Originally Posted by ezefllying

Yesterday morning, I flew ORD-LAX (UA 2001). Having booked the night before, the only remaining Economy Plus seat was 33B, the bulkhead middle on our flight's 757-300.

I made the mistake of asking the gate agent if I could standby for an E+ window or aisle if any opened up at the check-in cutoff. Sure enough, 10F opened up, and the agent manning the BP scanner tried to move me to it. Problem is, the agent at the desk had just assigned it to a standby. And, as the agent helping me tried to put me back in 33B, the desk agent gave that to a standby, too.

Thus, I wound up in 35F. Not great given my height (6'3"), but I figured I'd sleep. The bigger problem: My seatmate had a severe cold and coughed constantly, making at best a ceremonial effort to cover his mouth.

There's never a convenient time to get sick, but I have my parents coming cross-country to visit me this weekend, and I'm really hoping to stave off whatever I was probably inhaling inflight.

Given that risk, I considered asking to deplane and standby for the next flight two hours later. (Every seat on 2001 was assigned by the time my seatmate's problem became apparent late in boarding.) I resisted the inclination primarily for fear that offloading me could screw up the weight-and-balance calculations and delay the flight.

Was that operational concern correct? And, if you had time to wait for a later flight, would you have done so in my circumstance? I'm sort of kicking myself for not looking into it, but the fear of being perceived as the DYKWIA of the flight exceeding my concern for my immune system.