Airlines: Offensive Behavior

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What with the increasing frequency of hydraulic-system failures and fares that change with the speed of the stock-market ticker, today's air traveler has lots to worry about. Now there's something else to check when settling into an airplane seat: Is your deodorant working properly?

USAir didn't think the personal hygiene of Randi Freeman and her husband Amir Omrani was up to snuff after they boarded a flight from Seattle to Pittsburgh last month. Airline personnel asked the couple to disembark, and a gate supervisor informed them that both the crew and assorted passengers had complained about their offensive body odor. Freeman and Omrani, an Iranian national, were given toiletries and sent to the washroom as the plane left without them.

Government rules allow airlines the right to refuse transport to passengers whom they deemed to be "offensive." The allegedly malodorous pair were placed on a later flight, but Freeman is crying foul. She claims that USAir simply wanted to clear two seats on an overbooked plane, and has demanded an apology from the company's president plus the cost of two first-class tickets from New York to Los Angeles for the embarrassing episode. Says she: "On the next flight, I asked a woman if we smelled, and she said no."