"How many weeks pregnant are you?" Jetstar asked the passenger....

“How many weeks along are you?”

It’s the social faux pas we all dread.

The wrongly assumed pregnancy.

The stunned silence after the question. The mortified feeling if you are the innocent question asker, the self doubt if you are asked. Always said with the most innocent of intentions it can backfire quite spectacularly.

Just look at the case of a 24-year old woman from New Zealand who says she has been left feeling “self conscious” and “shocked” after a member of a Jetstar’s crew dared to go there.

Grethe Andersen was headed off with girlfriends for a girl’s weekend on Sunday travelling from Wellington to Auckland when a male crew member approached her while she was storing her bags.

He muttered something that she says that at first she didn’t make out. She told Stuff.co.nz that he motioned to his stomach when he asked her the question.

“At first I thought he was asking how heavy my bag was,” she said.

“He signalled to his stomach and said ‘How many weeks are you?’ I was stunned and shocked, and said ‘I am not pregnant’.”

She says she was so embarrassed that she walked away.

“It was the way he went about it … I thought he said how many kg’s, as in [how heavy is] my luggage, but then he started waving his hands around his stomach.” She told One News in a blitz of media appearance yesterday.

She says that she was so self conscious all she wanted to do was change her dress.

“Do I need to put my jacket on, and change what I was wearing?’ I tried to make a joke about it, but I was feeling really self conscious.”

Ms Andersen says said she had lost “quite a lot” of weight during the past few years and had gained confidence regarding her body image but this threw her.

When they landed in Auckland she approached the cabin crew leader who told her that the crew had to ask women if they are more than 28 weeks pregnant for safety reasons.

Humiliated and bruised from the incident Ms Andersen took to social media to question Jetstar over their handling of the incident.

“I used to be quite heavily overweight and even then was never met by such a rude question and especially no remorse from the flight attendant,” she wrote.

“”I was there to celebrate with my girlfriends, dress up and look good. As a woman, it’s not a good feeling when you’re asked if you’re pregnant and you’re not.”

The airline replied to say “sorry”.

“You have every right to expect polite, friendly and professional service whenever you fly with us, and clearly we didn’t deliver it on this occasion.”

Jetstar says their policy is that pregnant women who are 28 weeks pregnant or more must carry a medical certificate from a doctor or midwife, dated no more than 10 days before travel, to confirm their estimated date of delivery, whether it is a single or multiple pregnancy, and that there are no complications with the pregnancy. Medical clearance is required if the pregnancy is not routine or has complications.

Flight attendants have taken to social media to discuss how they approach the situation.

“I always bring my little notebook when I ask a passenger if she’s pregnant. If she looks shocked and says no, I pretend to flip to a page and then look up and ask, “are you Mrs. ___________? No? I’m sorry, I must have the wrong person.” Works like a charm.” wrote one.

It’s not the first time Jetstar has made the stuff up. In 2002 a 21-year old woman was refused to fly on a Jetstar flight after she wouldn’t provide a medical certificate saying she was pregnant.

Kelsey Hughes also from New Zealand, and also not pregnant said at the time she was “absolutely humiliated at the gate in front of god knows how many people”.

At 70 kilograms, Ms Hughes said she didn’t even slightly resemble an expectant mother.

“I don’t look eight weeks pregnant, let alone 28 weeks. I would have had to have been huge,” she said.

The airline solved the faux pas both times with an apology and a humble gift – a $100 voucher for the next time the women fly.

Have you accidentally asked the wrong person this question?