And other travel news stories.
This week in travel, we’ve uncovered several stories that might have flown under your radar. Among them: a man urinated on a passenger on a United Airlines flight, a passenger’s cat pooped on a flight,aand two continents are facing massive travel disruptions.
Dive into these and more as we examine the latest in travel news.
NO.1
UNITED BANS PASSENGER AFTER HE URINATES ON ANOTHER PASSENGER
On December 27, amidst the travel rush, a passenger traveling from San Francisco to Manila, Philippines, urinated on another passenger in business class. Jerome Gutierrez was buckled in and sleeping in his seat when another passenger got up and peed on him mid-flight. The passenger’s stepdaughter, Nicole Cornell, told SF Gate that Gutierrez was soaked from the waist down.
Flight attendants didn’t want to escalate the situation and requested Gutierrez not to confront him while they provided him with a change of pajamas. “I am so disgusted and in shock with how United Airlines handled this! That is a biohazard, and the plane should’ve turned around to address this issue,” Cornell said.
United Airlines banned the passenger after this incident, and he apologized and requested Gutierrez not to press charges.
NO.2
DOT FINES JETBLUE $2 MILLION OVER DELAYS
In an unprecedented move, the Department of Transportation (DOT) has fined JetBlue $2 million for operating multiple chronically delayed flights. Chronically delayed flights are those that are flown 10 times a month and arrive more than 30 minutes late more than 50% of the time.
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DOT found that the airline operated four chronically delayed flights between June 2022 and November 2023. Unrealistic scheduling practices by airlines are illegal. They not only inconvenience passengers but also harm competition within the industry, and DOT is going after airlines that use such measures. JetBlue must pay $1 million to the U.S. Treasury, while the rest is reserved to compensate passengers harmed by chronically delayed flights or cancellations and delays caused by JetBlue over the next year.
Related: U.S. Government: JetBlue Suffers From ‘Illegal Chronic Flight Delays’
NO.3
U.S. AND EUROPE FACE FLIGHT DISRUPTIONS
The Federal Aviation Administration has been warning fliers since last week that winter storms, snow, and winds may cause delays. The inclement weather conditions continued on Monday when over 1,300 flights were canceled by major U.S. carriers. The worst affected was Southwest Airlines, which canceled 264 flights.
American, Southwest, Delta, and United also warned passengers of Storm Blair, as the winter front has been dubbed, and allowed them to rebook flights without additional charges.
Snowfall also covered cities in Europe, and flights were affected in the U.K. and Germany. Several airports, including Liverpool, Manchester, Birmingham, and Bristol in the U.K., closed temporarily on Sunday. Meanwhile, Frankfurt in Germany canceled 120 takeoffs and landings, and Munich operated at limited capacity on Sunday.
NO.4
TEENAGER ALLEGEDLY THREATENS TO STAB CREW OVER COUGHING FIT
This holiday season, another unruly passenger incident on an EasyJet flight from Antalya, Turkey, to Gatwick-London Airport on December 27 raised the hackles of passengers. This time, a 16-year-old girl threatened to stab crew members over a coughing 10-year-old girl.
According to news reports, the teen was seated next to the 10-year-old, who was coughing. The teen asked her to stop, and the girl went to the bathroom as the teen followed her. However, the teen wouldn’t let the 10-year-old get out of the lav, and the mother of the girl soon joined them at the bathroom. The teen proceeded to scream at them both, and the crew walked the mother and child—who were now both crying—to the front of the plane.
But it didn’t end there—the crew asked the teen to go back to her seat, and she didn’t comply. She screamed, threatened to stab them, and even threw a shoe at passengers. Amid this chaos, she also ran to the front of the plane and fell into a woman who was coming out of the lavatory, causing the pilot’s door to fling open.
NO.5
PASSENGER GETS THE BOOT AFTER CAT POOPS ON FLIGHT
A passenger who goes by the name Alex on X shared an ordeal on a Southwest flight. She was traveling with her seven-month-old cat, Oni, when her cat had an “accident” upon landing. She cleaned the litter in the plane bathroom and put everything in the trash. She also requested trash bags from the crew, who she said were understanding of the situation.
Omg lol this had 200 likes before I got on my flight (one more to go before I’m home) but here is a little timeline of events:
Oni (7 months old) gets scared during a rough landing and has an accident in his carrier which is fully contained.
I have a connecting flight I need to… pic.twitter.com/m25dPVTleC
— alex (@barelyyalex) December 30, 2024
She had a connecting flight to Los Angeles, and while the plane didn’t change, the crew did. She alleged that the new set of flight attendants was hostile toward her because they had to close the lavatory due to the smell, which made Alex cry. A Southwest agent then escorted her and her pet off the flight. The gate agent found her another flight, which had another layover, and gave her a $200 voucher. She made it home past midnight, she recounted in an update.
Related: A Dog Made a Disgusting Mess on a United Flight. But Who Should Clean It Up?
