An airline passenger has gone to extreme lengths to make her seatmates aware that her four-year-old daughter suffers from a ‘life-threatening’ peanut allergy, imploring other passengers sitting around them to refrain from eating anything containing peanuts for the duration of the flight.
The concerned mother stuck homemade signs to the cabin walls of their flight, which read: “My 4-year-old daughter had a life-threatening peanut allergy. Please no nuts during flight time. Thank you for your understanding.”
Imagine this
byu/GoAndGetYourShineBox inflightattendants
The image of the signs was shared on Reddit, with flight attendants weighing in on whether the mother was in the right or wrong for trying to get her message across to her seatmates to avoid eating peanuts.
Some crew members called the signs ‘extreme’ and even suggested that placing homemade signs on the sidewalls was a violation of Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) rules, although many also showed sympathy for the plight of parents who find themselves in this kind of situation.
The ways that airlines deal with passengers who suffer from serious allergies can vary massively, and some families have even found themselves booted from flights when they’ve shared their medical concerns with ground agents and flight crew.
Officially, the International Air Transportation Association (IATA) which is the official trade body for the vast majority of airlines globally, says that airlines can never guarantee a nut or allergen free cabin environment and that passengers with life-threatening allergies should first seek medical advice before boarding a plane.
Some airlines do, however, try to do more to protect passengers with serious allergies, although these measures haven’t been universally adopted.
For example, low-cost British airline EasyJet will proactively make announcements on behalf of passengers with serious allergies, asking other customers to refrain from eating their own nut-based snacks during a flight, and the airline will even remove items from sale if they contain nuts.
British Airways also makes announcements on behalf of parents or guardians and allows allergy sufferers to pre-board in order to wipe down their seat areas.
In the United States, Delta Air Lines has one of the most accommodating policies for allergy sufferers, allowing customers to pre-board and pro-actively suspending serving nuts in premium cabins should a passenger inform flight attendants of their allergy.
In contrast, American Airlines doesn’t offer pre-boarding, doesn’t make announcements to inform other passengers, and won’t stop serving nut snacks in premium cabins.
In April, United Airlines passenger Lianne Mandelbaum told the Department of Transportation (DOT) that she was left feeling “humiliated and intimidated” when she mentioned to a flight attendant that her son suffers from a severe peanut allergy.
Lianne says she asked a flight attendant to inform passengers sitting around her about her son’s allergy, but the crew member refused the request and had her summoned to the front of the plane, where a member of ground staff reprimanded her for making the request.
Last August, a British woman with a severe nut allergy bought all 48 packets of nuts on a Eurowings flight to London because the cabin crew refused to stop serving the snacks to other customers.
Fearing that she might suffer an anaphylactic shock if another passenger started eating the nuts, the woman spent €168 to snap up all the snacks before anyone else had a chance.
Entitled hag. I would still eat as I choose. Fly private if you have issues.
May you have the kind of day you deserve, Joe. And may you never need to depend on the kindness of strangers. People like you are what’s wrong in the world.
Lisa, I was about to post the same thing. Joe is a jerk.
👏👏👏👏👏👏👏
Are you talking about the woman who bought all the nuts or the mother with the child?
Entitled hag?! What is wrong with you?! She’s trying to keep her four year old child alive. But, oh! You’ll eat as you choose.
You are obviously an awful person. And entitled?! Imagine calling someone else entitled when you think your right to eat peanuts on a two hour flight at the cost of a child’s life… THAT is entitled.
A little sympathy for your fellow human being?
It is unfortunate that people do have these allergies and these allergies can be life threatening. I would have to look at the FARs to see if these homemade signs are legal but I’m betting that they are not. The airline could be sanctioned for allowing the signs and rightly so. Can the airline staff prohibit the distribution of allergens? I am thinking that they can. I doubt that the airline can prohibit a passenger from having the allergen aboard nor stop someone from opening the container. But, the disobeying of a crew order can result in removal of the offender from the flight. Flip the coin. There are other means of all transportation systems where the passenger can demand that there be no allergens. The problem with that is…it ain’t cheap! It is a “Catch 22” regardless
I wish you the same caring support should you find yourself needing help from strangers.
You have a black heart.
For parents with children with life-threatening allergies or other disabilities, this link specifically addresses airline responsibilities and rights as a passenger.
https://www.transportation.gov/airconsumer/passengers-disabilities
So, in order to protect her daughter from something she is allergic to, she wants people to not eat things (tree nuts) the kid isn’t going to react to either? You can be allergic to tree nuts and not peanuts, or the other way around. I have a relative who can’t eat cashews, but almonds are fine, and do are peanuts.
I’d tell my kids to not eat the peanuts. I’m allergic to green peppers , but I don’t tell everyone near me not to eat them.
Epipen.
I would like something from the Dr. How severe is her allergy, smell, eating, touching. Does the Airline have . verification on issues like it.
Is it a blown up life threatening seizure or just an intolerance? Dr. would know
Anybody in this situation SHOULD have paperwork and shouldn’t travel in a mass transportation or give the child a bubble. What about walking around terminal, in waiting areas, a sign on her back?
Delta has a proceedure where the passenger can put in the computer before buying the tickets of a peanut allergy. This is relayed to the crew. Many passengers bring a PB&J on the plane because they last a few days without refrigerating while traveling. So these people should not eat what they planned on a long flight?
Regarding peanuts on airlines.
The problem is that soooooooo many people are allergic to nuts, peanuts in particular. The other problem is that almost all nuts are processed in a place that has peanuts or peanut oil. Lots of other snacks are processed there too such as some pretzels. I love all kinds of nuts and eat them daily, but they should probably be banned from all commercial flights. Being on a flight for a couple hours without nuts is a small inconvenience compared to what the allergic person suffers everyday. An anaphylactic reaction is not a seizure but a total shut down of the body. They will probably throw up, their breathing tubes will swell and not let air through, their eyes may swell shut, their blood pressure and heartbeat will be uncontrolled. Their EPI pen may or may not help, or not help in time so they could die anyway. The reaction may even happen an hour or so later. The EPI pen is expensive, should only be used in a dire emergency, and is only a temporary measure meant to last 15-20 minutes until help may arrive. The patient still has to get immediate emergency care in the hospital. The person would probably be given steroids via IV, a couple different antihistamines, possibly admitted to the ICU. Also, once the person has had an anaphylactic reaction or two, they are much more likely to get one easily. Then, they also easily become allergic to many other things, too.
In this day and age it is almost unbelievable that people are not made more aware of this, and especially a commercial airline since it is such a small enclosed space. That is the biggest problem, it’s a small enclosed space. Any airline that bans highly allergic items, or anything with any nuts would immediately become the preferred airline for the biggest percentage of the flying public. It is really shocking that this has not yet happened!
Please be careful with your lack of sympathy and understanding since you too could become allergic to something at any given time or age. Karma can be a really tough thing.
Just posting for educational purposes in hopes that some airline will get a clue.