it happened going viral . . more stuff missing.

winginit wrote:

FlyBitcoin wrote:

If he files a lawsuit (and I would if I was treated like that), then this has another chance to do some damage to DL by reactivating the news cycle. Stock is down 1% so far today, but it is also ex-dividend.

... I'll join in in saying that Delta is in the wrong here; but let's not pretend even for a second that this will have any impact whatsoever on DL's share price... Additionally, a lawsuit would be settled quickly and quietly before it ever hit the airwaves.

As a point of comparison, UAL was down 4% in the hours after the videos of Dr. Dao hit the airwaves. Now I don't equate contractors dragging an elderly man down the aisle of your metal to the failure of your own crew at handling a biohazard, but stock price with these events is a good indicator of what kind of traction the news story is getting. Agreed, that it does not affect the share price over a year, but it is still a good short-term gauge of the story's impact. I still maintain that stepping in poop on a slow news day would damage DAL more than it being reported on election day. If I was DL, I would make sure this passenger was happy so that there would be nothing to settle and no lawsuit to bring this event up in the news cycle again. I think they vastly underestimated that this story would even become news at all.
I am a Diamond Medallion and expect to be treated no differently on the plane as anyone else except that I might get an upgrade to a better seat if I am lucky. His status here only matters to further magnify the cruddiness of the compensation offer that he received privately in response to their failure to maintain a safe environment on that plane. It matters because he is on THEIR TEAM as a loyal FF, but still felt the need to go public a couple days later because of his sub-human treatment. 50,000 miles? Try 50,000 MQM's annually for life. Even that seems a low at this point.
Nonetheless, it is disgusting and mind-blowing how these highly-trained employees handled it.

seat24charlie wrote:

Reading these replies one would think that Delta's crime here was that it wasn't a regular rank-and-file pax who got the s--tty treatment.

Medallion status shouldn't enter into it. The bare minimum standard should be cleanliness and safety, whether this is your first flight or your five thousandth.

Thank you for bringing the humanity back to the discussion. No human deserves to sit or stand in animal feces/urine.

mm320cap wrote:

Flighty wrote:

frmrCapCadet wrote:

Don't they have a heavier duty seat cover as a temporary solution to things like this? Also, can't the senior FA radio ahead for a special cleaning crew?

They probably missed it until the customer saw it.

What to do then? On a completely full flight? My solution? Bump a nonrev. Other than that, not sure. The customer should be compensated (not just a normal delay situation) if the seat they paid for is inoperative.

It’s very simple. You stop boarding, clear the area of customers, and delay the flight until an appropriate hazmat cleanup can occur. Just deferring the seat is not acceptable as this is a health issue.

I know if I (as a Captain) had been informed of this situation, the plane wouldn’t move until it had been appropriately cleaned. I’m assuming the Delta pilots involved hadn’t been made aware of what was going on. If they had and pressed on anyway, well....

And shame on whoever owned that dog that didn’t report the issue to the inbound crew.

I completely agree! It needed to be fully resolved, regardless of risking a delay. Swapping seats and dispatching with feces in the cabin in not acceptable.

ODwyerPW wrote:

seat24charlie wrote:

Reading these replies one would think that Delta's crime here was that it wasn't a regular rank-and-file pax who got the s--tty treatment.

Medallion status shouldn't enter into it. The bare minimum standard should be cleanliness and safety, whether this is your first flight or your five thousandth.

Thank you for bringing the humanity back to the discussion. No human deserves to sit or stand in animal feces/urine.

Or pay for the privilege of sitting in the feces——-

Two points: One. The ONLY animals that should be allowed in the passenger cabin are service dogs, such as seeing eye dogs. Emotional service peacocks, etc., should be banned, across the bird. If you cannot fly without your peacock, don't fly. Second, this shows a corporate culture breakdown. The flight attendants said cleaning the cabin was not their problem. It was their problem and it was the captain's problem. One of the reasons, according to his book, that Gordon Bethune succeeded at Continental, was making people responsible and giving them authority. In his culture, the crew would have held the flight until the mess was cleaned up. They would have also gone out of their way to make amends. Bad for Delta on this one.

FlightLevel360 wrote:

Aircraft was N335DN. Not an old A321 by any means.

Please provide seat number...Thank you!


This story is disgusting. This is all on Delta. (trickle down management...let's be honest)

Wow, it's too late for DL to come out smelling like a rose on this one. Too much pressure for an on-time departure for the crew to think logically. I see a memo coming from the ivory tower to address (for the 257th time) when it is acceptable to take a delay.

Bald1983 wrote:

This shows a corporate culture breakdown. The flight attendants said cleaning the cabin was not their problem. It was their problem and it was the captain's problem. One of the reasons, according to his book, that Gordon Bethune succeeded at Continental, was making people responsible and giving them authority. In his culture, the crew would have held the flight until the mess was cleaned up. They would have also gone out of their way to make amends. Bad for Delta on this one.

Agree 100%. I'm never for knee jerk reactions.... but disciplinary action is necessary for the manager that issued the ultimatum. Then you fix the culture so that it permits flexibility to extend human decency without penalty if you are towed back from the gate a few minutes late.