Originally Posted by 925
There is information on many airpline websites on their policies. There are three types of responses:
1) ignore the issue, hope it goes away (it won't)
2) disclaim libaility, so hopefully they won't get sued if something goes wrong
3) a sincere attempt to meet the problem and work with the passenger and balance the needs of the individual with the needs of the entire plane.
Some people's allergies are in their head, not their body. Anaphylactics (like my wife) are so very real, and not imagined at all.
I was under the (mistaken) impression that most airlines stopped serving food with nuts years ago. I had certainly never encountered many nuts while flying until very recently on a Qantas flight, when the *only* snack options contained nuts.
I am allergic to tree nuts, not peanuts, and I am not anaphylactic, but I do have asthma as well so accidentally eating nuts is very painful and uncomfortable (throat, tongue and lip swelling), though not life threatening (yet - each exposure increases that risk though). A reaction lasts for about 6 hours.
So on the flight I told the attendant that I was allergic, she freaked, said that I absolutely must update my PNR with the allergy information as they "don't like to mess around". I was very surprised that they were only serving nut products though as nut allergies in particular have been very widely publicised in recent years.
I haven't yet done this though I have a lot of upcoming flights with UA. How much detail does one need to go when detailing special needs?
I'm always loath to ask for special-anything anywhere as it usually gets stuffed up. 3 weeks ago I was at a conference dinner and was literally just about to put a forkfull of desert in my mouth before a staffmember ran over and swapped it for fruit. They'd forgotten that the desert had walnuts.