I felt that woman's rage building up just from reading that
Pregnancy rage is real, the agent was moments from a disaster and the bf knew it
Gate Attendant: It appears you're pregnant?
Woman: The FUCK I am, are you calling me fat?
#checkmate
I was told that you never ask a woman if she is pregnant unless the baby is actively attempting to come out.
Even then, I'm probably just going to assume it's some weird sex thing and I don't kink shame...
Worked at an airport. The worst part of the job was dealing with the bullshit of TSA. Bunch of useless, self important pricks given unjust authority to harass individuals who are just trying to travel for some performative bullshit designed to soothe the minds of racists.
I'm pissed on her behalf!
Need documentation over 28 weeks, kay, sure, that's stupid bullshit on its own, but whatevs.
But she's not. And then they fucking wheedle her.
Fuck off. 24 weeks. Conversation over. Shut the fuck up and do your job.
"I'm at 26 weeks" (actually at 30 weeks)
"Ok you're good to go."
something bad happens
"THEY LET ME THROUGH IT'S THEIR FAULT I'M GONNA SUE YOU" and the person loses their job even if they can somehow remember and prove this woman lied.
So your answer is, like always, shitty asshole liars ruin things for decent people.
That's not how this works. She could also have been fat and not pregnant. She would obviously not be required to prove that in that circumstance.
The rules are clear, she was compliant, the airline agent wasn't.
“THEY LET ME THROUGH IT’S THEIR FAULT I’M GONNA SUE YOU” and the person loses their job
That's not liability on the gate agent, its liability on the airline (which needs processes for adjudicating when to ask and to document the answer).
This is something that's supposed to happen during the ticket sale process, not the moment-before-you-get-on-the-plane.
It is literally not this agent's job to probe. And if she's worried about liability, harassing a woman who doesn't qualify for her investigation is a bigger liability concern, particularly if she delays the flight or tries to boot the passenger.
Yes, its the shitty asshole liar, not the fact our entire system of recompense and accountability is fucking unhinged. I'm so glad we agree.
And keeping that system instead of any better social fprm, well, sometimes you gotta deprive innocent usually marginalized people of their autonomy; it's just a 'cost'. Cant beat a puppy to death without havin a few orgasms, amirite?
which is why the policy is dumb. it should be a document proving you're under 28w OR a doctor's note that says you're fine to fly.
That whole requiring documentation to say you don’t need documentation is so absolutely drunken with power maliciousness.
From the makers of ‘Please respond if you want to come to the party’.
- So are you coming to the party? You didn’t respond
It's easy to be chill when you're not the one being disrespected.
It's also easy to be chill when you don't interpret every slightly contentious interaction as being disrespected.
It's easy to be chill when you don't consider other people's experiences to be valid.
Honestly, if I were her I'd be at least a bit miffed at the boyfriend at that point, for undermining my righteous fury.
There's only so much energy each of us has to fight the bullshit. You aren't going to win every battle. So you need to pick your battles and spend your energy wisely. The post says they were getting on a plane. Travel in general comes with a lot of bullshit to navigate. If you use all your energy up and you haven't even gotten on the plane yet, you're going to be fully exhausted before you reach a safe recharge space and be in meltdown territory.
I think bf properly chose to defuse this situation because the lowly worker making the demands may have zero ability to influence policy and has their job at risk if they don't follow it. Alternatively, the worker may be on a power trip and has the ability to use their power to fuck up your travel. Yes, you'll get grounds for a complaint, maybe a refund, but that "justice" will arrive days, weeks or months after the offense. Your travel will have already been screwed, and it was totally avoidable by providing enough benign info to satisfy the worker.
I'm not saying "always capitulate", but make sure the rage is worth the cost. If the jackboots show up at my front door asking me for information on activities of the gay couple that lives next door for no other reason than that they are gay, I'll tell the jackboots to pound sand.
That's absolutely ridiculous. He was doing his part in trying to keep her calm and trying to help defuse the situation. To be mad that he noticed a problem starting to boil over and handled it is insane. A partner helps in exactly these situations. Its not us vs ourselves. The issue can be addressed after. Why risk getting thrown off
I was hoping the story ended with “my usually cheerful unbothered bf told them politely but firmly to eat shit” but he just instantly capitulates to the bureaucracy? Wack
Getting on the airplane is way more important than feeling superior to a bottom-rung worker.
I know this isn't relevant to the post, but why do you need a doctor note for 'any' amount of weeks?
Its a low pressure, low oxygen, cramped environment that can complicate existing issues a lot more than some people realize.
I know of someone who died because a really bad freak ear infection ruptured at altitude and they bled out before the plane could land.
Its not like planes aren't safe, its just that high risk individuals and situations need extra precautions.
I thought I was going to die on a plane during depressurization once. My head literally felt like it was going to pop from my forehead and the pain was so immense I hunched over as to not cause panic in the aircraft.
It had happened a couple other times before this particular instance where the front of my head felt immense pressure during the planes decent. It also caused major headaches that lasted several days after the incident.
I looked it up after this event and made an immediate appointment with my doctor. Turns out some 10% of men can be affected by this where fluid builds up in your forehead "sinus pouches" I'll call them, and during the planes decent it will depressurize. During depressurization this fluid will push against your brain. You can see a similar action with a half filled waterbottle during this time. They implode a little bit. That's what was happening to my head.
My doctor prescribed me a nasal spray I need to take 30 minutes before take off to drain my sinus. It's worked ever since.
Probably because you might end up giving birth prematurely on the flight and they don't wanna be liable for anything
The liability thing is definitely part of it but it ain't good news for anyone involved if that thing decides to pop out over the Pacific.
I think she handled this brilliantly. I'd have only changed the last intrraction.
"No. I am only 24 weeks pregnant. Do I need documentation if I'm only 24 weeks pregnant?"
"Can you please point to the policy that says I need a note at 28 weeks? Right there? You're absolutely correct, that IS what the policy says. Well done! Now point to the policy that says I have to provide a note to you that I'm at less than 28 weeks. Take your time, I'm patient."
wtf do you need documentation for? god, fuck everything about flying
You get a bit of a dose of cosmic radiation while flying. It won't turn your baby into the Thing or give them the ability to catch on fire or turn invisible, but it could still damage the baby at a vital stage of their development.
I don’t buy that explanation. Why would that dose of radiation be more harmful to a more developed fetus?
The crew just doesn’t want to deal with a mother spontaneously giving birth, and the airline doesn’t want to deal with the paperwork of taking off with n passengers and landing with n+1. And no-one wants to find out the nationality of a baby born over the Atlantic.
Correct. As a father of four and who moved across an ocean when one of them was six months in utero it has more to do with concerns that changes in air pressure might induce early labor.
Edit: I realize this post reads like I abandoned my family when one of my kids was six months away from being born. I didn’t. But it’s a funny enough mistake that I’m not changing it.
"Oh, hang on, silly me: I forgot I actually just had a massive, massive breakfast. Can I get on the flight now please?"
By the time that exchange is half way through, I've already been wrestled to the floor by an air marshall.
Wait until some brilliant MBA comes up with the idea to charge an extra baggage fee up to 28 weeks and an extra passenger after
I use "are you calling me a liar?" which is probably more effective in the UK than the US.
Ugh I HATE that phrase. I’m American and any time someone says that to me I just want to reply “no, I just think you are ignorant” but I know that would just get me punched.
I feel this in my very soul. Today I had a work communication from an outside group that my team has a "streamlined" submittal process. The purpose of the streamlining is to reduce the number of documents we have to share and review to save time.
The request came asking for additional documents for a recent submittal and stated that it was their policy since the beginning of the year (I have had multiple submittals since then and this was the first time hearing this). I replied that I would be happy to submit the requested documents, but also directed them to their own guidance document saying that the extra documents were not required.
Their response came back that the documents aren't required, and that they weren't going to review them, but they still wanted them anyways to just put in the files. I about lost my shit because that's functionally the same as being required! I asked if this was from the beginning of the year why is this the first I'm hearing about it?
"Oh we forgot we were now requesting them."
Did the boyfriend need documentation proving he's not 28-weeks pregnant?
I know, it's really annoying when you just want war and someone helps you out to fix it all
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