Passenger travelling whilst really ill

[Notjustanother]

Took a flight to Berlin last week. Woman next to me was coughing the entire flight; deep phlegmmy cough and spitting stuff up. Clearly should have been in bed. It was grim. As a minimum she should have been wearing a mask.

Five days later I felt very ill, and tested positive for Covid. A former colleague who also happened to be on the flight, sitting in front of this woman, has also tested positive.

Since then I have lost half a stone in weight, been horrendously ill and am having difficulty breathing. Today we were supposed to be going away for a much looked forward to half term holiday, we have had to cancel and pay the £200 insurance excess.

The woman was on a mini break with her husband, but did some work on the flight. She works for a law firm.

Would I be unreasonable to contact the law firm and complain - especially as she was working for them during the flight. I have her name.

I am furious that her rank selfishness has made me (and others on the flight) so ill. There could be no doubt that she was going to infect others on the flight, and must have known that there was a high risk that she had Covid.

I think she needs to be made accountable for her actions, or at the very least be made aware of how her actions have affected others. AIBU?

I'm in Alvor Portugal now, but flying home on Monday, i coujd do with 1/2 a stone weight loss, any tips?

Covid is a bit irrelevant here - she shouldn’t have been travelling when obviously so unwell, regardless of the cause. That’s basically what the official advice is, anyway.

You can’t be certain she had covid and was the one who gave it to you, as it’s widespread and the symptoms are numerous. I haven’t had any cough at all either of the times I tested positive. I did sneeze quite a bit with it, though, have an ever so slightly sore throat for a day, and felt a bit achey but without a fever, exactly like every mild headcold I’ve ever had, but not enough to feel too unwell to be out and about, tbh - only tested because of recent contact with confirmed cases when it was the rules to test. On the basis that there are likely lots of people wandering around with “headcolds”, you really can’t know that the person with the bronchitic cough gave you covid, rather than the person who, eg, mistimed a sneeze nearby.

Nasty and vindictive. You've no evidence that she gave you covid at all.

I hate it when people do this. I took my very vulnerable baby to a family party a few years ago and there was a child coughing. Sure enough my baby ended up being hospitalised with flu a week later.

elliejjtiny · Today 12:40
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I hate it when people do this. I took my very vulnerable baby to a family party a few years ago and there was a child coughing. Sure enough my baby ended up being hospitalised with flu a week later”

To be fair, most kids cough their entire way through winter. If they were kept home every time, they wouldn’t go anywhere.

So glad I’m not this petty in life! What on earth do you hope to achieve by this?

To all those saying report her, what did you do prior to covid if you caught something on a plane? Who or what did you blame then?

What if she'd had a negative covid test? Insurance wouldn't pay out so do you really expect people to lose money by not travelling?

You've reminded me to carry a mask, as well as hand sanitiser on flights. First sign of that and i would have put my mask on.

I agree she is selfish, though but not legally culpable.

‘I wish hell on her’

Jesus Christ OP, you sound quite scary and may have some anger issues. You are making assumptions that can’t be proven. We’ve all had covid and we’re sitting here not wishing hell on who gave it to us. We accept it’s that time of year that things go round. If you were that worried about getting on a plane, you could have worn a mask. Please focus your energy on recovering instead, and then just let it go.

If you contact her company you will come across as utterly barking mad but it will give them a good laugh.

This is true I'm afraid.

I would also be livid and find this unbelievably selfish. I hate it when people who are visibly unwell travel, but there's nothing you can do and if you try to contact her employer you'll be laughed out of the room.

Hope you feel better soon.

Masks do work! Stop spreading disinformation.

Shame on you.

From the moment you left your home until you reached your destination how many people did you come into close proximity with? How can you say categorically that you became ill because of her? If I received the type of email you’re considering sending the only thing that would be achieved by sending it is that you would have given us a good laugh in the office.

This thread is incredible! Almost comical. I mean think of it, every time we leave the house - to go to work, take the bus, to the supermarket, to the gym, to the airport, whatever - we risk picking up some kind of infection. Some of us are more vulnerable than others - it depends on how good our immune system is. If you want to be sure of not picking up anything from other people, you'll have to stop going out of the house full stop. But you can't blame other people for getting COVID with absolutely no proof whatsoever. And, OP, as a former lawyer, you should know that.

I got COVID last summer whilst on holiday with a friend and our daughters. We stayed in a hotel for two nights and travelled by car. No contact with anyone sneezing, coughing or anything like that at any time. A week after we got back, my friend and I tested positive for COVID - our daughters were fine. So, we have no idea how we got it. Should we have sued the hotel? 😁Another friend of mine was on holiday and tested positive just after returning (by plane) despite having no symptoms whatsoever. He could have infected everyone on the plane and no one would have known.

Moreover, when my daughter got COVID in 2020, I was with her the whole time and did not wear a mask in the house, but did not develop COVID despite not having had any vaccine at that point.

By the way, when I had COVID, I was too ill to go out of the house, far less fly, but did not have a cough or a runny nose. Having a productive cough is no proof of COVID whatsoever!

I’d complain. You clearly caught it from her. Give them a fright at the very least. But May I add that you should be wearing a respirator and if I saw a visibly unwell pax, I would ask to move seats or refuse to fly.

Thanks everyone, this has kept me amused whilst I’m not able to get up.

I’m amazed at all the people who defend to the hilt someone’s right to fly with Covid (because it’s legal, you know!). Even though they do so with the certain knowledge that it will make others on the plane ill.

But are morally outraged at the idea of me reading text on a computer openly on display right next to me (also not illegal).

I guess there are a lot of entitled “Women with a cough” types on MN who hate the idea of selfish actions catching up with them.

I’m not going to email her work. I have however emailed her to let her know that I could read her document and also that I and the passenger in front of her are both ill with Covid. She can make of it what she will, and self-report if she feels the need.

Hopefully it will make her more aware on both fronts.

As to the weight loss, I think 50 hours of spin classes would be preferable to a day of bad Covid. Although crack on if you want to try it.

I am now coughing up phlegm, with the same phlegmmy cough.
I have Covid.

I cough up phlegm all the time. I cough all the time. I have asthma. I have never tested positive for Covid.

You have no idea whether this woman had Covid or, even if she did, whether she gave it to you. You should be wearing a mask if you're really concerned about the possibility of catching Covid.

What’s comical are people willing to catch a biohazard level 3 vascular disease. We have the tools to avoid it but people prefer to shorten their lifespan than do the needful.

You shouldn’t have read the whole document over her shoulder. It was clearly confidential and as a lawyer you should know that it was professionally very inappropriate for you to do that. So if you were to make a complaint to her partners, be prepared for one to go straight back to yours if you are still a practising lawyer.

On the bigger picture though, how would you feel if a stranger contacted your employer to try to get you sacked or disciplined about an unrelated matter because they felt rightly or wrongly you had done them wrong. Maybe you cut them up at the lights and the consequence was they missed a flight or were late to an important client meeting, and so they reported to your employer for suspected drunk driving. Or you jumped a queue and got the last tickets for a sold out concert but were scolding your child for something on the way out the door and a safeguarding allegation made maliciously to the school you worked at?

Is this the kind of person you are when not unwell OP? Is it the kind of person you want to be and the behaviour you want to role model to your children.

Whatever you think about the lawyer on the plane and whether or not she was the source of tour covid, two wrongs don’t make a right and I think what you are considering would be a wrong.

You've emailed her already? Not through work but on her personal email?

Fucking hell. You haven't really emailed her have you?? As an adult aware that what you were SNOOPING at could be confidential, why didn't you do the respectful thing and not sit staring at her screen? To the point you know her email address? You're properly batshit.

I’m not going to email her work. I have however emailed her to let her know that I could read her document and also that I and the passenger in front of her are both ill with Covid.

You absolute psychopath!!

Agree with whoever said that this sounds like the start of a made-for-TV thriller about an unsuspecting corporate lawyer who goes on a mini break and inadvertently draws the attention of a crazed stalker on the plane…

You don’t even know if she had Covid. Not all coughs are Covid, and Covid doesn’t always come with a cough.

She'll probably hang onto the poison pen email as evidence lest OP decides to go into total bunny boiler mode and contact her work.

Yes, I agree 100%. I was just about to say ask why OP did not actually tell the woman next to her straight away that she could read her confidential document and that she should try to be more discreet. Why is she writing to her to tell her that now? She could have told her while they were on the plane.

I often have to deal with confidential documents in my work and am asked to sign non-disclosure agreements. Naturally, I make sure I keep these files confidential. However, if I were working on a plane I would not expect the person sitting next to me to be staring at my screen and reading everything!