Within seconds, the head flight attendant rushed over to our seats to loudly and in no uncertain terms threatens us to get off the plane. She said they would absolutely not refrain from serving nuts (it’s in their policy manual! They must serve nuts!) And the pilot would not divert the plane in the case of resulting emergency. Though the kids were right there, listening to her increasingly threatening and inflammatory language and getting visibly alarmed, she continued the barrage of loud questions (How sick will he get? Where is your medicine? What is it? What will happen to him? Will he die or stop breathing?) She then realized her previous error and informed us bitingly that if the pilot did have to divert the flight in case of what would be an avoidable emergency on their part (because duh we should just get off the flight) we must agree in advance to cover the thousands and thousands of dollars it would cost to do so.
My son spent much of the flight tearfully asking what would happen to him if he had an allergic reaction and questioning his own safety; something he’s always handled previously with total aplomb. This was the first time a grownup has forced him–ruthlessly–to face his own mortality (he’ll be 6 in two weeks, so yeah, seems like the right time, no?)
I guess what’s in their policy manual is the directive to refuse to accommodate passengers with slightly different yet easy to work with needs, then threaten the health and finances of said passengers, even if they are children. Their motto is “creating a stronger airline for you.” They’re not joking about that strong part. They’ll try to strong-arm you right off of the plane.
Comments are closed.