You look forward to the “free” drinks on your flight until they turn your hour-and-a-half journey into a nightmare involving three trips to an airplane bathroom.
One Spirit Airlines passenger learned the hard way that some perks come with serious risks.
‘Free’ Drink Causes Mid-Flight Medical Emergency
In a trending video with more than 3,300 views, content creator Rachel (@racheldont) recounts what she called a “top 10 worst experience” of her life during a 5am Spirit Airlines flight.
The flight attendant offered her a free drink, a perk that came with her specific seat. And Rachel wasn’t about to pass it up, especially since she’d pulled an all-nighter and had nothing in her stomach. Since it was too early for alcohol, she browsed the drink menu and spotted something intriguing: Ghirardelli hot chocolate.
“I didn’t even know they made Ghirardelli hot chocolate. That’s like—that must be really nice, you know, is what I’m thinking,” she explains.
The flight attendant brought her a cup of hot water, a Ghirardelli packet, and some stirring sticks. Rachel says she made the drink, settled in with her journal, and everything seemed perfect.
Then things went sideways fast.
“Every hair on my body stuck up,” she says, describing the sudden onset of symptoms. “I had to take my headphones out of my ears because the music was overwhelming me. And that doesn’t happen.”
Within minutes, she says she was drenched in sweat and consumed by anxiety. She says she was feeling intensely nauseous despite having zero history of motion sickness. She says she asked the flight attendant for a bag.
It Gets Worse
Five minutes later, she threw up.
“I feel terrible because the woman next to me had already been wearing a mask for the entire flight,” Rachel says. “So, of course, I sit next to the lady who’s trying to be cautious about her health and germs in the airport. And then she’s sitting next to me, a stranger who’s puking.”
But the vomiting was just the opening act. Her stomach pain intensified to the point where she felt like she was “going into labor.” She made her first of three trips to the airplane bathroom on the 90-minute flight.
“I’m s——- my brains out, which is the most fun that you can have on a flight,” she says.
“I’m s——-. And I’m holding the sides of the bathroom. You know, when you’re like gripping the walls. And I’m praying. I’m like, ‘God, please, like, somebody help me.'”
After surviving the flight, Rachel told her roommate the story, confused about why hot chocolate (something she drinks regularly) would make her so violently ill.
What Was In The Hot Chocolate?
“She goes, ‘Oh, well, they gave you water. Right? Not milk,'” Rachel recalls.
“I said, Yeah. They gave me water.’ She said, ‘It was probably the airplane water.'”
Rachel was shocked to learn that planes don’t have running water. It’s transported in, creating multiple opportunities for contamination during the process.
“Am I the only one who didn’t know that?” she says. “I’m so disgusted. That thought had never even crossed my mind before.”
Her warning to fellow travelers: “Never get a hot chocolate on a flight, or I don’t know if they make the coffee with the same water. I don’t know. But just beware.”
What To Know About Airplane Water
Rachel’s roommate was right to be concerned about that airplane water.
According to Travel + Leisure, former flight attendant Kat Kamalani has one cardinal rule for flying: “Never consume any liquid that is not in a can or a bottle.”
“Those water tanks are never cleaned and they are disgusting,” Kamalani said.
The contamination risk isn’t just anecdotal. A 2004 EPA sample of 158 planes found that 13% contained coliform bacteria, and two had dangerous levels of E. coli in the water. More recently, a 2019 study by Hunter College NYC Food Policy Center analyzed 23 airlines and found that many “have possibly provided passengers with unhealthy water.”
The study assigned each airline a “water health score” from zero (worst) to five (best). Of the 10 major airlines analyzed, seven scored under three, indicating questionable water quality. The researchers concluded passengers should avoid airplane tap water “at all costs” and even recommended using hand sanitizer instead of washing hands with tap water from the lavatories.
Food & Wine reports that flight attendants also warn that coffee makers on planes are “rarely cleaned unless they are broken.” One airline mechanic on Reddit defended the water systems, explaining that tanks do get cleaned with diluted bleach and flushed regularly. Another noted that because water is heated to about 195 degrees when making coffee (well above the 170 degrees needed to kill bacteria), hot beverages should technically be safe.
Understanding Food Poisoning
According to the Mayo Clinic, food poisoning symptoms typically include upset stomach, vomiting, loose stools (sometimes bloody), stomach pain and cramps, and fever.
The timeline varies depending on the contaminant. Some bacteria can cause symptoms within 30 minutes to 8 hours, while others take days.
Common waterborne bacteria like E. coli typically cause symptoms within three to four days but can strike as quickly as one day after exposure. Staphylococcus aureus, which can contaminate water through poor handling, causes symptoms within 30 minutes to 8 hours. Given Rachel’s rapid onset and the severity of her gastrointestinal distress, the contaminated airplane water could have contained one of these faster-acting bacteria.
Having not eaten since 10 p.m. the night before, Rachel had no food buffer to slow the absorption of the contaminated water or help protect her stomach lining. The hot chocolate was delivered straight to an empty digestive system, allowing the bacteria or toxins to wreak havoc immediately.
Most healthy adults recover from food poisoning without treatment within days.
Commenters React
“My bf JUST told me about airplane water last week on our flight i had no idea lol!!” a top comment read.
“Oh my god. 6 years ago I took an overseas flight and ordered a hot chocolate and had the worst 8 hours of my life. Back and forth to the bathroom the entire flight. It feels like I was meant to see this,” a person shared.
“Could’ve been an allergic reaction to something in the hot chocolate packet, but if it was a food or water borne illness it would’ve taken longer to manifest. I’m also a flight attendant, and yeah you can’t drink the straight tap water, but the potable drinking water is heated to a temp that makes it safe to consume. (All airlines/planes are pretty much the same with this)…. Sorry you got sick on the plane though, that’s never fun,” another explained.
@racheldont As if I needed another reason to never fly spirit again😭😭😭 #spiritairlines #foodpoisoning #flying #traveling
BroBible reached out to Rachel for comment via TikTok direct message and comment and to Spirit Airlines via email.