Air travel is fraught with bad experiences, but this might take the cake. An air traveler is claiming she had to endure over nine hours with her feet up after a toilet overflowed on an Air Canada flight.
On Tuesday, Katie Wood, who describes herself in her TikTok bio as an “attorney, entrepreneur, swiftie, girl’s girl, yapper,” shared a video on the platform describing what she claims was a nightmarishly nasty flight experience on Canada’s flagship airline.
The video has gone viral, picking up over 1.1 million views and counting. She further claims that despite the distressing experience, the airline has told her they will not be compensating her.
What does she say happened?
Wood states that she was on a nine-and-a-half-hour Air Canada flight from Vienna, Austria, to Toronto, Canada, when the plane’s toilet began leaking an unknown fluid into the passenger cabin.
According to Wood, she was taking a “girl’s trip” with fellow family members. The customer also claims that she upgraded her tickets from economy to “preferred economy” for “both of the long flights to and from Vienna.” She says this cost her $170, but she wasn’t given the upgrade on her initial flight. Wood states that after she got on the plane for her return leg back to Toronto, the trouble continued.
“On the long leg back,” she says, “[Air Canada’s] toilet was overflowing in our foot space, and we had to keep our feet off the ground for the entirety of the flight so that it wouldn’t be in whatever was coming out of the bathroom.
“We were sitting in bathroom crap,” she claims, though she points out it was not “literal crap. I think that would be disgusting.” She states it was something else, claiming it was “water leaking from the bathroom.”
Wood produces what she says is camera evidence of the leak, showing an apparent wet spot flowing into the cabin’s carpet.
What did Air Canada customer service do?
“The flight attendant,” she says, “came around and was like, “I’m so sorry. We know this is horrible. There’s nowhere else we can move you.’”
She claims the attendant told her, “We’ve let customer service know that you’re going to contact them and, like, what happened. We’re so sorry, and we’re going to make this right.”
Wood says the airline’s offer of compensation left much to be desired.
She states that after contacting Air Canada‘s customer service, telling them what the flight attendant said, and presenting her video, she was told, “Here is 25 percent off or 20 percent off your next flight booking.”
“That’s not good enough,” Wood says she responded. She explained that she does not take international flights often and would be reluctant to book with Air Canada in the future.
She claims to have responded, “What I do want is some sort of reimbursement or refund for my ticket.”
Wood says she never received the benefits of her upgrade for extra legroom on the initial flight to Vienna, in addition to having to keep her legs up during the return flight.
“And I know that this happens often,” she goes on to claim, “because when you go to contact them, there’s an entire section that’s like, ‘I didn’t receive an upgrade that I paid for.’”
“I want [Air Canada] to fix this. I want you to reimburse me money.”
Air Canada’s alleged response
Wood displays an email in the video that she claims is from Air Canada.
“This is what they said,” she claims. She then points to the alleged email contact, which states that the seats she sat in during the flight to Vienna were Premium Business Class seats.
Wood argues that this is not true. However, she states that she no longer has her original boarding passes, which she says the Customer Relations worker asked for as proof.
“This flight was a month ago. I’ve been waiting to hear from you. Do you think I have a photo of my boarding pass?” she says she responded.
The alleged email states, “The goodwill compensation offered was for the inconvenience you experienced due to the washroom issue. While we realize this does not meet your expectation, we earnestly hope you will accept this [discounted future ticket price] in the manner it was intended. Respectfully, we are unable to offer additional compensation as requested.”
Wood again vehemently states that she does not wish for a discounted ticket as recompense. “I want a refund for the upgrade that I paid, and I want you to realize that giving this is not enough. Are you kidding me?”
@katiewood____ @Air Canada Vacations ♬ original sound – katie wood
Is Air Canada a bad airline?
Air Canada is Canada’s largest airline. According to NerdWallet, the airline flies to over 200 destinations and is generally well-regarded. “There can be significant value in considering international competitors like Air Canada.”
However, like most airlines, it’s not perfect. NerdWallet states that “it has an average score of 3.0 out of 5.0 stars” and “was a Travelers’ Choice Winner in 2018 and 2019.” It adds that Flight-Report.com states it has “an average score of 7.5 out of 10 stars.”
Trip Advisor gives the company a 3.0 out of 5. Its latest reviews available on the site are disfavorable, with one flyer stating, “We bought return ticket[s] from Toronto to Mexico and on our way back we were told that your flight has been stand-by though we got [our] check-in and our boarding pass. Their manager told us ‘ I don’t know’. How is [it] possible for a manager to just answer ‘ I don’t know?’”
The Daily Dot has reached out to Air Canada via email for a statement.
Should airlines deal with leaking toilets?
According to Business Insider, “Passenger flights typically divert to the nearest airport when their toilets get jammed.” However, this doesn’t appear to be a set industry standard and may not apply to general leaks in the passenger cabin.
In April of 2023, broken toilets on an Austrian Airlines flight to New York were forced to turn back to Vienna “after the crew found that five of the eight toilets on board couldn’t flush properly.”
While wastewater appears to be a concern, the details of Wood’s flight do not seem to indicate a need for the flight to return for repairs, distressing though they might be.
What did viewers think?
In the video’s comments section, The Creaky Spine Bindery (@creakyspinebindery) asked, “How is this not a biohazard?”
Andrea (@andrea.s_adventures) wrote, “Full refund for that flight is the only fair option.”
Another viewer advised Wood to escalate the issue, writing, “reply, “Respectfully, as your offer is less than satisfactory, I would like this matter escalated to someone who can [authorize] my refund.”
“I worked for Air Canada and I %100 believe this! They were such a janky company with crazy outdated technology it was soooooo bad,” another viewer added.
The Daily Dot has reached out to Wood via email and TikTok direct message for further comment.
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