Regarding Flight DL2497 March 1, 2024. My 20-year-old daughter that has been flying Delta through her 20 years had a very unpleasant experience. She has always lived with an anaphylactic tree nut allergy. As a family we have always flown Delta comfort, carried Epi Pens, brought Benadryl, brought Prednisone, wipe our seats down, cover the seat with a sheet, wear a KN95 mask, and notify the gate 1 hour in advance for catering, along with labeling (in your system) as her having a peanut allergy since there is not a tree nut label (we do this well in advance of our departure date in your system so that catering can ensure to not serve nuts). We also always book the earliest AM flight available to our destination and schedule direct flights.
Our customer service request in advance and in writing to have NO NUTS served was ignored and closed out. The catering still proceeded to stock pistachios for our flight. This should not have happened.
We strongly feel we do everything we can. She has flown with you from Michigan to Florida, Seattle, Arizona, and many other destinations. We have always been so grateful when the flight crew did not serve nuts upon notifying them and allowing our daughter to travel. Recently though, we were once again planning on flying to Florida and had not realized the crews now serve pistachios. This particular crew, despite the above procedures, that had worked for many years before, were still intending on serving pistachios. We deplaned and were incredibly upset, crying, and sad. Our Red Coat representative explained that every crew can independently decide whether to serve or not serve tree nuts on the flight. The Red Coat also explained the FAA has regulations that pertain to peanut allergies; however, they are not required to adjust for a tree nut allergy. (note from Lianne- No Nut Traveler- there are no FAA regulations to deal with peanut allergies).
Even though there was an attempt to change catering to not serve pistachios we did not have any faith in the crew to take care of us based on how we were treated. In fact, the lead flight attendant told us that it would not be fair to have someone on the flight not have a snack because they may not have enough. The crew treated us poorly and it was clearly policy over a human’s life. We felt pushed and bullied to choose to fly with pistachios being served by a crew that made it clear they didn’t care about our daughter. We ended up having to incur time and money losses for our trip since we could not fly. This is and was Delta’s responsibility for making us deplane and our trauma is real.
Since this event and day, we feel a loss. We had always felt confident with Delta and are trying to find a way to allow our daughter to travel safely. At the time she felt discriminated against for her allergy and also questioned if she would ever travel again. We all felt treated unfairly and pushed off the plane, so why can’t you choose a human’s safety over serving nuts? Would you rather have to reroute a plane for an anaphylactic reaction to a hospital and interrupt everyone’s desire to travel safely to their destination? Therefore, we ask . . . how does she travel safely? Is there a way to have a flight with you that does not serve pistachios and what additionally could we have done for her to travel? Also, we wonder why there is regulation for the peanut allergy and not tree nut. The manager when we asked this said there is just more people with peanut allergies. Which does not address the equal severity of the two allergies. All food allergies including tree nut & peanut should be accounted for…as anaphylaxis is possible with both allergies. Anaphylaxis reaction to an either nut allergy can cause swelling of the throat and cause death.
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