British Airways apologises for bedbug infestation on flight from Vancouver

British Airways has apologised to a Canadian family after they were bitten by bedbugs on a transatlantic flight between Vancouver and London.

Heather Szilagyi, her seven-year-old daughter, Molly, and her fiancé, Eric Neilson, were left covered with painful insect bites while travelling from Canada to Slovakia this month.

British Airways offered an apology to the family and upgraded their return flights to business class.

Szilagyi said she had first noticed the bedbugs on the seat in front of her, then spotted another crawling out from behind a TV monitor. “I wanted to grab it but they’re quick and it crawled back inside, behind the screen,” she told the Canadian broadcaster CTV.

Szilagyi says she alerted a flight attendant but was told the flight was full and nothing could be done. “It was nine hours of knowing that I was probably going to get bit, but not being sure,” she said.