Originally Posted by kipper

I would guess that the seed bar probably contains nuts, which is a huge allergen for some.

Originally Posted by GW McLintock

According to the manufacturer's website, they are, "made in our dedicated bakery free of peanuts, tree nuts, gluten, dairy, eggs, soy and sesame."

-J.

Originally Posted by kipper

Interesting, as a lot of the gluten-free options and/or bars have some form of peanuts or tree nuts.

Originally Posted by CDTraveler

I, too, was surprised at that, so I looked it up.

88Acres Seed Blend: (organic pumpkin seeds, organic sunflower seeds, ground flax seeds), gluten-free certified oats, brown rice syrup, maple syrup, organic cinnamon, sea salt

I think the squirrels in my yard would love it

I do have to say that the JetBlue website does a fantastic job of providing allergen info. AA does a truly terrible job of giving pax even basic info on meals/on-board snacks.

Originally Posted by GW McLintock

When "disability travel" is mentioned, most people think of those visible disabilities such as mobile impairments or sight or hearing. Please don't forget about those of us with disabilities you cannot see.
.

Originally Posted by Kremmen

Because many requests are not standard, it would be great to be able to specify things. For example, when a passenger uses a wheelchair, there's usually an airport wheelchair waiting in the jetway. When the passenger has gate-checked their own wheelchair, that one in the jetway often still appears, being simply an inconvenience that partly blocks the exit. (And often incurs a delay, as the staff member assigned to it has to take it away somewhere.)

Originally Posted by DFW_Airwolf

I havent flkown for several years now. I am dreading doing so as I fly NON-REV with AA (Former Long Time Employee). Bur now I am Severely Disabled. Have jad to have Both Legs Amputated. Now I can move shorr distances on my Knees. My concern is possibly having to wait until after Boarding to see if I can get on. (Hey those are the RULES). But if I can snag a 1st Class Seat, I need to be at tge front (Close to Bathroom). But if I go Coach, I want to be at the very back (Same Reason). Now I dont mind waiting to be the last to Deplane, but LOVE tp be able to Pre-Board so I dont cause any issues. (Not even EVER thinking about trying to catch a Cockpit Jumop Seat, I am a FAA Licensed Flight Dispatcher. But those views were Wonderful)

So any Thiughtts or such from Long Term Gate Agents & Leads ?????

Originally Posted by DenverDean

We have often experienced the rush of general boarding before I can get my disabled wife into her seat and our belongings under the seat and in the overhead. It would be nice if the airlines baked in a 30 to 60 second, or more, delay before starting general....

Originally Posted by Pjay

I am visually impaired, and am always confused by having to mark down BLIND as the only option on many airlines. All I require is lots of extra time to find my way to my seat and assistance getting over the threshold at the jetway/plane junction. Additionally, I never know who I should tell when I arrive at the gate that I need pre-boarding and that I have already put in a request due to my disability. The gate people often seem very confused by non-wheelchair disabilities and don't give good directions about where they want us, in many instances, nor do they communicate well to the crew.

Thank you so much for being of such great service to the impaired travel community, so often an afterthought! You rock!

Originally Posted by kipper

I'm allergic to all nuts, and in order to reserve a nut-free meal, I typically have to call. I also get the, "cross contamination," or, "we can't guarantee there won't be nuts." When I request a nut-free meal, if a flight is canceled or I'm switched to a different flight for some reason, I've found it doesn't carry to the new flight, and there may or may not be time to request a special meal. I had that experience on LHR-JFK, and ended up having an FA who was creative in order to assemble a meal I could eat, which I appreciated.
Also, on pre-packaged snacks, labels that are well-marked with allergens, or a dedicated option for nut allergies.

Originally Posted by mymsman

Lacto-free should also be an option and not mutually exclusive with Gluten free, I have children and their partners who are lactose intolerant, gluten intolerant, and one who is both.

Originally Posted by intothewild

In response to CDTraveler and GW McLintock (I didn't know who to quote):
Also, as someone who has many allergies, I often find general labeling like this (even outside of airplanes) very unuseful. It would be much better and clearer for them to have an ingredient list, preferably one I can check online instead of me having to accept a snack or meal to read the ingredient list only to discover I can't eat it.

Originally Posted by GW McLintock

Totally agree with you re: labelling. This is an area where airlines are extremely lacking. I always wished that I could see the nutrition facts on first-class meals; at least BOB in Y usually has nutrition facts listed online.

Some airlines are now switching over to more "inclusive" snacks, if you will. For example, two of the five snacks offered on most JetBlue Airways flights (the seed bar and the plantain chips) are now gluten free; two of their four BOB snack boxes also contain all gluten free products. JetBlue is obviously the exception to the rule, but at least they are moving in the right direction. (This is also an exception to my rule, as you'd typically be very hard-pressed to find me saying anything good about JetBlue.)
-J.

Originally Posted by CDTraveler

And how are your gluten-free, low sodium and bland meals labeled? On a recent flight the gluten-free meals had a large roll on the tray with no label, no ingredient list, nothing to indicate it was any different than the rolls on the other trays - which meant we had to assume it was the same roll, because if it was a wheat based roll, that would much gluten would cause an immune system reaction lasting 13 to 18 weeks, based on research done at several major celiac centers. I won't bore you with the details, suffice to say any trip would be ruined.

How about snacks served on planes when there is no meal? The traditional peanuts have been replaced by pretzels on many carriers - high sodium and not gluten-free. There are dozens, if not hundreds, of snack items in single serve packets which would be both lower in sodium and gluten-free yet still appeal to the majority of travelers. Check out the snack aisle at any CostCo for ideas.

Originally Posted by intothewild

I have only requested special assistance with 2 airlines: SAS (prior to the pandemic) and Virgin Atlantic (during the pandemic). With SAS, I notified them that I had an allergy to cats and dogs and I wanted to be seated away from anyone who had an animal on board. They said that they could only accommodate me by seating me in the second row, which would not be helpful since people with service animals are often seated in bulkhead.

With Virgin Atlantic, I called them during the pandemic and there was a 3 hour wait to speak to someone. I requested a seat and they told me that they would not be able to tell me if I had the seat until 48 hours prior to the flight, which is very stressful. I also have food allergies and requested if they could tell me what the ingredients are for their menus for a specific flight. I know they have ingredients printed on main courses served in economy class. They told me that they could not provide me ingredients due to the changing nature of their menu. Then they told me that they could provide me a fruit bowl. This was after they asked me to provide a full list of my allergies, and some of my allergies include fruits that are commonly served in a fruit bowl (such as oranges). I did, however, succeed in one area. I inquired whether I could have an additional personal bag for medical use (I have a lot of medicine). They said yes with the caveat being that the weight limit is 10kg and added it to my ticket. I asked them if I could also put any food I needed in the bag since I can't eat anything on board, and they said yes. This is far more than United. I asked United if it was possible to have an additional bag for medical use, and they said no. They also said that I was not allowed to bring any food on board so as not to irritate the other passengers. This makes no sense, since I've seen many people bring food on board United flights. Oh also Virgin added to my ticket that I would need a wheelchair with assistance at the airport.

I also want to add that the the customer service person at Virgin Atlantic was a fluent English speaker. The person at United was not and I could hear roosters crowing in the background. I imagine this would be difficult for someone who has auditory processing issues or is hearing impaired.

Originally Posted by kipper

When I was recovering from a fractured foot, being able to add wheelchair access through the website was helpful, although it didn't give me the option to specify how much assistance I needed. With both that and flying post-knee surgery, it would've been helpful to be able to specify that having extra legroom or a way to prop up my leg would've been nice. I was lucky when flying after my fractured foot and on the longest flight, had the row to myself.

Originally Posted by Jerry5566

Wasn't sure what you meant by "BOB in Y"

Originally Posted by Jerry5566

That is a perfectly sound suggestion. I will pass it on.


Hi Pjay! Thanks for your comments! Means a lot. Are you saying pre-boarding would suffice (if it's properly stamped like Intothewild suggested and people pay attention to it!)? Or are you saying when you do get to pre-board, it's still a bit tight on time similar to what DenverDean said above?

Originally Posted by Jerry5566

Meal labelling has come up a lot in the comments here so I'm going to group them - our meals are provided by a third-party but given it's such an issue, I'll investigate what is there now and if it's possible to add better labelling if that's an issue within our airline. To be honest, I don't know at the moment what is on our meals – I haven’t gone to that level of detail yet but that will be today’s line of investigation.

If you all had a wish list for labelling could you tell me exactly what you'd want to see? I'm assuming the typical carbo/protein/fat etc. breakdown won't suffice, but allergens isn't an area I'm overly familiar with so if I'm asking for better labelling, what does that translate to exactly? Do you have an example where the labelling provided told you everything you needed to know, and an example where they might’ve tried but failed?

Originally Posted by Jerry5566

Are you saying from an operations point of view, we'd want to know the exact places where a passenger wants to use/stop using the requested wheelchair? If so, I'd agree, but not sure I'm fully understanding.

Originally Posted by GW McLintock

Buy-On-Board items (food, amenities, etc.) in economy (Y)

-J.

Originally Posted by Pjay

A bit of extra time would help, to get through the jetway, onto the plane and then find my seat and stow my bag. If you can’t see very much, everything takes longer.

Additionally, the specific help I need, which is a hand to help me step from the jetway onto the plane over the gap and threshold, is not often available. If you can’t see your feet, that junction is scary with lots of potential for tripping, which I have done. I also need help finding my seat.

Thank you again.You are doing great work here.

Originally Posted by CDTraveler

My concern is both gluten-free and allergens, so here is the info I can offer:

For a basic overview of food labeling law regarding allergens in the U.S. look at https://www.fda.gov/food/food-allerg...ct-2004-falcpa. It doesn't apply to restaurants, which I think is the category air meals would sort-of fall in, but it should apply to the companies suppling ingredients/components to whichever company produces the airline meals, so the info on allergens should be available to the people preparing the trays if they take the time to pull it together from the various component packages.

FALCPA covers the 8 major allergen categories, including what terms must be used on the label. For example, if an item on the meal tray contains whey, you don't list "whey" under the allergens, you have to use the commonly recognized term "milk".

As to how things are labeled: I want a sticker stating "Gluten-Free" on any item on the tray that might contain gluten, so one on the foil over the entree, one on the roll in clear cellophane that had no labeling at all on it, one on the amorphous "dessert" product plastic wrap if these items are actually gluten-free. You don't need to put a sticker on any prepackaged item which has the ingredients listed, like salad dressing, crackers, juice, or salad containing only produce, fruit, etc. A hand-written piece of paper with my seat number and "gluten-free" stuck to the tray does not inspire confidence in me.

Originally Posted by mymsman

This is one of the area that varies so much between airports and chair types.

Some airports won't accept gate checkin for scooters.
Often, but not always, on landing manual wheelchair will be carried up to plane door, while for scooters and electric wheelchairs you often have to use an airport chair to baggage claim, Once on a tight connection in Taipei we came across our chair sitting in a corner at the top of the ramp when we believed it had been checked through to our destination, if we hadn't spotted it it would have ruined the rest of our trip.

For us it is not too important which chair is used but it is much more significant for those with specialist chair requirement so it would be useful to be able to specify that own wheelchair Must be used to and from plane door.