This is about a flight my family & friend had on American Airlines (AA) on 6.8.2015. We originated in Los Angeles flying on Delta because they are the only ones that would accommodate our 11-yr. old son with his severe peanut/nut/tree nut allergies among other foods. We were supposed to fly out of LAX stop in Raleigh, NC then onto our destination in Cleveland.
There was a maintenance problem with our Delta flight while we’re on the plane & waited over an hour. A Delta ticket agent called us all off the plane to reroute out trip through Dallas instead because we would have missed our connecting flight in NC. We agreed & got off the plane. They told us that we were going to need to take AA from Dallas to Cleveland, I disagreed & told them that we couldn’t take AA due to my sons’ severe allergies, they then called AA & explained to them what was going on. The gentleman came back to us after calling AA & told us that AA would accommodate us & not serve nuts on our flight.
We flew Delta to Dallas & waited for our flight. After many hours & at that time I tried talking to & explaining to several different AA ticket agents about my sons’ allergies & was always pushed aside as they said, “I need to talk to the flight attendants while boarding.” Well it was time to board after a very long day of travel, we walked to the plane & right before we boarded, we spoke with two different flight attendants, one male & one female. I explained the situation & the reaction we got was horrible! The female & male attendants both said that they will be serving nuts. The male attendant said, “I served nuts 5 hours ago, 2 hours ago & I will be serving them on our flight & that they can’t deny the 1st class passengers their nuts”.
While we were all standing there with my son who was wearing a mask for extra protection the male attendant also said, “move aside your holding up the line.” I turned around crying as I walked back to the ticket agent desk & demanded to speak to a manager/supervisor. A manager finally showed up along with other supervisors. We explained our situation & he said, “sorry there’s no other flights out tonight”. He then rerouted our flight on Delta but it wouldn’t be till the next morning at 5:45am & then he offered us a hotel but by that time it was too late because we would need to be back at the airport at 4am. I called Delta & spoke with a very nice man who then had me speak in person to a lady in the Dallas airport in bagging who worked for Delta, she took our story & was very apologetic. We ended up sleeping in the very dirty, cold airport on the floor with no food or blankets. I stayed awake the whole time frustrated & upset wondering why the AA flight attendants & ticket agents had to be so rude & uncaring! I tried educating them about the potential fatal nature of all food allergies but it fell on deaf ears.
Airline staff should be educated & all airlines should be more accommodating to make people feel safer flying with food allergies. My son is only 11 & he was scared for his life. We had not flown in 8 years because of his severe allergies but wanted to try it & Delta was great about it. We just wanted to visit my brother in Cleveland before he went back to Israel, but our trip was cut short due to AA non accommodating rules, rudeness and having uneducated, uncaring staff.
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