Sick after flight 279 SW-Dallas to KCI
 

My job flew me from Kansas City to Little Rock. They flew me Southwest. The first flight was from Kansas City to St. Louis to Little Rock. I think the St. Louis to Little Rock was the best of the flights. The lay over short, and arrived on time.

Going home, I had to fly from Little Rock to Dallas, Dallas to Kansas City. This was March 2nd. The first plane was delayed by 1 1/2 hours. Little Rock couldn't give me a time the plane would arrive, and I had no idea what to tell my family when to pick me up in Kansas City. it finally arrived, and was a quick flight to Dallas.

The Dallas plane to Kansas City was over 2 hours late. I had a B1 seat number, but when they gave me a new seat number, it was B39. There was a man coughing, and coughing, and clearly he was sick. He was nearly heaving. He was in his 20's. The plane arrived, 2 hours later, and it should've been 1 1/2 hours to KCI, but ended up being 2. The male flight attendants were awful. The sick man was 3 seats ahead of me, opposite of my aisle. His cough worsened during the flight. People on the plane began to cough.Needless to say, I finally arrived at KCI in the dark, at 8:30...boy do we have an uninhabited airport...the worse I've ever been to. I could've driven to Kansas City in the 10 hours it took me to fly, and between flight delays.

I got off the airplane, and waited 45 minutes for my luggage, which was actually waiting for me in a little room. (How long had it been there, before they called my name)? I was getting a funny headache. My Excedrin was packed in my check on luggage, cause I don't fly often, and didn't know you could put Excedrin in your carry on. I took 2, and felt better, but then I started to cough.....it is now day 3 or 4 of this cough. I have prescription cough medicine, but probably will need to go back to the doctor's Monday for an antibiotic. I was fine before I got on that plane. my birthday was yesterday, I practically slept through it. The cough medicine makes me sleepy. It was viral at first, and it might still be viral.

My question is, the guy was obviously sick....why didn't they give him a mask? I'm a nurse, and a mask would've atleast slowed the germs. I will certainly have a mask the next time I fly, if I ever fly again.

Great idea to bring a mask next time you fly. Airlines are doing less and less. I wouldn't plan on attendants/airlines giving a passenger a mask, even though it makes sense. We had a similar situation to yours in January. EVERYONE on our plane coming back from Mexico was hacking. A week later, our whole family came down it, and the cough really hung on. I had it for nearly a month, my kids a little less. I'm sure it's viral, but really no fun! Hope you feel better.

You are a nurse and you seem to believe that this disease was so contaigous that "people on the plane" were impacted DURING the flight? Even the bird flu didn't spread this fast.

It could have been that man or it could be something completely unrelated. Considering that it started in baggage claim my bet is if you got it on a plane it was the one TOO your destination, not the one home.

I fly weekly. I have sat next to sick people but honestly there has never been a correlation between my illness and "typhoid Mary" next to me. I can sit next to someone who hacks, sneezes etc for the entire flight and never be affected. Then I can get home from a trip where everyone around me was healthly and be very sick....

"<i>Even the bird flu didn't spread this fast.</i>" :) I was thinking the same thing. Rhonlynn: Did you skip class when they talked about incubation periods?

It is viral and you are taking antibiotics for it? Did you miss that class too?

"EVERYONE on our plane coming back from Mexico was hacking. A <b>week later</b>, our whole family came down it," that is a more likely scenario.

Of course you can take Excedrin with you on the plane. Whyc did you think you couldn't. I've never heard of anyone showing symptoms immediately after exposure. And you're a nurse?

I really hope your feeling much better but shouldnt a grown adult (the sick person next to you) realise that they are sick and that they shouldnt travel and infect other people? Airlines & cabin crew shouldnt have to worry about people's illness's.

As a flight attendant we don't have masks for people to wear. Yes, you would like to think that people won't fly when they are sick but because of nonrefundable tickets;places they need to go to or people they need to meet with,they fly anyway.

There has been a cough thing going around almost sounding like pertussis for the last two months and even my ENT doctor told me yesterday that it has been a bad season as we haven't had the cold like we usually do.

Try being a flight attendant flying all over the world in an aluminum tube for 11-17 hours everyweek with only 42 hours of sick leave a year? I wish I could wear a mask!!!

And FWIW, the OP probably infected more people on that plane that the person she complained about as you are MOST contagious just before you show symptoms!! So while the "cougher" was unpleasant to hear and be near, the OP was really the culprit.

" nonrefundable tickets;places they need to go to or people they need to meet with,they fly anyway." You forgot one - many people are flying at the END of their trip and simply need to get HOME!

My guess that the OP is a post and run and won't even see the comments, as it was her first post and hasn't returned. Oh, well...

I always wonder how people even find Fodor's to make a one time complaint like this.

Me too suze.

Obviously this cough was fatal - the OP has disappeared.

hahah, gail

Methinks the OP has been hitting the cough syrup.

My wife and I just returned from a trip to Hawaii. Something we'd been saving up for a long time. On the United flight from LA to Honolulu a woman sitting directly behind my wife coughed the entire flight with no atempt to cover the cough. She had small children running about the cabin. This was a Tuesday evening, by Friday morning my wife was sick with a dreadful "cold". I was fine until Saturday evening when I had the same cold. We were both healthy until this point. We returned the past Tuesday still sick. We were cautous not to cough on anyone. My wife went to the doctor on Friday. The doctor confirmed it was influenza and since I had gotten a flu shot I didn't get it quite as bad. The doctor felt it was probably from the coughing woman who no doubt infected many more people. We are still recovering.

Jerry, I am a bit curious - how did you happen to find <i>this</i> thread to make your very first post on Fodors?

How could your doctor possibly know you were infected by that one particular "coughing woman" on the plane? If my doctor said something like that, I'd be looking for a new doctor.

To be fair, he said the doctor thought it was probably from the woman coughing. The doctor apparently did not say it was definitely from the woman coughing.