hclee01

Source: The Straits Times

There are very diverse views on this. Someone mentioned a point that what if the person brings nuts to the cabin for his personal enjoyment during the flight?

Extract of report:

Singapore Airlines (SIA) said it is reviewing the serving of nuts on board its flights, following an incident last week when a toddler had an allergic reaction to peanuts eaten by other passengers.

The three-year-old boy, Marcus, was with his parents Chris and Hong Daley on SQ217 from Singapore to Melbourne last Wednesday (July 12) when the incident occurred.

The Daleys, who are from Australia, have reportedly lodged a formal complaint with the airline.

davidj1

Unfortunate for the child, however, the parents are being too precious.

If this was so important to them they would be researching if SIA was a nut free airline, and apparently it is NOT.

https://www.singaporeair.com/en_UK/s...h-nut-allergy/

Therefore it could be argued the parents have been negligent, failing their due diligence?

Exactly the same as buying a packet of biscuits and marked "May contain nuts", the parents buy it then complain later it caused an allergic reaction. Parents have failed their parental responsibilities.

Time to find another transport option for the family? Or maybe a report to child protection is in order?

epigram

What will happen to satay??

24left

This is a difficult problem these days and flying in North America at least has become a PITA (not just because of peanuts).

While it is extremely unfortunate that there are children with peanut allergies, there are some precautions and avoidances that are available. Responsible parents travel with adequate supplies of EpiPens. However, parents cannot control the universe and thus should be aware that travel and public transportation of any kind will bring them in contact with someone who might have had peanuts for lunch or peanut butter for breakfast. Thus, they need to consider whether their child can risk close contact with possible contaminants.

Some airlines, like Air Canada, stopped serving peanuts a few years ago. Some or all U.S. airlines still do.

Also, they should be aware that they cannot force an entire planeload of pax to avoid their own foods.

There are people who bring their own foods onboard because their flight may not provide a meal or they can't eat what is provided. Are the parents of these children then going to force others to not eat their own food?

I was recently on an AC flight where the FAs advised pax in a number of rows that they could not serve many of the Buy-Onboard breakfast meals as there was someone allergic to eggs sitting nearby.

My argument is that for a 5 hour flight in economy, pax expected they could buy breakfast. Now they were faced with either limited or no options.

Had the allergic pax and the airline done some pro-active things, perhaps pax at the gate could have been told and then given a voucher for buying something at one of the kiosks. I know this is not necessarily realistic at outstations, but the flight departed from the main hub and measures could have been taken.

I am not a fan of all of those who have issues requiring the complete disruption of flying - especially long-haul - as a result of their personal situation. While I absolutely understand the challenge of people with allergies, it seems airlines have also been selective about which allergies they deem important.

So the battle becomes....Pax X paid $5,000+ for his J seat and was looking forward to his satay and peanut sauce. Pax Y is allergic to peanuts and demands that none be served while he is onboard.

This will never be resolved and IMHO, it is far better for those with the severe allergies to be aware of the environments they are in and make choices that do not put them at risk.

Apologies to those who might think I am insensitive on the matter.
.

Phaze

IQs beginning with a decimal point are never a good thing.

garykung

+1 And you are not being insensitive.

The reality is there are always people who can eat certain food and who can't, having food allergies or not. While I am sympathetic to those having food allergies, does having such health condition give you a free pass for everything? While an airline can choose not to serve certain food for health reasons, you can't stop other pax from bringing those onboard.

In this case - I blame the parents as well.

puddiemel

I'm sympathetic to the severity of the child's allergy but calling for airlines to stop serving peanuts is going overboard.

There are, however, many responses claiming it's not a big deal for nuts to be scrapped off the menu because there are many snacks out there. Some even went further saying passengers are selfish for wanting to eat peanuts when a life is at stake.

Nobody wants anyone to die. But there are other ways to ensure people travel safely. A mom of an allergic child is petitioning for rights for allergic passengers. She's asking for nut-free buffer zone seating and the chance to pre-board so seats etc can be wiped down, plus announcements about the allergy so passengers refrain from consuming nuts.

I'm fine with all the above though some might take issue with the latter. Calling for a blanket ban, however, is ridiculous.

Guy Betsy

I don't think SQ will go entirely nutfree. But I think they might restrict giving out bags of nuts (oh great, more cutbacks) and maybe give out crackers.

I was on a flight once upon a time ago in J and we were told just before the meal service that due to someone in economy has a severe nut allergy that no peanut sauce can be served on that flight. Sure there we were disappointed but for us frequent travellers, this is understandable. Unlike the barrage of hateful postings on FB and other social media toward the parents when news of this was announced.

I've a friend with a nut allergy whom I have made reservations on SQ for. I will call SQ reservations advise them. They ask if its Nut Allergy 1 or 2. Nut allergy 1 means that she can't eat nuts but is okay that other people eat it. Nut allergy # 2 is like the kid. Where the entire aircraft has to be stripped of nuts for that flight, all meals served to everyone onboard must not contain nuts and in some cases, no one must even mention the word, nut. If the airline has been informed beforehand, SQ will cater to the needs of even one passenger. But it seems that the parents of this child did not tell SQ anything.

Most Singaporeans / Asians still don't have a grasp of how food allergies and intolerances work. People were comparing this nut story with lactose intolerance etc. As someone who has a wheat intolerance, I am faced with ignorant and ill informed restaurant staff who do not understand that eating something can cause harm to me. Most just think I am 'fussy'.

MKE-MR

I'm strongly allergic to blankets and I DEMAND my rights!

lokijuh

Aah good old twitbook. Have notice people in general are particularly vicious and hateful when they don't have to say it to someone's face, in person. Aaah the times we live in ...

percysmith

We did discuss this over in the CX board a while back. Jagmeets (no fault of his) thought SQ provided nut free cabins but (all of us agreed) CX did not. Given the above, the airline he's thinking of isn't SQ then.

percysmith

Marcus Daley (the SQ case) only had anaphylaxis when the whole cabin started opening up their peanut snacks.

I don't think enough people has read the ABC article linked inside the ST article http://mobile.abc.net.au/news/2017-0...80?pfmredir=sm

1. 1 in 20 Australian children suffer from food allergies
2. QF, NZ and a number of European airlines have gone nut free so it can be done
3. Daley was accompanied with his father who was a doctor specialising in respiratory issues and packed four Epipens on board. He managed to control his son's situation and decided against advising an emergency descent.

There really are more kids with severe allergies than we were kids
And airlines can really go nut free

Whether it is appropriate for SQ to go but free is beyond my competence. However, there may not be any need to do so system wide - why not perhaps replace nuts with pretzels or some other snack for the Australian routes?

garykung

Because this simply is not the solution.

Airlines can go nut-free. But they can't force pax to go nut-free.

FWIW - some pax will go nut when it nut-free.

Troopers

Airlines should make a reasonable effort to be nut-free. There are alternatives to serving nuts. Airlines should also place guidelines to discourage or prohibit pax from bringing nuts. Isn't there something in place for durian?

And passengers should not rely on a complete nut-free cabin (due to other paxs).

And as you probably know, some pax went nuts because sundaes were not served in a glass bowl.

24left

Those pretzels, crackers and cookies other airlines offer are often gross and have zero nutritional value.

There are many who can't eat airline food due to digestive issues or other allergens (eg. wheat, dairy, eggs) and thus bring their own snacks (which can include nuts, dried fruit, raw veggies). Why should they be told they can't eat their food because 1 person on a flight with 400 others is allergic to their source of protein.

Why should other pax be put at a disadvantage - especially on a long flight?

Make no mistake, I certainly understand the risks for children with these allergies - which seems to be a very western-lifestyle problem and only recent generations of children in some countries have this problem.

But you cannot prevent exposure to this allergen in a form of mass transportation used by thousands of people in a single day.

Are airlines going to be forced to completely sanitize an aircraft before such a person can board? Who is going to pay for the added costs?

What if some parents don't bring enough EpiPens and there is a medical emergency and diversion for example? Who is going to pay the costs then?

The world is not peanut-free, airports are not peanut-free, neither are hotels or any other public environments.

(apologies if I seem annoyed but I am due to the lack of responsibility and management on the part of parents)