Since USAir is now serving peanuts again, I have emailed their Customer Service with my thoughts on this. Please do the same. Here is what I said:
[url="http://www.usairways.com/customers/contact/consumeraffairs.htm"]http://www.usairways.com/customers/contact/consumeraffairs.htm[/url]
I am absolutely mystified and disgusted with your decision to serve peanuts on your airline. Not only does it pose a dangerous threat to the allergic, it shows complete disregard for the rest of the passsengers on a flight that might have to make an emergency landing in order to get medical treatment.
While no one expects that a flight could be fully peanut free since customers can of course bring on whatever food they wish, that small amount of peanut is not nearly as threatening as an entire airline of people eating peanuts.
Your choice to serve peanuts and completely disregard such an important danger makes me wonder what other risks USAIr is taking with its passenger's lives. You have lost my entire family as customers, and I feel compelled to share my concerns with others.
It would be easy enough to serve other snacks, that don't threaten people's lives. Why such blatant disregard for people's medical health by serving a dangerous snack?
I don't understand the NEED to serve peanuts on a flight. People can't go a few hours without having a peanut while flying? Is it a necessary part of leaving the ground, having a bag of peanuts? A different snack cannot be substituted instead? What's wrong with pretzels? They know it could kill people, yet they do it anyway? Dumb.
Quote:Originally posted by Tom:
[b]I don't understand the NEED to serve peanuts on a flight. People can't go a few hours without having a peanut while flying? Is it a necessary part of leaving the ground, having a bag of peanuts? A different snack cannot be substituted instead? What's wrong with pretzels? They know it could kill people, yet they do it anyway? Dumb.[/b]
I was told by Southwest last year that they still serve peanuts b/c it's how they began their slogan "Fly for Peanuts" (as in, it's cheap) sort of thing. I had found Southwest to be accomodating in not serving peanuts on my flights, but the hassle was too big and their was residue everywhere. Plus, sometimes the flight attendants were nasty about it (even though they didn't serve them).
but yeah, no kidding...
Adrienne
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30-year old survivor of severe peanut/tree nut allergy
I agree. Even before I had a child w/ a peanut alllergy I had always wished to get something other than pretzels or peanuts...YUCK!
We just returned last night from Disney -- on US Air. We discovered on the flight down that they were serving peanuts. When we booked this trip months ago, we checked and saw nothing about peanuts. Plus we had flown this airline before without incident. Fortunately, they pulled the peanuts before too many were open and an antihistamine handled our daughers possible reaction. We called the airline and the reservation person told us "oh no problem I can make a note and the return flight will be safe." We checked when we got to the gate to return home and they were serving peanuts. Apparently, she had not used the correct code for catering. We asked that they not serve the peanuts -- it was a short flight under 2 hours. They said they wouldn't do that. We asked they pull our bags so we could fly home on another airline. After the captain realized that would take a while he told the flight attnedants to pull the peanuts and we were able to come home.
This is shocking to us. How an airline that services Orlando - and thousands of children can choose to serve peanuts is beyond me. We will not use US Air again for personal or business reasons.
This stinks. We flew US Air a year ago when they were peanut free and had a perfect flight that was stress-free. I sent them an email through the link.
I'll be looking at American for our upcoming trip to CA.
Okay...I just got back from Las Vegas and flying US Air...if your children are flying and you have a trip planned DO NOT GO!!! I could not believe the peanuts EVERYWHERE!! They were all ground into the carpets and inbetween the metal things where the seats meet the floor. Both planes I flew had peanuts EVERYWERE. It was a Peanut Allergy Mom's worst nightmare...thank GOD my children were not with me.
Just to add our experience. We had a flight booked on USAir/America West just a couple of weeks ago. I called, and was told that my dd could ride, but that they would not make any special provisions. Two of the flights were short, so no snack was served. One served little cookie/cracker things with no nut ingredients. The last flight....peanuts. Ugh. We were all very nervous, but my dd was fine, with no reaction. I say stick with pretzels and crackers!
I had sent US Air an e-mail. I just got a response (in the form of a paper letter, not e-mail).
Thank you for taking the time to contact us about our recent changes to out inflight snack service. I appreciate the opportunity to respond to you.
I regret you are disappointed with our decision to resume srving peanuts on our flights. Prior to our merger with America West, US Airways did not serve peanuts or peanut-based products; however, with the combined operations of both carriers, the snack offering has been adjusted to provide variety to our customers. As of the date of this letter, peanuts are being rotated into the snack service and will be alternated with pretzels and other snacks.
We have received a number of letters and e-mails from customers who are concerned about the potential risk of offering peanuts as a snack, and we are currently evaluating the snack selection for possible changes. In the meantime, should you or a fmily member with a peanut allergy plan to travel on US Airways or America West flights, we recommend you take the necessary precautions for a likely peanut exposure, including having the appropriate medication available on the flight to counteract an allergic reaction.
...thank you again for allowing me to respond to you. We hope you and your family will continue to select US Airways for all of your future air travel needs.
At least they acknowledge that they have been getting letters about this. I'm not sure I believe the part about evaluating the snack selections, but I can hope anyway. If we continue with the e-mails and letters, I think we at least have a chance of them changing back to no peanuts served.
The letter gives a PA person hope that they might go peanut free. However, one thing that I didn't see in the response was their acknowledgement that if a reaction occurred in-flight, they would HAVE to land the plane. It only makes good business sense that they approach it from that angle with their passengers who complain for their peanuts. I mean, let's say I had a non-pa family and wanted to get my family members to Orlando for a vacation and asked for peanuts. Let's say an announcement was made that peanuts would not be served. Let's say I proceeded to ask for them. If the attendent told me that there are PA passengers on board and peanut dust in the air ducts of the plane or residual oils left in, say, the bathroom could cause this person to have a life-threatening reaction. If that were to occur, we'd have to land the plane. To get all passengers there safely and on schedule, the best thing to do is to not serve peanuts. Even in my pre-PA life, I know I would understand.
I wrote an email to US Airways in response to a call for action on this message board--I too got a letter in the mail that is identical in wording to the letter posted above.
"Thank you for taking the time to contact us about our recent changes to our inflight snack service. I appreciate the opportunity to respond to you." etc. etc. [img]http://uumor.pair.com/nutalle2/peanutallergy/mad.gif[/img]
Since this is obviously just a bulk form letter, I wish that they had simply sent me an email as the message is not worth the paper it is printed on (I'm concerned about the trees!)
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