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?

Especially if I were to explain that I knew which firm to contact as I read every word of the draft settlement agreement she was working on, including the parties, terms of settlement and strict confidentiality clauses.
Well if you were reading all of that you must hast been leaning in towards her, so not surprising you picked up a few germs. If I sat next to someone who was clearly unwell, I'd be trying to lean as far away as possible from them, I certainly wouldn't be nosing at their laptop.

Seeing you’re a person of such high moral standing, I expect that after sitting next to a passenger who you suspected had Covid, that you immediately isolated, avoided contact with others and wore a mask in the following days so as not to potentially inflict it on anyone else?

OP, I am in bed ill so I had some sympathy for you … up until the reveal about the settlement agreement. If you do contact her firm, you are being a Grade A bitch and you deserve the boomerang of bad karma that will come straight back to you.

She was working on a fucking mini-break. The woman is already pressed.

And yes, her firm may be concerned about the woman’s confidentiality issues but they’ll have your complaint back to your current employer presto. And both firms will make the obvious point: how did you diagnose her illness, assume it’s the same one you have, and confirm that you caught it from her? You didn’t.

You sound nasty. Maybe wait til your well before deciding what to do next.

She couldn't have been that unwell if she was on a mini break and doing work on the flight.

If she's a lawyer or works for a big law firm, I really wouldn't be alleging she's made you very ill unless you have absolute proof of that.

I'm amazed that you took a flight to Berlin last week, got ill 5 days later and have subsequently lost half a stone!!! Can you share your amazing weight loss secrets?

Well OP here is a thought experiment for you. You are clearly pissed off that you are too unwell to go on holiday. What if that women did have covid but you felt well several - maybe jist a bit of a cough or tickly throat - would you, hand on heart, have not gone on your holiday? Would you have even taken a covid test?

Because that is the sum total of the symptons I had when I got covid in early 2022. I only knew I had covid as my workplace had asked us to test ahead of an in person event.

That would be very unlikely.

I saw my former colleague for the fist time in over 4 months on the flight. He was randomly sitting in the seats in front of coughing woman. I didn’t attend any events with him.

We both chatted at baggage about how awful the coughing and hawking had been, and how we’d probably get Covid.

I haven’t seen him since. He texted me to say he had Covid the day before I tested positive.

This.
Her employer will likely take it seriously that she wasn't adequately maintaining privacy.
I would let them know.

You need to wear a mask

And the subsequent steps you then took to ensure you didn’t pass it on to anyone else were …..?

Thanks, that’s probably some of the best advice I’ve had.

At the moment I wish hell on her, but I’ve had to listen to my DC crying over not being able to see me, worry about me being so ill and their ruined holiday, and I can’t even go and comfort them.

I’ll wait until I feel a lot better before I decide what to do.

You can’t prove you got ill from her. It’s annoying but it’s just life so yes YABU.

Yabu. You don't know it was her that made you ill, nor do you know she had COVID. Coughs can hang on for several weeks from a cold - I had a cold (tested negative for COVID) three weeks ago and still coughing now. Certain things set me off worse, for example air conditioning or very cold drinks. Even if I did have COVID three weeks ago, should a cough now all these weeks later prevent me from going about my day, especially when in the depths of COVID 10 days was enough? I can see why you're upset as you've missed your holiday, but you have based this all on assumptions

This might be manipulative if it had been executed better.

Test

Isolate

Cancel my holiday

😂 😂 😂

But you were also going to go away thinking that you had been exposed to Covid?

Oh my fucking god.

YOU HAVE NO IDEA IF YOU CAUGHT IT FROM HER OR NOT. NO FUCKING IDEA WHATSOEVER.

There is nothing to “do” here except get the fuck over it.

You went travelling, you mixed at that airport with thousands of people. You cannot possibly have any confidence who gave it to you.

I still have a vile sounding, productive, constant cough many weeks after having a mild cold which turned to a chest infection (I am immunosuppressed). I am not going to give anyone COVID and would be deeply unimpressed if someone tracked me down to accuse me.

Have you ever actually been on a plane? You don't need to lean in to see anything, the person next to you is so close.

Maybe you have only ever flown business class

I wouldn't cancel a mini break abroad just because I have a cold.
So I think YABU. Woman obviously felt ok enough to travel.
COVID and other viruses are literally everywhere at the minute. You could have caught it from anywhere, people can be asymptomatic, it could have been someone else on the flight, a friend, your partner, anyone. You could have touched a door handle with germs on, absolutely anything.

I can obviously understand it's annoying when you feel like you've been exposed to something unnecessarily, and it's awful being ill, and yes she could well have passed it on to you. But this woman hasn't actually done anything wrong and you don't know you got it from her either way.

Half my workplace were full of cold last week and I had a cold this week. I've no way of knowing if I got it from them or whether my own daughter that was sniffly gave it to me, or whether I just picked it up from touching a basket handle in the supermarket.

It's just life!

You could contact her firm about how you were able to peer over her laptop to see confidential documents.

But contacting her firm about travelling with suspected Covid on a mini break - it's none of their business.

Hope you feel better soon.

I'd complain for the airline for letting someone who was visibly unwell get on the plane

It sounds as if it do the children good to miss a holiday and know that they can't have everything and sometimes things go wrong. Learn not to be as entitled as their mother.

Perhaps the colleague you chatted to at baggage gave it to you.