[B32]

Please offer any advice on how to resolve this issue:

One hour in to a 8.50 hour flight from London, an unidentified brown liquid started pouring on my head and neck from the unit above my seat. Initially, the stewardesses were helpful, but didn't resolve the issue, despite one climbing on the arm rest whilst I was in the seat. Then, a bursar joined the gang and also climbed on the seat and arm rest. A cup had been taped to the offending junction, with a smiley face drawn on the bottom. The offer of another seat was not followed up and so I was expected to sit under a cup of brown liquid for the next eight hours.

Despite further complaints on board, as obviously we could not be expected to sleep, one of the stewardesses said that she had tasted the liquid that was coming out of the vent and it was probably diet coke from another flight. The bursar eventually told us to go to the customer services to claim compensation and that she had spoken to them. Of course, no-one knew anything about it once we were off the plane. Darren Mitchell, the GM of AA at the airport offered his card, but is yet to respond. He did offer $100 of tokens for a $200 shirt on the presumption we would be booking with them again!

I am disappointed with AA and with Darren. I also have a rather telling photograph of a plastic cup, dribbling brown liquid and taped to the unit. Any suggestions?

[Corbel]

im not sticking up for AA, but if i were you i would have just moved seats or even asked the flight attendants if there was a different seat open and not wait for the crew to come back to offer you a different seat. but alot of times some passengers put liquids or drinks into their bags or in the overhead bins and things break. i dont know what the liquid was or anything and NOT saying that it was a passenger. could have been something the crew put up there or a passenger. since it was a international flight could have been some liquid from duty free that someone put up there. we always make an announcement of no liquids in the overhead bins due to this happening. keep contacting AA for something like a voucher or some sort of compensation and not just a shirt

[jimworcs]

What do you want? I am curious to know what remedy you wanted. If you were on an 8.5 hr flight from London and the problem started 1 hour after departure.. you were almost certainly heading out over the Atlantic when the problem started. The crew sought to cobble together a solution to the problem and offered to re-seat you. I can't think what else they could have done. You didn't want them to divert the aircraft did you? Perhaps put out an emergency call for an aircraft engineer?

Now, if your shirt was damaged, provide receipts for the dry cleaning or a replacement if it was irretrievably damaged and ask for a cheque to compensate. Unless it was a very expensive shirt, I think an offer of $100 should cover it. You got a flight to the US.

Why couldn't you sleep? Why didn't you ask to be moved to another seat, afterall they had offered to re-seat you. Indeed, why didn't you just move yourself to an empty seat?

Sometimes, things happen. Not everything deserves to be treated as a federal case, or requires compensation for minor inconveniences. It sounds from your account as if a number of staff tried to fix the problem, tried to do it in a good humoured way (even drawing a smiley face on the cup) and offered to re-seat you. At the airport, they offered a small gesture of compensation. I think, on the whole, they did their best. Not sure what you want.

[Leatherboy2006]

Whats a bursar? I know what a purser is but not a bursar.

[B32]

Okay, let me clarify - we asked for a new seat and one was offered, but the same person who offered it didn't come back to follow up and further requests were rebuffed. I want to find out what the normal procedure is in these cases -is a token for an airline I don't want to book with good enough? Is there a way of getting reimbursement for a substandard flight? Please presume that as compensation is not such a common matter for me that I did exhaust all logical attempts to clarify the situation and no, the staff were incomptent and did not meet even the basic level of help.

Bursar is the same as a purser, in case you lost sleep over that one.

[jimworcs]

I think if you had a damaged shirt, the airline is unreasonable to offer vouchers which can be used towards a flight with them. You should ask for cash compensation and tell them that you cannot accept vouchers.

I don't think you could argue that the "flight" was substandard as a result of this incident. You got what you paid for, but an event which is outside their control occurred and they attempted to resolve it. I personally don't feel that further compensation is due in the circumstances that you outline. It is possible to the first FA said something like "we will try to get you re-seated" and then subsequently found there were no more seats and this is why your further requests were rebuffed. If this is so, the FA's had no remedy to offer you other than the one's they made. If this is not the case, frankly I would have just moved without waiting for their "permission". Once everyone is seated and the seatbelt signs are off, it is common for passengers to re-seat themselves.

However, if you feel strongly enough and think that you deserve more, you can try contacting the US DOT to see if they can help, but I doubt it. The only other remedy is to file a claim in small claims court, but there you will have to establish first your actual damages and then any consequential losses. You must also establish that they are liable for what happened.. and on this account you may struggle.

Leatherboy... a bursar is the senior administrative person in an educational institute such as a school, college or university. It is a common mistake to confuse bursar and pursar.

[ldl007]

Two hundred dollar shirt! Are you seeking real damage or punitive damages for lack of sleep?
If you were seeking a different seat, why didn't you pursue this? What did you expect from the flight attendants? What more could they have done besides attaching a cup (apparently this was not a major leak)?