Airport chairs and angry pregnant women

[Champagneponies]

I'm at a major European airport for a changeover. I'm 8 weeks pregnant and have been having constant nausea and some lightheadedness.

Came off my plane a few hours ago and was feeling really really awful and thought I'd faint. Some airport staff showed me through the airport into the gates, were really lovely and put me on some airport chairs and told me to lie across them with my feet up. The staff were so helpful, remained with me for ages and eventually when I kept insisting I was fine, told me to stay there for as long as needed and to make sure I eat etc.

That was about three hours ago. I've had a good nap and I've just woken up to a woman with two children, and she was pulling my legs off the chairs and talking to me in another language. I looked around and there were free chairs across the room and (still kind of in a blur) asked what she was doing. She said she needed the three seats next to me for her and her children. I said I'm really sorry but I'm pregnant and have been feeling unwell, and that I actually haven't been upright for a few hours. I was starting to slowly gather myself and sitting up, honestly the nausea was HORRENDOUS and I constantly feel on the edge of vomiting. And the woman comes out with 'Im pregnant too and need a seat, god not everyone has to be so dramatic about it!'

I wasn't refusing to move btw, I was just awoken in a fog and stirring myself upright while feeling awful.

She looked livid and started huffing, tutting and ranting in another language at me.

Then someone nearby actually intervened and pointed out there were other seats (for three people) just a short distance away, so she walked away still ranting in another language.

So I laid back down and spent the next 10 minutes with her children running back and forth between us and jumping on my seats and shouting. She seemed full of rage that I dare be laid in the seats and didn't immediately jump up when she was literally lifting me out of her way.

I've removed myself, had a cry as I feel awful and full of hormones and am now trying to eat something. But the more I think about it, the more I'm so so angry at her.

I was literally put there and told to lay down by airport staff, and it's quite normal to see people sleeping at the airport. The space wasn't crowded and there were plenty of available seats in the area. I was polite and said sorry and was literally trying to move.

Not sure if I'm flooded with hormones but it feel she's totally unreasonable.

YABU - she's being reasonable and I should have moved quickly

YANBU - she shouldn't have moved my legs and could have given me some grace

I’m still impressed that somebody can fall asleep like that on airport seats. I would be worried about my property if I was travelling alone, and would be waking up every three minutes to think that my passport had been stolen.

She's a dick and also shouldn't have put her hands on you. Some people don't take kindly to that sort of thing and if she is indeed pregnant (and not just lying through her teeth to save face) she could have out herself in harms way but doing this.

Hope the nausea and lightheadedness improves for you soon OP.

@Vinvertebrate that incident you had with the toilets has given me a flash back. I was on holiday in Amsterdam. I went into some cafe toilets. A Dutch woman was leaning against the sinks scrolling on her phone. There were two cubicles both with the doors ajar. I attempted to go into one of the seemingly empty cubicles only to find a child sitting on the toilet. The woman went bananas, saying she had tried to tell me her child was in there. She hadn’t said a word to me! People are strange and rude the world over.
I agree with @TokyoSushi you should have been found somewhere more suitable to rest OP. I am impressed by your ability to sleep on three airport seats @Champagneponies I guess pregnancy tiredness can do that to you.

Not sure why you keep referring to her speaking in another language. You were in Europe where she was probably just speaking in her native tongue.

Personally, as someone who spends a lot of time in airports, I get really irritated by spawlers and those who treat the lounges as some sort of doss house.

You say there were other sets of 3 chairs, which does make her unreasonable, but I do question how accurate you are being OP. A mother with her 2 young DC choosing to shout and rant in front of them over occupied seats when there were many others free seems unlikely to me.

It means we should allow the needy to use more than one seat if they, you know, need it.

With 11 hours layover, I would be probably booking a lounge or one of those airport hotels that allow short stay. Especially if pregnant or unwell. I fly regularly between New Zealand and Europe, occasionally have huge layovers and spending them in the main area would be awful. Expensive but for me that's the price of travel.

And they didn’t take her to first aid, they told her to lie on those three chairs. So explain again why the other woman had the right to physically move her?

Unreasonable to be suddenly unwell ?

I agree with this. Someone so ill they need to sleep for 3 hours, should not be left in general seating at the gates, no matter how much they insist they are left alone. I assume OP is suggesting because staff where there at the beginning, it was some kind of tacit agreement that she was entitled to stay there as long as she wanted. All major airports have quiet rooms for people who need to access them. Strange they didn’t offer this.

The other woman didn’t have the right to
physically move her.

I will never think it’s acceptable to lie down on multiple seats in public. It is rude.

But common courtesy doesn’t stretch to allowing someone to use more than one seat if they need to ? Even when there are enough to go around ?

Aren’t you a peach !!

No. That is not what I said, is it?
Either you’re well enough to remain in a public space (at which point you don’t need a 3 hour nap in said public space) or you are too unwell to be there, and need to make alternative arrangements, or seek a non-public space/medical attention.

Airports DO have these facilities because people becoming unwell while travelling is not a rare event.

Hope that helps!

This. How dare she pull the OP about!

Sorry I think the confusion about the number of children was me!

Lying down on seats in public is not common courtesy. It’s entitled and rude behaviour.

it was always likely that someone was going to take offense at you laying across several seats for hours.

That. The airport staff should have recognised that.
I don't know why so many posters have said that there were loads of free seats. OP has not said that at any point. Just that someone pointed to a set of three seats (which might have been recently been vacated).

Airports are very stressful places, and as a frequent traveler, I very rarely see a transit area where there are a useful number of seats available, especially for three people together.

The other woman was not to know that OP was pregnant, or unwell, and had been told by staff to lie there. So I totally understand her frustration at seeing someone lying across three of them. It really bugs me when I see people doing that, and I don't travel pregnant with two children.

Should she have moved your leg? No. But some cultures are more 'hands on' than we are.

All in all it was just one of those things with no-one really to blame, other than, maybe, the airport staff who should have foreseen this outcome.

I don't know... I want to give you the benefit of the doubt, really, but that sounds extremely dramatic. Particularly at 8 weeks... It's going to be a long 8 months for the world around you...

Well then the staff should have taken her there shouldn’t they ?

Yes, the staff should have!

Maybe you shouldn't fly, if pregnancy affects you this way.

@saraclara there WERE lots of free seats, including a whole row available. I've said there were lots of seats available in my original post

@Bearbookagainandagain this is my third time being pregnant and I've never had symptoms this severe for the first trimester. I'm not being dramatic. It's a horrendous feeling!

She absolutely should not have touched you!!!

You poor thing op, I had awful pregnancy sickness with my 1st - there's absolutely zero chance I could have coped with 11 hours hanging about in an airport and long flights. Are you able to avoid travel now for a bit?

That woman behaved appallingly touching you like that! Did tue staff intervene?