Originally Posted By TALL Disney Guy Monday, March 19, 2007 By Ruth Elkins A British Airways passenger was refused compensation and told by the airline to "get over it" after a corpse was placed in the row where he was sitting last week. Paul Trinder, 54, a businessman from Brackley, Northamptonshire, spent more than £3,000 for a first-class ticket from Delhi. He awoke during the flight to find that cabin staff were propping up a dead woman almost next to him. "The stewards just plonked down this body without saying a thing," he said. "I remember looking at this thin, sparrow-like woman and thinking she was very ill." The woman had been in economy class when she died soon after the plane left Delhi. "She kept slipping under the seat belt and moving about with the motion of the plane," Mr Trinder said. "When I asked what was going on, I was shocked to hear she was dead." Mr Trinder, who was kept on board the plane when it landed and questioned by police and a coroner, contacted British Airways to complain, but was told to simply "get over" the experience. British Airways says the dead woman was taken into first class because the rest of the plane was full. "When a customer passes away on board it is always difficult and we apologise for any distress caused," a BA spokesperson said. Mr Trinder remains unimpressed. "I just kept thinking to myself: 'I've paid more than £3,000 for this'." <a href="http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/article2372269.ece" target="_blank">http://www.belfasttelegraph.co .uk/news/local-national/article2372269.ece</a> British Airways says about 10 passengers die in flight each year, and each case is handled on an individual basis.
Originally Posted By Mr X I agree, he should get over it. Disturbing? Sure. But it was a sad occurence and difficult for all concerned (the flight staff did their best, I'm sure). That woman's daughter was also moved up to first class to sit with her Mom. Maybe poor Mr. Trinder could have spent his time comforting the daughter instead of bitching about how horrible this was "for him". Gawd, people can be incredibly self-centered and selfish sometimes!
Originally Posted By Liberty Belle I couldn't agree more, Mr. X! I definitely wouldn't be thrilled if I was the nearby passenger, but what else could they possibly do? They couldn't leave her in her seat, and there's really nowhere else they could have put her that she wouldn't have been seen by other passengers. It's not like this sort of thing happens every day and they've got a policy for dealing with it down pat.
Originally Posted By gadzuux There's no indication that BA has offered any kind of significant customer service to this passenger. Doesn't he at least deserve a refund, and perhaps a voucher good for another flight in the future? It's not like he's an unreasonable 'plaintiff' - he's apparently a somewhat prosperous and sophisticated international traveler who wasn't looking for any trouble in his nearly $10,000 first class seat. It seems to me that BA might have been able to do more to placate their valuable customer - and avoid an unpleasant story hitting the press. And an average of ten passengers a year! And this is just one airline. I'm surprised we don't hear about these more often. Perhaps the number is lower for american based airlines, because they're not flying into such desparate lands.
Originally Posted By Mr X >>because they're not flying into such desparate lands<< Huh? What would that have to do with some old person having a stroke and dying in mid-flight? It happens all the time, and in fact the most common cause of deaths in the air is, in fact, natural causes. I'm surprised they didn't refund that guys money, just from a customer service standpoint, but even so I think him appearing in the news complaining about HIS "awful experience" is pretty pathetic. I've asked for refunds lots of times when I've experienced poor service or something, but this ain't that. Sorry charlie, this is just one of those unfortunate situations...and the fact is first class has a lot more room and usually far fewer passengers. Would it have been better if the body was in coach, leaning up against passengers, rather than across the aisle from poor Mr. Trinder?
Originally Posted By jonvn Um..... Really, this is bad. If they moved the daughter into first class, too, then they should have moved this guy. This really is kind of an outrageous thing the airline did. They should have emptied a row for the deceased, and at least covered her with blankets and such. It sounds like they strapped her in the seat upright. If the plane was full, why did they not just leave the body where it was?
Originally Posted By debtee I'm very surprised by this story as we have travelled quite a bit on international airlines and usually they are very helpful if something out of the norm happens during flight and help all passengers involved. This man was in a first class seat and does expect a certain standard of service having paid so much money for the seat! I don't know why they didn't move him to another seat? They are basically saying other passengers could not see the body but it was ok for him to sit next to it? While I do agree he could have been kinder to the daughter of the deceased by not causing a scene while she was in such grief, in my opinion he at the very least deserves an apology from the airline and possibly a full refund for his ticket.
Originally Posted By sherrytodd I'm sorry, but if I'm happily snoozing away on my flight and I wake up next to a dead person, I'm probably going to freak out. Regardless of what he paid for the ticket, I think they should have woken him up and let him know what was happening. They could have handled it better. The reason that the media is picking up on this is because of the headline, "Man wakes up next to corpse." And yes, regardless of whether it is their fault the woman died on a plane or not, he probably deserves some compensation in the form of a refund for his discomfort. He paid £3,000 and did not get a £3,000 experience. It's not like this is a frequent occurance.
Originally Posted By trekkeruss I guess I can see both sides. Perhaps the man deserves at least an apology of sorts, but he needs to have a bit of compassion too. I realize I don't know all the circumstances, and I have no idea what else he is thinking or feeling, but as written, it sounds like he only cares about himself and his first class seat.
Originally Posted By Kar2oonMan >>They could have handled it better. The reason that the media is picking up on this is because of the headline, "Man wakes up next to corpse." And yes, regardless of whether it is their fault the woman died on a plane or not, he probably deserves some compensation in the form of a refund for his discomfort.<< Absolutely. If they'd have simply refunded this fellow, the story goes away. Instead, we're left with these rather bizarre mental images of British Airways flight attendants lugging a dead body up to first class and strapping it into a seat like an outtake from 'Weekend at Bernie's'. It will cost them a lot more that $10,000 in PR.
Originally Posted By Lisann22 Depending on how long the flight was that could have become very uncomfortable to the people having to sit next to the corpse.
Originally Posted By Kar2oonMan All I Know Isâ„¢, I'll never complain again about having to sit next to Very Talkative Guy or The Wailing Infant.
Originally Posted By SuperDry This seems like a lot of fuss about nothing. People die during flights from time to time. Airplanes are small places without a lot of extra room. If economy was full, I can see why you'd not want a dead body just sitting in a seat - it would likely be touching the adjacent passengers. Plus, grieving family members would feel as if they were on a stage with all of the surrounding passengers gawking at them at what would be a very difficult time. If there's an empty seat in first class, that's probably the best place to use in this sort of situation. As far as wanting compensation, I don't see why it's warranted in this situation. It's not the airline's fault that the passenger died. Some things just happen. BA probably could have handled it better than as described in the article, but we really don't know how they actually handled the situation. It could be that the passenger was demanding a full refund and now is trying to stir up trouble after having been rebuffed.
Originally Posted By Fe Maiden <<All I Know Isâ„¢, I'll never complain again about having to sit next to Very Talkative Guy or The Wailing Infant>> I think I'd prefer sitting next to the corpse. At least we wouldn't have to fight over the armrest and I'm sure he wouldn't mind sharing his pretzels.
Originally Posted By Mr X Keep in mind too, that poor Mr. Trinder had the option of getting up and walking back to coach if he was so very disturbed. Of course, he cared very much about his expensive seat...so naturally he preferred to sit there and be horrified. All because he paid so much, for, his, seat. Anyone catching a pattern here. I mean, seriously, I don't care how much I paid to sit there, I would not be comfortable remaining next to a corpse that was moving about in the turbulence as he described. To me, at that point, the "first class experience" had already been ruined. Jon, while your point is a good one (they should have cleared a row and laid the woman down)...2 problems with that. It's not possible to do so in first class because of the nature of the seats (armrests don't go up, I do believe)...could have ONLY done it in coach. But, as they said, the flight was full. Perhaps it was almost full in first class as well, I don't know. But even if they HAD done something like that, there was still the turbulence. A laid out body would have fallen down (more disturbing again). What's left, the floor? The overhead compartments? Jon, if you were a flight attendant in that situation, what would YOU have done? (there is one solution that occured to me, which would be to put the body into one of the crew bunks if there were any onboard...but there might even be regulations about that because the crew is there for safety and need their rest time) Anyway...I don't feel bad for that guy.
Originally Posted By fkurucz >>Keep in mind too, that poor Mr. Trinder had the option of getting up and walking back to coach if he was so very disturbed.<< Why should he? He paid a king's ransom for his first class seat. I understand that the airline had no place else to store the corpse. But to tell a high paying, highly prized customer who paid rack rate for his first class seat "to get over it" is poor customer service, and as it has already been pointed out, will cost the airline far more in PR.
Originally Posted By Kar2oonMan >>Keep in mind too, that poor Mr. Trinder had the option of getting up and walking back to coach if he was so very disturbed.<< Would he be entitled to a refund then, to offset the difference between the price he paid and the coach price?
Originally Posted By barboy "doesn't he deserve a refund and perhaps a voucher" A free ride plus another free ride--- no way! "deserves a full refund" No, an apology and a PARTIAL refund is appropriate. These kinds of attitudes remind me of some of the customers I had to deal with when I was delivering pizza back in the early '90's. Our store had a 30 minute goal or less to get the product to the customer. Sometimes when we went over the 30 minute mark and these greedy/penny pinching/low- lifes expected and demanded that their $10- 50 pizza(s) were free--- as if a restaurant can afford to pay out not only the food cost but the milage and wages of the drivers without compensation. Our store policy was $3 off per pizza if over 30 minutes which I thought was very fair to all parties. As for this episode: If the ticket cost say 10K and it was about a 10 hr. flight then that is $1,000 per hr for just sitting and enduring something unpleasant and if he slept without knowing who was next to him for half of the trip then he would be making maybe $2,000 per hr. I would sit next to a dead person for $2,000 per hr. . (If extrapolated out for a year that would be about $4 mil.)
