To fly with chicken pox?

[beepboo]

My son is two days into having chicken pox, we're due to fly to Bora Bora on Wednesday!!!!!
Should we try and get on the flight?? It's a been booked for a year and cost a small fortune!!! We have two other children who have already had the pox. Will he still be contagious by Wednesday?!

Please don't be a dick, yabu

I would also check with the airline.
I really do understand how shit this is, but no you can't fly with chicken pox. Incredibly unfair to other travellers, and potentially lethal to a few.

I think there is a strong possibility he will still be contagious. Quick google suggest contagious for between 5 - 10 days depenging when the last spot has scabbed over.

Surely you could claim on your travel insurance if you have to delay?

What awful timing ! hugs to you - but YABU to consider flying

You really can't fly if any of his spots haven't scabbed over even though you're tempted. In the confines of an aircraft he'd pass it on to loads of people. But you might find with a bit of luck he'll be ok by Wednesday. My dd hardly had any spots and was probably ok after a few days (can't quite remember now) but my son had it dreadfully and was still coming out in new spots about a week after the first one appeared.

Could some of your family fly out, while one of you flies with him a bit later all being well?

NHS guidance

OMG complications can include sepsis and pneumonia. You can't go away to anywhere like Bora Bora!

Airline info for chicken pox

Not to mention, what would you do in bora bora if he develops complications and is very poorly?

This as well. I needed medical attention due to something picked up on the plane. There were no English speaking doctors (my French is bearable) and of I’d have been very ill it’d have been a transfer off island.

GP for a letter, travel insurance and rearrange. Please please do not fly with him - you’re exposing everyone on every plane you’re on, plus transit and it’s a fucker of a trip for a sick kid.

You can't travel. Get a note from the GP and claim on the insurance. It sucks, but that's life!

That’s why you have insurance.

It's rubbish timing, but you could honestly kill someone if their immune system can't handle it. Do you not have travel insurance? Or the possibility that someone stays with toddler and flies out a few days later to join the rest of the family?

I'm jinxed, I've had to cancel my last two holidays because of death/illness. I give up

I'm jinxed, I've had to cancel my last two holidays because of death/illness. I give up

this just be hard; but it's the right thing to do. For him, as someone has referenced, as well as for everyone else.

Do you have insurance? They should cover this, if it's comprehensive.

Regardless of infection risk to other passengers, chicken pox can be very nasty. It can cause chest irritation and mucus. My cousins son is registered blind now after detaching both his retinas when coughing. He was 1 year old This all came about after the spots had started crusting.
For your sons safety, sadly I'd see a doctor go from there but I'd be very prepared to have to cancel.
So sorry! Fucking illness!

Scabby - Yanbu
Pustules- Yabvu

We flew with DAD when she had chicken pox, they'd all scabbed over apart from one in the middle of her forehead ,we jammed her hat on and took her anyway.In mitigation I've never had chicken pox and my kids weren't IL with it so I thought it was just a mild infection. It's only since being on here that I've found out that it's not always like that. If I knew then what I know now I would have stayed home with DD and sent the boys.

If you wrap him in clingfilm and put him on the hold you should be ok

'm jinxed, I've had to cancel my last two holidays because of death/illness. I give up

It absolutely sucks. But it’s the right thing to do. In al good conscience you can’t get on a plane with him. Imagine if your kid got really ill / honestly the back end of French Polynesia is NOT where you want to be.

Your travel insurance should cover this. But it may not if you fly knowing he’s sick.

Don't do it. Say he's infectious on the plane....passes it around here plane. Someone on a 2 week holiday catches it....isn't allowed to fly back home , has to stay and fund extra days and new flights (insurance may pay in the end ) but also need to take time off losing money... it happened to someone I knew....their dd caught it and was refused on the plane.

We had to cancel our first family foreign holiday when DD came down with chicken pox 2 days before we were due to fly. The numpty on NHS 24 thought there was no problem re flying but our GP vetoed it entirely. Since I can remember my grandmother becoming very ill after being in contact with me when I had chicken pox as a child, there's no way I could knowing put an entire plane of people at risk. The holiday insurance coughed up no problem but I was completely gutted.

Beepboo

You're not jinxed, it's just something that happens.
I've had to cancel through chicken pox, arrived on another holiday and unpacked only to get a call that my dad had died and had to go straight home and had a 12 day holiday in the Maldives where it rained literally every day.

I just remember that holidays are great but this shit sometimes happens so I have good insurance

Ex-Check-In Staff and Current Flight Crew here:

The reason flying with any kind of infectious condition is such a huge No-No is due to the way air is circulated on board the a/c. The air is circulated on what you could describe as a loop. Sucking all bacteria/smells/Airborne viruses into the system and distributing it all around the a/c to all PAX on board. Hence why you always feel like you stink when you step off and can often become a bit snotty within a day or two.

I would advise you look at your Travel Documents and get a note from your GP ASAP. Your tour operator should reschedule with no change fee upon receipt of a Doctor's note. (Notice the word should) Or, if you chose not to, then your Travel Insurance policy should cover you for cancellation due to illness.

I had chicken pox at 47 because some selfish parent decided to bring her pox ridden children to a pre Christmas party. As a result I spent Christmas in hospital with encephalitis as the virus moved into my brain. It took me three months to get better and over a year before I had full memory capacity back.

I sometimes wish I could have sued the parents as I also lost my job. They thought it would be OK as none of the spots on their kids were visible.

I was so, so ill. Pratt's.

Yeah you'll have to cancel, sorry.