United apologizes to couple who found full barf bag in seat pocket

A couple flying United found a filled barf bag in the seatback pocket on a recent flight from Hawaii. (Reuters)

A California couple returning home from an anniversary trip to Hawaii found an unwelcome surprise as they took their seats on a recent United Airlines flight.

Janet Masters says she and her husband discovered a sickness bag filled with vomit, wrapped in a blanket stowed in the seatback pocket in front of her.

“I’ve seen and dealt with a lot of gross things,” Masters told CBS Sacramento. “Here’s someone’s bodily fluids that I’m being exposed to.”

As Masters handed the soiled blanket and bag to a flight attendant, she says vomit spilled onto her clothes and her husband’s outfit. Though the couple was offered different seats, Masters says the smell of vomit stay with them the duration of the flight home.

“Smelling that smell on us and around us was just totally, totally disgusting,” she said.

An airline representative apologized to the Masters saying “our cleaners apparently failed to clean all of the seatback pockets.” United reiterated that its flight attendants are trained to handle such situations and its aircraft are outfitted with appropriate cleaning kits.

The airline offered the couple a $300 credit toward a future United flight—but Masters isn’t sure she’ll use it.

“I’ve lost a lot of faith and trust with the airline,” she said.

This isn’t the first time vomit has been found left behind. In April, a Maryland family was forced to sit in a vomit covered area on a flight home from a vacation in Orlando. United offered a $150  travel voucher to each member of that family.