What do you do sitting next to a "pesky" sick pax?

[Cashsuds]

I was inadvertedly seated next to a pax who was obviously ill who was c oughing and sneezing from the minute he stepped in!! Because it was full flight, it was impossible to get reseated. Does paxs have a "social" responsibility not to fly if they are ill? Who decides?

Note recent article in the London Telegraph

"There's nothing more discomforting than sitting alongside a sneezing, wheezing traveller in cramped quarters for hours on end - particular if, like I, you grew up in a germaphobic household. But going by the results of a recent study, released last month, those fears appear to be well founded.

The findings of Auburn University in Alabama, which were presented at the annual conference of the American Society for Microbiology, revealed that disease-causing bacteria can survive for up to a week inside plane cabins, on surfaces such as seat pockets, tray tables, window shades and armrests. Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), a bacteria that could cause infections, skin disease, pneumonia and sepsis, lived the longest (168 hours); Escherichia coli (E. coli), which can cause urinary tract infection, respiratory illness and diarrhoea, was found to survive for 96 hours.

The web is awash with equally worrying studies, which would suggest that every square inch of a plane is a potential habitat for germs.


Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/travel/travell...#ixzz34VL5sqhc

I subsequently got sick at my final destination and "totally" wasted my whole business trip!!

[dj_jay_smith]

This is rather bad luck. And I do agree with you to some degree.

But look at it from the other perspective. The passenger was sick, would probably have preferred to travel another time but with airlines being so inflexible on cheap tickets then it's probably too expensive to change/cancel/rebook so they feel that they have no choice but to travel. And they probably weren't sick enough that travel insurance would have kicked in (not without a doctors note at least).

They also could have been sick already for a few days and just wanted to get home ASAP to recover rather than in some foreign hotel (been there, done that, not nice!).

[milehighj]

The other day in SQ Y, I boarded late and found the seat next to me occupied by a clearly heavily-flu-ridden pax. This was all the more surprising as the flight was not full and the check-in desk had informed me that the seat next to me was protected.

After the 3rd germ-ridden wheeze, I managed to track down the CS in the cabin to ask to be re-seated. It turned out that the pax next to me arrived at his designated seat to find it occupied by someone else, and he was told to take the seat next to me.

Thankfully the CS quickly rectified the situation and everyone was put in their allocated seats.

[726]

at least for me, i'd go japanese-style. I always carry masks on japan-bound flights. Maybe I'd consider binging it to other routes as well.

I was on a CX flight from HKG to LAX several years ago (2002?) when a sick passenger spitted on the plane's carpet. Disgusting. At least on other routes I never found such a thing