Our family booked a round trip flight for our vacation last summer through Delta that included short connecting flight to the major hubs involved. One person in our family has a severe peanut allergy so we wanted to follow the airline procedures as we understood them from the website. I called the designated number for those needing accommodations, stated our need for a peanut free flight and was assured that the information would be shared through all legs of the flight.
The individual I spoke to was very courteous. He entered the information into the system and did recommend we reitterate the need when we checked in at the airport. We did that at the main check in desk when we arrived at the airport. I was a little wary about follow through to the flight crew as they seemed unsure of the procedures. For this reason, when entering the aircraft at the door where the attendants greet you, I paused to speak with an attendant to see if they had been notified. They had not been told they had a passenger with peanut allergy and she thanked me for telling her.
This woman made a very professionally prepared announcement to all passengers that they would not be serving peanut snacks because of a customer with allergy and she asked that people with their own peanut snacks wait to enjoy them until after landing. This attendant was wonderful but it was wrong that she wasn’t informed in advance by her airline. She recommended that at each gate of our travel that we make contact face to face at the gate desk to remind the people each time that a passenger with peanut allergy was on the flight and re-state the need for peanut free snacks. That is what we did. In the end every thing turned out ok.
Flight attendants were helpful when they knew the situation an other passengers never knew who had the food allergy. I have a lot of respect for the workers at the airlines. Their jobs are not easy. Airline policy needs to be changed to make their jobs easier and flights safer and anxiety free by eliminating peanut containing snacks from all flights.
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