North West Airlines Gets It!

It is good to hear that Northwest Airlines is onboard with PA awareness. Just to clarify, has Northwest discontinued packaged nuts on their flight or was it specifically for your situation?

North West advised us that they no longer serve peanut in there snacks or in their meals. However, they do serve almonds as a first class snack, unless someone with an allergy is on board. The key, as always, is making sure they know about your allergy. I thought the announcement to passengers to not eat peanut products while on board was wonderful. I have never heard of other airlines doing that.

Hi, we have just returned from a vacation with our 2 1/2 year old PA son. We flew Northwest and had a wonderful experience with speaking with their ground people, their had flight attendants, and pilots. They obligingly made announcements at the gate and again once the doors on the plane were locked. I wish they had a set script they could read from when they requested other passengers not open their peanut or nut containing snacks.

We almost canceled our trip. I made these reservations and paid for the tickets about a year in advance so we could get a nonstop flight. At that time I was assured they could guarantee a peanut free flight. I called every couple of months to confirm reservations, check our seating, check for possible first class upgrades, etc. Every time I called I confirmed that they knew about the peanut allergy and would guarantee a peanut free flight. Finally, I called 2 weeks before the flight and was advised by Northwest's customer service rep that they no longer could guarantee a peanut free flight since they did not have control over what the other passengers were bringing on board. (Although from our experiences with airport security that the federal government could delay and rummage through your bags all day if they wished). Further, the rep from Northwest said they set their menus about 2 months in advance and could not change them to accommodate us. He offered us a full refund for our seats ( but not our condo rental), and I asked him if he could tell me what they had planned to serve on the menu so I didn't have to blindly cancel our trip -maybe there was a chance they would not serve any nuts or peanuts on our flights. He said he didn't have any information but would check and call us back. I ended the conversation by telling him that it may not have been a big deal for Northwest to shut us out on this sold out flight, only about $4000, but that Northwest might want to consider the fact that 1/3 of the US population either has food allergies, or has an immediate family member with allergies that make it necessary for them to change their lifestyles to make it safe for the food allergic member. The Customer service rep called us back right away and told us that they had contacted the caterer and that they would pull all peanuts, peas, beans, and nuts from both the firstclass and economy class menus.

They did a fairly decent job except for the green beans and peas served.

What they really excelled at was letting us board extra early so that I could wipe down our party's armrests, tray tables, seatbelts and windows with clorox wipes.

On the return trip we met another family traveling with a PA teen who was glad they didn't have to make the announcement for him. Though the flight crew knew that there were 2 PA passengers on the plane and had an added awareness for caution.

Except for the heart stopping moments with the customer service folks, I would say our actual flying experience was great and no reactions, hives, itching, at all. Of course we were flying with a toddler so it wasn't that relaxing [img]http://uumor.pair.com/nutalle2/peanutallergy/smile.gif[/img].

I was glad to hear of your experience with Northwest, but over xmas holidays I emailed them about their nut policy and they responded that they serve peanuts in flight and will only accomodate pa's by having a row in front and in back that are peanut free! I think these airlines will only actually get it when someone either dies on board or they get sued and lose! Everyone at every different airline seems to give a different story!

Quote:Originally posted by redtruck:
[b]I was glad to hear of your experience with Northwest, but over xmas holidays I emailed them about their nut policy and they responded that they serve peanuts in flight and will only accomodate pa's by having a row in front and in back that are peanut free! I think these airlines will only actually get it when someone either dies on board or they get sued and lose! Everyone at every different airline seems to give a different story![/b]

We just recently discovered our 2 year old son is anaphylactic to nuts, and took advantage of my brothers offer to help secure a peanut free flight to florida for our upcoming trip to see my parents. My bro ( who works flight operations for NWA in Minneapolis) called to tell me that he didn't need to make the flight nut free since all NW flights were now nut free.

darenberg...I would still call ahead and advise them that your son has a nut allergy and confirm that they will not be serving nuts in first class. Although North West is peanut free, they were planning to serve almonds in first class on all four flights we took in January. They gladly switched to pretzels for us. They also made several announcements telling people to not eat peanuts on board the plane, which was great. Anyway, my advice is advise about your sons allergy and confirm about the almonds.