A passenger on a United Airlines flight from San Francisco to Honolulu last week claims a flight attendant spilled scalding hot coffee on him twice during the five-hour flight to Hawaii and then offered him a $75 credit as compensation for the ordeal.
Taking to the popular social media site Reddit, the passenger explained how his flight to Hawaii was bookended by the flight attendant’s alleged clumsy mishaps, which left him with severe burns and ‘wincing in pain’.
Flight attendant burnt me
byu/Patient_Extent4762 inunitedairlines
Going by the username ‘Patient_Extent4762, ‘ the passenger, who was traveling in Unitd’s flagship Polaris Business Class cabin, explained how the flight attendant initially spilled coffee on him before the plane had even left the gate at San Francisco International Airport.
“Prior to departure, the FA’s [flight attendants] came by for pre-flight drinks and such,” the passenger explained. “As she was helping the lady in front of me she spilt coffee all over my lap and blanket. I asked her for a new blanket and she informed me there are no extras and she would use club soda to clean it.”
The passenger says he politely accepted her apology and offer of help, and the rest of the flight passed by uneventfully until around an hour before arrival in the Aloha State.
“About an hour prior to arrival I woke up to be asked for a pre arrival drink. I ordered a coke and laid my chair back up from lie flat mode,” the passenger’s tale continued. “When she came back she handed me my drink and I said thank you and turned to set it on the table next to me. As I was looking away I was absolutely blasted with scorching hot decaf.”
“My chest suffered severe burns to it and I was wincing at the pain. It also caused me to throw away my shirt due to having to pry it from my skin.”
The flight attendant initially offered the passenger either $75 or 2,500 Mileage Plus frequent flyer miles by way of compensation, although the passenger believes this offer is “honestly disrespectful”.
Earlier this month, it was revealed that an American Airlines passenger on a flight from Baltimore to Chicago in February was severely burnt when a coffee pot flew off an unattended beverage cart when the plane was rocked by turbulence.
Gina Mason claims the flight attendant who had been working the beverage cart abandoned it in the aisle when the Captain warned of the potential for turbulence so that she could strap herself into her jumpseat.
In doing so, however, the flight attendant allegedly left the beverage cart, along with the pot of hot coffee on top, unsecured while it was right next to Gina, who was sitting in an aisle seat.
As the turbulence started to shake the aircraft, the coffee pot fell off the cart and into Gina’s lap, causing both first and second-degree burns around her legs and genitals.
During international flights, passengers who have sustained burn injuries because a flight attendant has spilled hot coffee on them would be able to make a claim for compensation against the airline under Article 17 of the Montreal Convention.
The globally recognized treaty makes airlines liable for injuries sustained by passenger during the course of a flight so long as the injury wasn’t due to the passenger’s own negligence or deliberate act.
There is, however, one big caveat with using Article 17 of the Montreal Convention to clam compensation against an airline… it can only be used for international flights.
In both of these latest cases, Article 17 could not be used, and local laws have to be used to sue an airline, usually for negligence.
