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?

Where do you draw the line with this sort of thing?

Covid is no longer an illness that requires any special treatment. There is no requirement to test and there is no requirement to stay at home if infected.

People are travelling about on a daily basis with plenty of illnesses aside from covid that have the potential to make other people very ill. They always have done and always will.

The reality is we can't all stay at home when we're unwell. In an ideal world we would, I'm sure, but bills need to be paid, food needs to be bought, children need to be collected and so on. For many people if they don't go to work, they don't get paid. It's life. I'm sure you have travelled or gone to work while ill before. Just because it wasn't covid doesn't mean you didn't make someone else very unwell without meaning to or realising it.

In this case, the woman on the plane probably became ill while in Berlin and had no choice but to travel home unwell. What else would you expect her to do? Stay on in Berlin for several days to recover from what was to her clearly a minor illness she was powering through? I hardly think so. Plenty of people travel home from holidays on planes with shared toilet facilities with stomach bugs and other nasty things picked up while abroad - I have certainly had to do the same before. It happens. We can't all afford to put our lives on hold while we recover from illnesses so that we don't infect other people.

I'm sorry you're so unwell and have had to miss your holiday. If focusing your frustration on this woman helps, then by all means rail against her in private. However, emailing her, and considering contacting her company to complain, are both ridiculous actions to take and you are obviously not thinking clearly. You know full well you have no concrete proof you caught covid from this woman and trying to get her sacked for being ill near you on a plane is genuinely nut-job behaviour that will only backfire on you and not the woman in question.

This is all such bullshit! The OP claims that she knows for certain that the coughing woman was on a mini break with her DH, that she definitely had covid and she was definitely the one person who infected her. Not only that but she’s found out exactly what her work involved, managed to find out who she works for and her email address without her knowledge. Hand on heart has anyone on here been so involved with another passenger to know all these details? It’s fucking creepy.
Also consider that the woman might have fallen ill whilst on holiday so is she expected to stay where she is and not get a flight home?
OP I’m calling you out as a troll and that’s a compliment because if this is real then you have got serious issues.

I am one of the most at risk people. I don’t see why other people should be forced to stay at home forever for me. Also, where’s the proof this woman knowingly traveled with covid?

Unless undergoing intensive treatment for diseases like cancer, people like me were always at risk of your viruses and never were expected to react in such an over dramatic way. Why has covid suddenly got some ‘oh so concerned’ about us? I can’t say I ever noticed it before.

If I am anxious about catching something on public transport, it is MY responsibility to protect myself. Covid isn’t inherently more dangerous than the other winter germs doing the rounds.

Anyway, I think karma already got me…and my immune system and my lungs. 🤷🏻‍♀️

This is what it comes down to.

The OP is on a wind up and none of this actually happened, but lots of the posts replying to her are genuine. I don't believe anyone who says they wouldn't travel because they might pass on germs. It's an easy thing to demand of other people but not so much if you had to do it yourself. Particularly as some people who are ill on planes will have become so whilst away, and may not have anywhere to stay until their symptoms dampen down sufficiently to satisfy some random's standard of not selfish.

I don't believe anyone who says they wouldn't travel because they might pass on germs. It's an easy thing to demand of other people but not so much if you had to do it yourself.

Absolutely this. There is so much virtue signalling on threads like this, but in reality I bet almost none of these people would put their hand in their pocket and shell out of a week's extended hotel stay in a foreign country to wait out their minor ailment.

Well done, you’re a better person than I am. If her response is anything other than seriously apologetic, I would forward the email to the firm’s general counsel. What a twat. Perhaps I’m biased, but I flew long haul, sat next to someone who was just as ill as this woman, tested positive for Covid a couple of days after landing and was so unwell I had to stay in an apartment on my own while the rest of my family went about the rest of the holiday. I was (and still am) incredibly bitter about it and would have contacted the infector’s employer if I had their details.

As for beaching confidentiality, we all work on documents while travelling but have the good sense to cover up identifying information with post its. If I was the client, I certainly wouldn’t want my settlement agreement worked on in such a public environment by a sick lawyer and I suspect the SRA would agree.

I did exactly that and the OP has done exactly done that but then it wasn’t exactly a minor ailment was it.

“Oh darling, I can’t wait to get to Berlin. Sorry I have to work right, just trying to finish this settlement agreement now and then we can enjoy our long weekend together without any interruptions”.

”That’s ok, Christine, I understand you have to work”

Woman opens up laptop. Start up screen is emblazoned with law firm’s logo. Opens up settlement agreement in Word.

Woman hacks and coughs up phlegm for the entirety of the flight

*OP gets home and seeking vengeance searches the law society website for all lawyers named Christine practising at that particular law firm. Identifies two Christine’s. Goes to law firm website and looks up the lawyer profiles. Identifies the right Christine. Profile contains all contact information.”

It really isn’t rocket science and only requires a bit of imagination to work out how basic observation skills and 5 minutes spent on google would have enabled the OP to identify this lawyer.

The OPs (made up) description of her health indicates she'd have been too unwell to travel anyway, so no she didn't.

Out of interest, did you have insurance? I've had insurance for every holiday I've had since covid kicked in, but recently it's only covered illness preventing travel rather than merely a positive test iyswim. Also, were you at home or away already when you tested positive/became ill?

Why on earth would you sit reading every word of her work? That is absolutely bizarre. She was clearly well enough to work and travel therefore you have no idea whether she gave you covid, given how unwell you are. Wise up and focus on your own health.

Why on earth you would want to put this woman's employment at risk is beyond me. If you do this, I've no doubt that you will feel guilty when you get over this horrible illness and feel more like yourself again.

@Mumsanetta - your summary just confirms what I said - it’s fucking creepy!

Tbh I think she probably was contagious and probably did infect OP.

Doesn't make contacting her employer or emailing her after the fact or making up crap about being a former solicitor any less bonkers.

I don’t think they’d do anything about it as she’s not broken any rules. But they need to provide her with a privacy screen for her laptop given a person sitting next to her has got her name and company details from looking over her shoulder. I work in government and this is a big no.

also she could have been working away for a week or so and needed to get home, what’s she meant to do, stay longer? What if she has no childcare beyond a certain point etc. Would you personally stay on a few more days in a hotel room on your own as you’re sick? Most would want to get home. I think you take this risk now travelling on a flight and you should probably wear a mask if worried

⬆️ this

We still don't know whether she has broken some rules. While the UK decided to ignore COVID, she was travelling to EU, so more than one set of rules comes into play.
And, subsequently, airlines have different rules. For example for Eurowings people are required to confirm that they don't have COVID (to their knowing), aren't a close contact or have relevant symptoms, and strong coughing is on the list.

I don't know how would the airline deal with someone who lied about that, just saying that "no rules broken" isn't necessarily true.

You sound absolutely batshit, but I hope you feel better soon

I don't know how would the airline deal with someone who lied about that

Sounds like Eurowings are a bit of an outlier if that's their universal rule, FWIW most airlines now discharge their responsibilities with something along the lines of this in their T&Cs:

"we are obliged to ensure our customers continue to comply with local restrictions and meet the requirements of the destination they arrive at."

So the reality is about the only thing most airlines will police on board is the mask wearing and any other rules if there is a requirement for the specific destination the flight is headed for (and there are fewere and fewer restrictions)

IMHO they're certainly not going to go try and hunt down somebody who flew with them X weeks or days ago and allegedly transmitted covid to another passenger.

Given how germ ridden some people seem to think aircraft are it's surprising any cabin crew or flight crew have survived the last three years...

@Mumsanetta why do you think this should be forwarded to the GC? Surely that’s just spite?

@RhymesWithTangerine yes it’s absolutely would be spite.

I don't expect the airlines to hunt someone down weeks later, I am not even sure what they would do with someone obviously ill on the board.

The point is, that the "breaking no rules" claim which was repeated in this thread can't be made just based on UK rules, without checking both the airline's and destination rules.

Similarly, argument that typical UK travel insurance doesn't cover positive test situation is irrelevant - it just means it might not be fit for some purposes.

Rules and regulations surrounding Covid are irrelevant in this situation as nobody on here - including op, have any idea if the woman had Covid or not.

I travelled back from the west coast of the States last week and the guy 2 rows in front had the most disgusting cough - it truly turned my stomach. He might have had Covid, who knows? I chose not to wear a mask though so if I go down with Covid in the next few days, I would be responsible for that. I didn’t protect myself. And if I somehow managed to find this person’s name and contact details, emailed them and couldn’t see anything bizarre or odd about this behaviour, I’d hope that someone close to me would encourage me to seek help for my mental health.

Massively unreasonable to be going to her employerto "make her accountable".

Utterly ridiculous.

She's done nothing wrong in the eyes of the law and was well enough in herself to travel as far as she was concerned.

Sorry, but catching a cold / flu / covid / chickenpox / conjunticivits etc... is part of life. You really need to step outside of the box (your unfortunate situation of missing out on your holiday) and look at this with clear vision.

I think once you've chilled out a bit, and realised that you cant blame anyone you being ill, you'll realise how odd your post is.

Get well soon though.