We are frequent flyers, so per our usual practice, we asked the gate agent about nuts on board. She told us we shouldn’t have problems, but to confirm with the flight attendant. This is not unusual, so we did as she instructed. Once on board, instead of being greeted with concern, the flight attendant treated us with hostile indifference.
Typically when we fly, the airline flight crew makes a courtesy announcement to ask passengers to refrain from eating nuts. They also will not serve nuts. But this flight attendant treated us as if we were pretentiously asking for seat upgrades. Her response to our requests was “I can’t inconvenience an entire flight because of the allergy of one child!”
Upon hearing this, we informed her that this food allergy wasn’t a simple rash or nausea causing issue, but one that could cause death. She asked us to take our seats and assured us she would be speaking to the captain. Instead, 10 minutes later, we were removed from the flight.
We were informed later that the captain removed us because he did not want the risk of death on a 5.5 hour flight.
Unfortunately, because of the lack of options of flying to Edmonton, we did not have the option of flying another carrier, so we were rebooked the next day. For those outbound flights and our return flights we did not even mention allergies on the fear of another removal.
Our daughter thought she did something wrong and it was her fault that we were removed. Thankfully we made it to Canada, but she was worried every minute until landing that we wouldn’t make it and that it would be her fault. As a parent, this was the most heart breaking part of the ordeal.
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