PeanutAllergy.com community member Juliane recently shared the following story with us
So my story starts off with the details of the __________ flight on February 15, 2010. My children and I board the plane as I have done for over 30 years now. We get to our seats and I tell the flight attendant on the __________ flight that I am deathly allergic to peanuts and for the 1 hour 30 min flight to please not serve them. Mexican staff all begin to tell me that it is their "right" to serve peanuts. I tell them that there is a possibility of me not being able to breath. The flights down on __________ were without incident. The flight staff said sure no problem. Did anyone even miss their bag of peanuts? NO!
So again more staff come to tell me that they HAVE to serve the peanuts. They offer me a seat at the back of the plane. I don’t think they realize that the entire plane will eat the peanuts! This situation has delayed the plane about 15-20 minutes so far. So… a Mexican lady finally stands up in the middle of the plane and explains in Spanish my situation. SO then the flight attendant explains in English what my situation is. The passengers start all yelling to just not serve them the peanuts! One man yells out " I can live without peanuts for an hour"! So the flight staff all nod their heads and everyone is ready to go. Well...the pilot now makes the decision to ask us to leave the plane. A lady behind me starts yelling that I am not listening to the staff and I refuse to go to the back of the plane!!!
At this point my children start to cry because there is a lady yelling at us and we are VERY rudely asked to get off. So I pack up my crying children and walk out of the plane. I am waiting for them to tell me what I have to do when the staff yells at me to get away from the airplane. So we walk into the terminal where my children and I sit in a lump on the floor all crying together. No one comes and tells us what is happening so just sit there all crying for about 20 min. Then finally a staff member comes up to us and tells us that they can’t find our baggage. "What color is your luggage lady?" While I reply "Black"! I hope that this helps them. The flight sits there for another 15-20 minutes while they rummage through the plane looking for our bags. I'm sure many people missed their connecting flights.
We sit by ourselves for another 30 min until a staff member instructs us to go back to the check in counter to see if there is another flight. My 2 children and I stand in front of the __________ counter for another hour as they apparently try to get us on a flight. Again...not one person says anything to us. We just stand there as my children scream and run around.
I have had enough at this point. I demand to speak to the supervisor. We wait another 30 min when finally they say that they have booked us on a flight tomorrow but they are not sure if __________ will even fly us home because they HAVE to serve the peanuts. They finally called me tonight and told me that they had to switch airlines for us, but I had to get a letter from the doctor in Mexico by the morning explaining that I have a nut allergy. How am I going to go to a doctor in Mexico in the next 10 hours and how does he even know that I have an allergy?
At no time during this entire dilemma did I have one single person tell me that they were going to help me, that they were sorry that this was happening or even tell me what is going to happen next. I felt like and was treated like a criminal and so were my children.
I'm not sure what is going to happen in regards to Peanuts on airplanes. The airlines that claim to not serve peanuts still offer a mixed nuts bag for sale. I am deathly allergic to ALL nuts including peanuts!
I have another story that will amaze you as well. About 10 years ago I was traveling on a airplane. As usual I asked the flight staff to not serve the nuts. When we were in the air they said that they had to serve the nuts but they would tell the passengers to "not eat them" due to my situation. So the announcement was made, the peanuts handed out and people started opening up their bags and throwing the peanuts around the plane. A man yells out "Can you breathe now?"
I have just about had enough of this peanut issue and people's "right to have their peanuts"!!!!
I have had this allergy for the past 36 years. I have eaten health bars that the manufacturer "forgot" to put Peanut butter on its ingredient list, I have found numerous peanuts floating in my chicken noodle soup at a restaurant and have had kids feed me peanut butter cookies when I was 5 years old knowing full well that I could die.
I wish everyone the best of luck dealing with their peanut allergy.
Juliane
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--Content Manager, PeanutAllergy.com
The treatment you received by
The treatment you received by that airline was appalling!
I hope you contacted their parent company and launched a complaint. The treatment you received was way out of line and their insensitivity was unconscionable.
Most of the time I travel on United or American and they serve pretzels, not peanuts.
My PA, now, manifest itself with convulsions. This kind of reaction is new to me. My last two reactions were from being around peanuts not just eating them. This is new for me. At this point, I have become more concerned about all of my surroundings. I have my epi-pen with me all the time and my husband has one, along with a friend and the health clerk on my job, but it only buys me time to get to the hospital, it doesn't stop my reaction. Given the ignorance of people regarding serious food allergies, no one would know that unless I was able to tell them.
I wish you had put the name of the airline in your post, so that the rest of us would know to avoid it for our travel. We could also send letters along with yours to express our concern over serving peanuts when other alternatives are available.
Although I have had PA for all of my 62 years on this earth, I never realized until recently how insensitive and nasty people can be. They think PA is a joke. I would wager that many of the people with whom I work may have felt the same way. I am pretty sure all that changed when several of them saw me go into anaphylactic shock with convulsions while in my work place - I am a teacher.
Because there is a God, I still stand strong,
SpiritedLady