Attorney Jordan Acker, a trustee of the University of Michigan, took to social media to complain about his Detroit – London Heathrow flight on Delta. But it wasn’t one of the usual complaints – delays, long telephone hold times, lost or damaged bags – the seven and a half hour Airbus A330 flight, he said, lacked water.
On an 8 hour @delta flight. Just got the announcement: no water, no coffee, no wifi, no hand washing in the bathrooms. They’ll give people wipes . Pilot comes on: “just be honest about your service.” Yikes, delta. Seems like a pretty unsanitary way to roll.
— Jordan Acker (@JordanAckerMI) July 7, 2022
According to crew on the aircraft, water had been an ongoing issue with the aircraft, though Delta did not confirm this.
There has been no water for a WEEK on this plane. It’s been flying the whole time at behest of @delta. Internationally.
— Jordan Acker (@JordanAckerMI) July 7, 2022
One flight attendant told me they have to dump a bottle of water in the toilet every twenty minutes to keep them working.
— Jordan Acker (@JordanAckerMI) July 7, 2022
According to an airline spokesperson,
We are aware of and are investigating this report which would fall far short of the experience we know our customers expect and deserve when traveling with Delta.
Airlines are faced with a tough choice when a non-safety item fails: do they cancel the flight, and inconvenience everyone, or fly without basic services but not compromising safety?
It seems the right choice here, if a maintenance delay alone won’t fix things, would be to offer customers a choice between flying without access to tank water (and compensating them, because they didn’t receive the product they purchased.. which includes access to a lav) or rebook, treating it as an involuntary denied boarding for compensation purposes. Ingenious solution by the crew though, hopefully there were enough bottles on board to keep passengers hydrates in addition to supplying the toilet.
