Elite Delta flier reportedly sits in feces on flight, gets an apology and 50,000 miles

A Michigan man who found himself sitting in dog feces on a Delta flight last week was given a miniature bottle of gin and some paper towels and told to clean himself up, according to several news reports.

A service animal on the flight that preceded the Atlanta-Miami flight had become ill, and passenger Matthew Meehan smelled something, as did other passengers.

He didn’t realize his clothing and shoes were fouled until he bent over to get a phone charger and discovered the source of the smell.

When he asked for help from the cabin crew, instead of a biohazard kit, he was given the bottle of Bombay Sapphire to clean the mess off his pants and shoes, the Washington Post reported.

He snapped photos of his encrusted shoes in the bathroom as he worked to clean them and posted the photo to Facebook saying, “I’m NOT HAPPY DELTA!”

Delta has acknowledged that its cleaning procedures failed.

Meehan reportedly had talked to a gate agent who told him he could return to his seat or he could miss the flight, the Post reported.

The flight crew reportedly cleaned the area with paper towels, and blankets were put on seats to protect passengers’ clothing.

The two-hour flight took off, but when Meehan landed in Miami, instead of getting on his flight to Tampa, he took Uber, the Post reported.

Delta offered to refund his ticket and put 50,000 miles into the account of the passenger who claims million-mile, elite status on Delta, according to the New York Post.

Emotional support animals have been the subject of controversy and the topic of much discussion at airlines and among passengers. Airlines have tightened their rules on such animals, which are different from service animals. Service animals generally are highly trained dogs.

Delta’s new regulations about emotional support animals changed in July. It now requires a veterinary health form, a form from a medical or mental health professional and proof of animal’s training.

travel@latimes.com

@latimestravel

UPDATES:

9:20 a.m.: This article was updated with information about emotional support animals.

This article was published at 6:20 a.m. Wednesday.