mpclaw

On a UA/SKYWEST flight on an RJ from Los Angeles to Phoenix on Monday, the flight attendant announces: "several people on this flight are allergic to peanuts", and, as such, if you have brought your own peanuts on board, you are not to eat them.

I am not aware of that "peanut problem" can be entered in your pnr, nor did I see any passengers discuss the problem with her, so I assume that either she had a "peanut problem" or simply she did not want to have to deal with the refuse generated by peanut eaters who bring on board thier own stash.

She also spoke to us the entire flight like we were two year olds.

exerda

In defense of the FA, some people with peanut allergies can have severe reactions, even anaphalactic shock, simply by being *around* peanuts that are being consumed; they don't even have to be eating them themselves. I'm sure that that can be put in the PNR by reservations, or the pax may have mentioned it to the FA during boarding.

Axey

I've personally always found it amazing that this entire segment of the population never has a problem flying Southwest

hb1

I think that people with this kind of problem have access to literature/websites that warn which airlines (and other service entities) do and do not use peanuts, and therefore avoid Southwest.

Interestingly, last night's episode of "Airline" (the reality show on A&E about Southwest) featured a family travelling with a child who had peanut allergies. The mother seemed to know that Southwest was not "peanut free" and asked the GA for help in minimizing peanut use on her flight. A supervisor than apparantly offloaded peanuts from the plane and specially cleaned the family's seats to minimize peanut dust (a nice move on his part, but I wonder if it would have happened without the cameras present.)

exerda

With life-threatening allergies, my guess is that they research ahead of time, and may have inquired with the CSRs prior to booking if the airline serves peanuts. I've witnessed someone break out into hives and start wheezing just from having a jar of peanut butter opened in the same room, so I'm sure this segment of the population is very careful about their allergy.

Wiggums

Great, boys, keep it rolling...

Pretty soon, we'll have Al Qaeda operatives in Jumbo 747's armed with the lethal Skippy peanut butter ready to wreak havoc.

auggie doggie

Wiggums.....please get it right.....

Choosy terrorists choose Jif.

SEA_Tigger

Not having such severe allergies, myself, is it possible to take something ahead of time? Or do you have to wait for the attack to begin before you can inject the medication to prevent the attack from continuing?

Considering how seldom planes are cleaned between the first and last flights of the day, I'd think someone with such a severe allergy would not fly, period (do masks help?).

JS

I'm not a doctor, so take this with a grain of salt, but IMHO peanut allergies are more psychological than physical. That is, demand that peanuts be banned from your environment, and you feel fine. Watch someone eat peanuts, and all of a sudden you feel sick. Never mind that actual peanut dust is all over the place in a cramped, rarely cleaned public place like an airplane.

I needed to go to the store to buy some toothpaste, and after reading this thread, I'm going to buy some peanuts as well. Mmmmmm....

Pegasus23

I too had a flippant attitude toward people with peanut allergies, thinking it was in their head etc. Since then, I have met a woman who has this issue and does go into shock as explained above. Her recent husband is a Dr. MD, and had his doubts as well. One day after eating some hidden peanuts in some sauce she went into shock in front of her husband. She almost died.

Must admit I am a bit more tolerant of that which I do not understand.

SNA1K

Now if UA only had the same understanding to those of us with dog allergy problems... I was basically told that I could wait until the next flight rather than offload the dog.

exerda

I would suspect that they can dose up on antihistamines... Benadryl ought to make the whole flight smoother anyway since you can sleep through it that way. But that's of limited use to those with severe allergies. They usually carry injectors with a drug similar to adrenaline for when their blood pressure drops and they start to go into shock.

Of course, there's the problem of being in a small and confined tube in the sky... I'm sure a severe reaction would necessitate an emergency diversion and landing.

My grandfather would have hives and asthma without even consuming peanuts if they were around, but he never flew as far as I know, anyway, and his allergy wasn't as severe as some rare individuals. It may be that if you have a really bad reaction, you simply don't fly.

JS

OK, I'm back from the store. These peanuts are delicious! I had briefly considered getting the honey roasted peanuts but opted for regular salted peanuts -- Planters brand, too, not that crappy CVS brand.


Ah, but see, she actually ate the peanuts. That's different from watching someone eat peanuts.

wck4

Yes, sort of. For some allergies (tree/pollen/dogs/cats/etc) you can take allergy shots, which in theory teach your body not to overreact to those allergens. And I use an inhaler which lessens the asthama type symptoms I get from some allergens. But I don't believe that works for all types of allergies.

I don't know if it has to do with the severity of your reaction, although I suspect it might. Tree pollen, which I could take allergy shots for, makes me sneeze, but the last time I was given an antiobiotic that I was allergic to, I had a really serious reaction.

Traveliter

Hey JS -- Peanut allergies do indeed exist. Don't tell me a little toddler who goes into anaphylactic shock is doing so because he doesn't like eating Jif. C'mon. They've published about this in the New England Journal of Medicine, even.