Bedbugs & Airlines

A US woman who was ravaged by bed bugs on a British Airways flight from Los Angeles to Bangalore has received an apology after she posted images of the bites online.

Zane Selkirk, 28, first noticed the bugs when she switched on her overhead light during the night and spotted them crawling on her finger and the airline blanket.

Ms Selkirk, a product manager at Yahoo, rushed to the bathroom and was horrified to see bleeding bug bites on her back and four bugs clinging to her shirt.

"I turned on my light to find bugs crawling on my blanket and a bedbug-blood-spattered shirt," she said.

And the return trip from Bangalore to LA was no better.

"I left my 10-hour flight to find my body covered with 90 bug bites," Ms Selkirk said.

"The worst part was the non-existent customer service throughout the 10-day ordeal."

Ms Selkirk said she complained to flight attendants during the outbound flight and asked to be moved to business class.

After several requests she was moved, but she said the airline staff refused to apologise for the situation.

She also complained to BA staff at both Bangalore and Heathrow airports during the trip, but again received no apology.

After returning home she set up the website, www.ba-bites.com, with a description of her trip and photos of her bites.

After the website was set up, BA sent Ms Selkirk a written apology and offered her money, which she declined.

"In this day and age of infestations in major cities around the world, is some sort of regular fumigation schedule by airlines such a crazy thing to expect?" Ms Selkirk told the Financial Times.

"Does one have to build websites in order for an airline to even sort-of-not-really acknowledge that there was a problem?"

A spokesperson for BA told the Financial Times the plane was taken out of service to get rid of the bugs.

"The presence of bed bugs is an issue faced occasionally by hotels and airlines all over the world," the spokesperson said.