A passenger had to sit with an exposed bolt digging into his head for a 7-hour flight because his seat had no headrest

• A British Airways passenger says he had to sit in a seat with no headrest for seven hours.
• The missing headrest left a one-inch bolt exposed in the seat, he said.

A British man said British Airways left him to sit in a seat with a missing headrest, leaving a one-inch bolt exposed, for a seven-hour flight, UK-based Kennedy News first reported. Multiple news organizations have since republished the story.

He took a seven-hour flight with his partner from Heathrow Airport, London, to Toronto that reportedly cost £2,500 ($3,100) for the round-trip.

However, as he boarded, he found that his seat was missing its headrest and revealed a one-inch bolt sticking out of it. A flight attendant told him he was unable to move to another seat as the plane was full, but had the option to disembark or to use a pillow from first class to cover the bolt.

The couple decided to stay on board. The man told Kennedy News that he had to sit sideways for the flight.

"The whole flight was very uncomfortable as if I leant back I could still feel the bolt in my head as the pillow was that thin.

"It was a major safety issue. If I had hit my head on the bolt in the seat it would have cut my head," he said.

It wasn't the end to the couple's problems — his partner said she was only given a bread roll to eat during the flight due to the lack of vegan options despite pre-booking a meal, and on their return flight, his in-flight entertainment screen broke for several hours.

Last year, it was reported that British Airways was testing out not loading flights with meals for every passenger to avoid food waste. Previous catering issues have meant that one British Airways flight took off on a 12-hour journey without any meals and had to serve passengers KFC.

British Airways initially offered the couple a £50 ($63) voucher for their next trip but upped the amount after being contacted by journalists, Kennedy News reported.

"This was the first time we have flown with BA and we would not fly with them again," he said.

A spokesperson for British Airways told Business Insider: "We are sorry for our customers' experience and have been in touch with them to apologise and resolve the matter."