Deplane to Avoid a Sick Passenger?
 

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.

I've been in a similar situation, but there were some empty (albeit extremely undesirable) seats I relocated myself to. If every seat in the plane had been occupied it would have been a very tough decision.

Another option would be to offer your window to every middle within speaking distance hoping someone would take it.

As far as W&B, it's not your problem. UA has no shows/etc all the time and it's on them to handle well.

Get a face mask if you are worried about catching a cold or such from sneezing passengers.

On a larger jet, the weight and balance of a single passenger is negligible. You're only really looking at 50-seaters and smaller where it becomes an issue.

For that to really work I think you need to put it on the sneezing passengers. :p

Few things are more important to me when travelling than my health - and I could completely relate to the OP as I too have changed seats and considered getting off a plane - or asking the flight crew to remove a clearly ill passenger (but have never actually done that). I do wear masks as well - although not often in the west as I only travel with a few when away from Japan... I'm not a germaphobe but do admit to cleaning things with wipes before eating / using certain things lol... An airplane is one of the "dirtiest" environments even when passengers are relatively healthy - adding in a clearly ill passenger really increases the risk of you getting sick - and that's something few of us that travel regularly want to deal with...

Before the merger on a CO redeye I had a drunk/high dude in F trying to feel up my junk (I'm also a dude) and just generally invading my personal space to a level where I went from "Ok, I'm not going to be comfortable sleeping with him next to me" to "I'm not going to be comfortable awake with him next to me" and I was prepared to spend the night in SFO... So I grabbed my carry on, mentioned my concern to the crew and that one of the two of us was leaving the aircraft. The captain made the decision that he was not fit to fly and a gate agent escorted/dragged him off the flight.

If you have someone clearly unwell you can always bring it to the crew's attention and remove yourself anytime up to the boarding door closing. On a mainline aircraft a single passenger is unlikely to make any kind of significant W&B concern... On express (particularly small express) that's a slightly different story, but I'd still put health and wellbeing above a minor recalculation.

Depends on the mask. I ordered, and carry with me, the 3M N100 hazmat masks in my backpack for just such an occasion. They filter 100% of the incoming air (if worn properly), unlike the surgical style masks that filter some of the outgoing air, but none of the incoming air.

Do airlines get in more trouble for 1) removing a sick passenger at the airline's discretion, 2) not removing the sick passenger, 3) the complaints and reaccomodation of a passenger seated next to the sick passenger?

I think the issue is airborne droplets that the sick person may cough out. A mask such as you reference above will prevent you from breathing it in, but not from it getting in your eyes, which can also lead to infection. Putting the mask on the sick person addresses this, unlike any mask you might wear unless it also provides eye protection.

Clearly the answer is a full body hazmat suit in your carry on @:-)

If you do deplane due to being seated next to a sick passenger, would UA rebook you for free?

I'm not sure (unless you are the sick pax) UA necessarily has an obligation to do so because at the level of technicality of technicalities it would be a voluntary change and governed by fare rules, but I don't think it would be very hard to find an airport agent, supervisor, or if it came down to it, call center rep/supervisor to "make an exception" based on extenuating circumstances.

In my personal case I was prepared to eat the change fee and fare difference to avoid 5.5 hours of what I anticipated to be hell if that's what it absolutely came down to...

Maybe it's incorrect, but I've read these are not particularly effective. They work great if the person who is sick wears it, but if you wear it they are far less effective.

Put another way, it sounds like generally they are more effective at keeping germs in than out. Hopefully that's wrong, if it is, I'll consider this in the future. More and more flights seem to be filled with sickies. And who can blame folks, with change fees what they are these days, no one is going to change their plans unless they are about to keel over.

I guess I could pack a pair of swimming goggles too and I'll look like an extra from Star Wars, but what I find most useful is positioning the airvents to create an air wall around me and push any malfeasance away, or back to its source.