Continental's Drift
Most airlines now at least refrain from serving peanuts during a flight if a severely allergic passenger is on board. This is true even for Southwest Airlines who has marketing messaging built around 'flying for peanuts'. The last bastion of airborne peanut inertia seems to be Continental according to an article in the Cape Cod Times. They feel that because they cannot guarantee a peanut free environment they won't even bother trying. That's the spirit.
Here is an interesting graphic from the story. Continental must be proud of its lonely status at the bottom of the list in the category "won't accommodate peanut allergies".
As I wrote in my prior articles on airline travel, the solution is quite simple when an allergic passenger makes it known ahead of time that they are coming:
a) Don't serve peanuts.
b) Make an announcement to let other passengers know that there is a child with a severe peanut allergy on board and that it would be appreciated if all passengers refrained from eating peanuts.
It's not that complicated. I'm not looking for a guarantee. 'Safer' is fine.
4 comments:
It should be noted that Delta will still serve those little bags of death (peanuts) on board the plane. However, they will not serve them 6 rows ahead, beside, and behind the PA person. They call it a buffer zone. Useless in my opinion.
On Southwest, even though they will not serve peanuts...the planes are filthy and there are peanut remnants (sometimes whole peanuts) all over.
Flying airlines that never serve peanuts are the safest bet.
People have sued airlines for serving peanuts on their aircrafts. What's next? Suing airlines for allowing passengers for bringing their own peanuts onboard or any product that was manufactured in a factory that also produces peanut products? Suing that passenger?
Recently Air Canada handled things very well. They made an announcement for us to let people know about the allergy and then also asked people to refrain from eating any peanuts that they brought on board. That is all I was hoping for.
To Anonymous regarding airline suits:
You might not resort to such melodrama to make your point if you yourself or your child dealt with this frustrating and very dangerous allergy. I don't want to be allergic to peanuts. I don't want to die on a plane or inconvenience anyone around me or certainly bring a lawsuit to an airline. However, the reality is that my condition, though not my choice, is very real and very deadly. It is not too much to ask that the public be aware and sensitive to this and simply find another snack to eat while on flights. What is the big deal?
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