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Airline Passenger Arrested After Complaining About Vomit On Seat. What Are Your Rights?

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The latest airline incident has travelers asking: What are your rights on a plane? On April 20, a woman was arrested after complaining about vomit on her daughter's seat on a Frontier Airlines flight from Las Vegas to Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina. According to passenger Rosetta Swinney, she asked a flight attendant for help when she found the vomit-soaked seat but was met with a terse reaction. “She turned around to me and said, ‘That’s not my job,’” Swinney told WTVD.

Frontier Airlines said in a statement that it shared with this column that "the flight attendants apologized and immediately invited the mother and her teenage daughter to move to either end of the plane so that the seat area could be cleaned." The airline also claimed that Swinney "became disruptive." (You can read the full statement, below.)

But according to witnesses and Swinney, the flight attendant didn't try to reassign the seat or clean the area. And a video taken by another passenger shows Swinney calmly waiting for the situation to be resolved. When the airline said that Swinney would have to deplane, she refused and was subsequently arrested.

Besides the chilling fact that an airline can easily kick passengers off flights and even have them arrested, this incident calls into question what rights passengers have when it comes to the quality of their actual airline seat. Last year, a Michigan man said Delta Airlines told him he had to sit in a seat covered with dog feces, while a Boston woman claims her daughter was forced to sit on a urine-soaked seat on an 11-hour British Airways flight.

READ MORE: "35 Countries Where Americans Are Most Likely To Get Kidnapped"

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I once encountered a similar (but much less disgusting) incident when I found that my seat on an American Airlines flight was soaked with coffee spilled by a previous passenger. I complained to the flight attendants, who said the airline had done their best to clean the seat but had nothing else available (even though there were empty seats in first class). Their solution: They gave me a blanket to cover up the wet seat. After the flight, I reached out to the airline, which said that the crew was within their rights.

As it turns out, an airline has very few obligations. There's not even a guarantee that the seat needs to be comfortable, clean or dry.

"Passengers essentially have no rights. According to the contract of carriage the passenger passively agrees to, the airlines guarantee NOTHING," says Joe Brancatelli, founder of JoeSentMe, the website for business travelers. "Not even to take you to the destination on your ticket. So they are under no obligation to honor your seat assignment, move you to something better (or less awful) or do anything they don't want to do."

The U.S. Department of Transportation outlines passenger rights in its Fly Rights: Consumer Guide to Air Travel, but there's no mention of the quality of the seat. Frontier Airlines — which doesn't mention the topic on its contract of carriage — didn't respond to my request asking about passenger rights when it comes to the airline seat.

"So, with little in the way of set-in-stone rules, the issue of cleanliness on an aircraft becomes pretty murky for passengers, when it comes to what you should expect and what you’re entitled to," writes The Points Guy.

However, some airlines have taken steps to ensure a more comfortable passenger experience. According to Brancatelli, when JetBlue was launching, founder David Neeleman used to tell journalists that the airline had leather seats because they're easier to clean when someone vomits on them. "Smart airlines don't do fabric," says Brancatelli.

That said, Brancatelli says the problem in the Frontier situation was the flight attendant, not the vomit. "On the other hand, I get where the FA was coming from," says Brancatelli. "She makes pennies and she's technically NOT responsible for clean up. You get what you pay for (both Frontier and the customer), unfortunately."

What can you do if you're in a situation like Swinney? The Points Guy advises passengers to "remain calm and friendly toward the flight attendants...ask if there’s an alternative seat...consider filing a customer service claim with the airline...and interact with them on social media."

Whatever you do, don't argue with the crew or refuse to get off the plane. Or you just might find yourself in jail and having to hire a civil rights attorney, as Swinney has done in order to fight the misdemeanor trespassing charge. As Brancatelli points out: "If you complain and a flight attendant decides you're a 'risk,' they have the absolute right to put you off the plane."

"In other words," says Brancatelli.  "Airlines are the North Koreas of capitalism."

"What really hurt me is for my child to see me getting handcuffed and taken away from her," Swinney told WTVD. "Twelve hours I was in jail. Twelve hours." According to reports, Swinney says she will never fly with Frontier Airlines again.

You can read the full statement from Frontier Airlines here:

“During boarding of flight 2066 from McCarran International Airport (LAS) to Raleigh-Durham International Airport (RDU) last week, two passengers told the flight attendants that vomit was present in their seat area. The flight attendants apologized and immediately invited the mother and her teenage daughter to move to either end of the plane so that the seat area could be cleaned by a cleaning crew. The mother and daughter were also told that once boarding was complete they would be provided other seats if available. The daughter was also offered cleaning products for herself and invited to use the lavatory to wash up. The mother was unsatisfied with the response and became disruptive. As a result, the flight attendants determined that the mother and daughter should be deplaned and accommodated on another flight. The mother refused, and following procedure, law enforcement was called. Law enforcement then requested that everyone deplane so that the mother and daughter could be removed allowing the aircraft to be re-boarded and depart. We apologized to our passengers for the inconvenience caused by the departure delay. The safety of passengers and crew is our top priority at Frontier.”

READ MORE:

• "Dream Job Alert! These Positions Will Pay You To Travel The World"

 "35 Countries Where Americans Are Most Likely To Get Kidnapped"

• "Ranked: 10 Happiest And 10 Saddest Countries In The World"

• "Meet The World's First Black Woman Cruise Ship Captain"

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