If a seatmate smells bad, come clean to the crew -- quickly

Question: On a packed, 16-hour flight to Japan, my three children and I were seated in a row next to a family that had not bathed recently. The odor was very strong. The flight attendant would periodically come by and spray air freshener, and the offending adult passengers would occasionally douse themselves with rosewater in the lavatory. I developed a migraine headache and could not eat anything. I paid for four full international fares and had a miserable flight. I'd like to know if I have any rights on a long flight. Airlines can remove intoxicated passengers from a flight. What about those with offensive odors?

Marna Geisler

Santa Monica



Answer: Many fliers think there is no solution to this problem, but passengers do have recourse — if they time it right.

Most U.S. carriers have a little-known clause in their ticket rules (under safety and comfort) that says they can refuse to fly a malodorous passenger.

"If someone has an offensive odor that's not caused by a disability or illness, American can remove them from the flight," says airline spokesman Tim Wagner.

American established this policy in 1999 after it tried to deplane a family when passengers complained of a "noxious odor."

The family sued the airline and settled out of court. Soon afterward, the carrier wrote a body-odor policy into its customer-service contract. Other domestic airlines followed suit.

Foreign carriers don't have official body-odor policies, but they do have procedures for dealing with offensive fliers.

"It's a very sensitive subject, so we don't put it in our contracts of carriage, but our customer-service people are well trained to deal with it," says British Airways spokesman John Lampl.

Much of what airlines will do for affected passengers is about goodwill. "It boils down to marketing, not safety," says Thomas Dickerson, a New York judge and author of "Travel Law" (2004, Law Journal Press). "Airlines don't want to offend passengers. They want them to be happy and fly again."

But what's considered offensive?

"Everyone has their own threshold," American's Wagner says. "We try to resolve the situation with respect [for all parties]."

Northwest spokeswoman Jennifer Bagdade says, "It's handled on a case-by-case basis."

Most airlines leave these decisions to front-line staff. If your complaint passes the sniff test — and the plane isn't full — most airlines will change your seat, even if it means an upgrade to first class.

"Our cabin crew has the ability to do that, even though it's not written in stone," says Thai Airways marketing coordinator Alden Pelayo.

What if there are no extra seats, or at least not enough for a whole family to move to, as in Geisler's case?

"We do whatever we can to make passengers as comfortable as possible," Pelayo says.

Often, international carriers will cover up the problem with air freshener. But that sometimes can cause discomfort to people sensitive to strong perfumes.

British Airways says it corrects the problem at the source, doling out first-class pajamas and amenity kits with toiletries to odorous fliers. "We ask them to go to the bathroom and wash up," Lampl says.