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Leah Williams suffers from a severe nut allergy. She recently flew from Düsseldorf International Airport (DUS) to London Heathrow Airport (LHR) on Eurowings. She requested that the crew not serve nuts in flight due to the potential health risk she would face. They refused, so she spent $185 to buy out all of the peanuts.
She had previously suffered from anaphylactic shock on another flight when someone opened a package of peanuts near her. To eliminate any potential of this happening again, she purchased 48 packages of peanuts. The crew allegedly refused to make an announcement and told her that not serving them was against the airline’s policy.
She did not take the peanuts due to her allergy and has since requested a refund from Eurowings, but has yet to receive a reply from the European carrier. Many airlines are sensitive to passenger’s nut allergies and offer solutions. Delta Air Lines will refrain from serving them onboard once notified of an allergy. Other carriers like Air Canada create buffer zones to shield passengers with severe allergies.
Anthony’s Take: It’s surprising that the crew would not be more accommodating. If she had a severe reaction and the plane needed to land in an emergency, the cost would be far greater than any revenue made selling the snack onboard.
(Flight Attendants Image Credit: Eurowings.)
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Advertiser & Editorial Disclosure: The Bulkhead Seat earns an affiliate commission for anyone approved through the links above This compensation may impact how and where links appear on this site. We work to provide the best publicly available offers to our readers. We frequently update them, but this site does not include all available offers. Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed, or approved by any of these entities.
3 comments
N95 masks are said to be very good for nut allergy sufferers.
Personal risks should not be imposed on others.
Airplanes are not nut-free zones and they can’t be made as such. Considering some people can’t understand that you shouldn’t open aircraft doors while in flight, and most people don’t understand they shouldn’t stand up before the plane comes to a complete stop, I wouldn’t count on people not eating peanuts on an airplane. So the allergy sufferer should not take the risk, if they consider it to be so dangerous.
Another issue – peanut allergy needs peanut particles to be in contact with mucous membranes to trigger the reaction. Peanut particles are heavier than air and do not float in air. A personal agreement with those sitting next to allergy sufferer should suffice as they can be hurled all over the place by careless opening of the package or talking while chewing.
A panic attack launched by nut smell is more common and sometimes equally terrifying, although mostly harmless reaction. It should not be confused with life threatening anaphylactic shock.
I think she made a smart move. @Derek makes a valid point as well.