orbitmic

In my view, yes it is, because talking to a BA member of staff is unnecessary. So in exactly the same way that when you arrive in the UK from abroad (and having tested negative), you are allowed to take direct transport to the place where you will stay, but not to go shopping or walking or whatever, in my view, common sense is that a distinction can easily be drawn between contact you have no option to avoid and contact which is not a strict necessity.

And you are perfectly right that maybe the OP is vaccinated and therefore is not obliged to self isolate, but I personally do not think that it makes it right to have unnecessary contacts with others, and do not agree with you that the passenger presented "little more risk" of infecting others. I am saying that as someone who was recently pinged by the NHS because someone on my BA flight had tested positive. I am fully vaccinated (booster included) and as we all know, the whole (long haul) plane gets the same warning so chances that I was infected was in fact fairly remote, but I still avoided any contacts with others for a few days before doing a further test that confirmed I was negative.

Ultimately, I do not think that regulations represent the "maximum effort" that any of us have to make towards others but rather our minimal obligation, and in all walks of life, society typically works a lot better when we all go beyond that minimum to try and protect and support others.

13901

My biggest gripe with this situation is that this whole interaction was entirely avoidable. You can ask for a refund online. I don't know about you, but there's a pop-up banner on ba.com that says that. I get about three email per booking telling me about that. It's not the fourth secret of Fatima. I'm not saying that the OP has blood on his/her hands, not at all, but that - with the benefit of hindsight - I hope he/she realises that it hasn't really been the smartest of moves, no?

The fact that this isn't airborne Marburg doesn't mean that we should be at least a little bit savvy around this thing, especially since we've been in this pandemic for two years now.

I don't claim to be super smart - God, I'm often so dumb - but when I tested positive on the 19th of December at the in-laws, and although they were the first to pooh-pooh the whole thing, and although I felt extremely absurd, I donned my mask, opened a window, got an AirBnB and decamped there until I was negative again. Even if all I had was an incredibly mild case of the sniffles. Just because... you never know.

And thankfully I didn't pass anything to them, even though it meant spending the festivities on my own watching John Wick. It just feels like a waste of time because my in-laws have since gotten it (and are quite sick) thanks to their fenomenally smart son who, unvaxxed and with symptoms, visited for Xmas... but that's another matter.

KARFA

They just had a negative test result. If we are now concerned about those with negative test results I am not sure where that leaves us?

WebTraveler

With 2 of 4 people in her house infected, she has been exposed - even with a negative test. She certainly should not be walking around. I can understand the agent being angry. She needs to isolate.

KARFA

Assuming the OP is fully jabbed they don't have to self isolate https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/corona...nd-what-to-do/

13901

For the umpteenth time, I'm not accusing the OP of murder. I am not. I'm merely stating that this wasn't the smartest idea.

I don't mean to imply he/she should've been carted off to a secret underground bunker, or be tarred and feathered. Not at all.

But at the same time, I'd like those on the other side of the fence to recognise that somebody might be kind of alarmed if they were met by a perfect stranger saying "hey, half of my travel companions are positive for a highly contagious disease, how do I get a refund?". Instead we've got people hoping that this staffer was to be fired... seriously?

bisonrav

This is hardly a calm, un-hysterical reaction. You're projecting your own frustrations about Covid onto someone you don't know, circumstances you have no idea of, around an incident that didn't affect you, and your attitude is that this person should be hung out to dry to teach others a lesson, which of course it wouldn't anyway. The situation was dealt with by other staff, a voucher was issued, and was noticed by managers. That means internal HR processes will be followed to discus the incident with the employee involved and any mitigations understood. The OP is perfectly at liberty to raise a complaint.

There is literally no more to do, so queuing up to demand your own pound of flesh to punish "Karens" (whoever they are supposed to be), and to try to shout down people suggesting otherwise, is really unnecessary. On the other hand there are a ton of reasons for people to be scared of getting Covid, and not everyone has the luxury of quitting their job to reduce personal risks. So show some empathy maybe and a bit of compassion?

KARFA

My point is I am still not clear why you think they shouldn't have spoken to a staff member? Where are you seeing the risk from someone with a negative result presumably masked and suitably socially distanced talking to a staff member?

Maybe it would have been nice to know they could request the FTV online, but as you can see from this thread already someone asked whether it was even possible whilst checked in, so I am not sure it is very common knowledge.

I personally do think an agent "literally screams at me that I should not be walking around the terminal" is not a rational reaction under those circumstances - but I think perhaps a quiet word is better than any formal action.

Bohinjska Bistrica

The passenger didn't know the process and asked a question - I don't think asking for help is an interaction that didn't have to be made, to be honest. Especially when there may be a fair bit money on the line that you're about to lose.The passenger had in fairness also just tested negative for the virus at the same time they discovered the close contact. Naturally they should keep an eye on that over the next few days, but it does provide some reassurance.

The latter part of your post does raise, at least for me, an interesting question. Is the whole plane being pinged only for long haul or non-UK flights? Reason I ask is that I have it currently (completely fine thankfully) and it's almost certainly been either my flights or Heathrow where I've picked it up. My outbound (to EDI) had a positive case as my wife got pinged but I did not. I assumed this was on the basis of where we were sat and proximity. Wife is also positive but our daughter continues to be negative.

We were both negative before we went and before we returned.

bisonrav

--- deleted, accidental double post ---

Scots_Al

Assuming this all happened at T5, where BA still operates almost all flights, I'm surprised that between the on-site testing company, BA and NHS, no-one has thought to hand out a leaflet with 'what to do next' if you test positive.

13901

If I were to be exposed to a highly contagious disease my logical course of action would be (and has been) to remove myself out of that situation and to create as little fuss as possible, not to speak with half a dozen people. Call it excess of caution, call it having being brainwashed by too many safety courses, call it whatever... but that's it. I don't know if the OP was already checked in, I don't think the first post provides insight into it, and I don't know if he/she were masked or socially distant... but in his/her shoes I'd have just left.

That's it. That's what I would do, and indeed have done. As I've written about four times before, I don't believe OP has blood on his/her hands, but I also don't think they've been super smart. At the same time, the staffer overreacted, but that's not a good reason to wish him/her to be fired to 'teach the others'.

You don't agree? Eh, fine. Life goes on. I say one thing, you say another, Earth keeps on spinning on its axis.

wrp96

You would think but two stories from my office:

1) Last summer a coworker went to the doctor, who tested her for COVID and gave her a note excusing her from work while she waited on the results. The coworker came into work to give us the note.

2) Just yesterday, a coworker got a phone call that her husband had just tested positive for COVID. It took us 15 minutes to get her out of the office, with her at one point saying "I don't know what I'm supposed to do."

And these are smart people. It's like their brains short circuited from common sense once COVID became a very real possibility for them. I can imagine the same thing happening at the airport when you're thinking you're flying off somewhere and suddenly you're told no it's all cancelled.

Ladyfliestheredwhiteandblues

Oh good lord, the OP had just tested negative! Their companions were positive and they were unsure what to do. If asking their airline what to do in those circumstances is dumb then I’m sorry but it has all gone too far.
I realise that screens, like masks, are not perfect but they are a mitigation. I repeat the OP was negative at the time.
BTW I really am quite bright with a relevant qualification 😉

IAMORGAN

If only life were so simple.

Nobody should be shouting at anybody but right now I think we should try to cut people some slack. You don’t know what sort of day they’ve had / what their personal circumstances are and the rest of it. Maybe the agent was rude / blunt - and maybe the OP was also having a nightmare of a day with the 2 tests and not thinking straight either.

Chalk it up to one of those days. Speedy recovery to the 2 positive in your party 🙂