does anyone know how/when/etc to alert an airline when travelling w/a child w/food allergies? ds is HIGHLY allergic to nuts/peanuts and just having another passenger open a snickers bar on the plane could be fatal to him... how can we deal with this when we fly southwest in august? anyone know?
flying southwest w/food allergy
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Selket
Been there - done that
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I don't have an answer for you about Southwest but you might want to check out this website: http://www.peanutallergy.com/bbpage.htm This is a great discussion board for folks (usually parents) dealing with peanut allergies. There is a travel board there which could be very helpful.
I believe I've read that there are actually a couple of airlines that don't serve peanuts (don't think SW is one of them). I believe some airlines will also make an annoucement on board the plane not to consume nuts - maybe that would help.
My DS (age 3) is also very allergic to peanut also and I'm too afraid to fly with him but I know many folks are able to do it safely. Good luck!
I believe I've read that there are actually a couple of airlines that don't serve peanuts (don't think SW is one of them). I believe some airlines will also make an annoucement on board the plane not to consume nuts - maybe that would help.
My DS (age 3) is also very allergic to peanut also and I'm too afraid to fly with him but I know many folks are able to do it safely. Good luck!
Beca
Apparently, we all have more money than brains!!!
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I was a flight attendant for Southwest for 8 years. As aircraft air is "recirculated", I understand your concern. Here's what you need to do. Call the reservation center and explain your child's "extreme allergy"....tell the "Snickers" reference. Have them put on the reservation that you want all peanuts and peanut products pulled from the plane at the provisioning city before your flight. This used to happen a LOT. Now, SWA provisioners will pull the peanuts, and replace them with pretzels or raisins. These will be the snacks given to all guests. However, do not let your child eat the raisins, as the packages used to say they were processed in plants that also processed peanuts.
When you arrive to check-in, tell the gate agent the same spiel...that you need the peanuts taken off the plane if they have not already done so. When the ops agent takes your boarding pass, tell him/her as well. Then, when you board, verify with the flight attendant standing in the front of the plane that these measures have been taken. Also, ask him/her to make an announcement in the opening PA about the extreme allergy, and ask others on board to please not eat anhthing containing peanuts during the flight. Although making such announcements is NOT SWA policy, I certainly would've done that if a passenger had asked me to...I think most flight attendants would.
Good luck, and please let me know how the trip goes!!
Beca
When you arrive to check-in, tell the gate agent the same spiel...that you need the peanuts taken off the plane if they have not already done so. When the ops agent takes your boarding pass, tell him/her as well. Then, when you board, verify with the flight attendant standing in the front of the plane that these measures have been taken. Also, ask him/her to make an announcement in the opening PA about the extreme allergy, and ask others on board to please not eat anhthing containing peanuts during the flight. Although making such announcements is NOT SWA policy, I certainly would've done that if a passenger had asked me to...I think most flight attendants would.
Good luck, and please let me know how the trip goes!!
Beca
DisFlan
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This is from the SWA site:
Peanut Dust Allergies
Southwest Airlines takes the issue of peanut allergies very seriously. Because it is nearly impossible for persons who have an allergy to peanut dust to avoid triggering a reaction if peanut dust is in the air, Southwest Airlines is unable to guarantee a peanut-free or allergen-free flight.
We have procedures in place to assist our Customers with severe allergies to peanut dust and will make every attempt not to serve packaged peanuts on the aircraft when our Customers alert us to their allergy to peanut dust. We ask that Customers with allergies to peanut dust advise our Reservations Sales Agents of the allergy at the time the reservation is made. If the reservation is made via southwest.com or a travel agent, you should telephone Reservations afterward by calling 800 I FLY SWA (800 435-9792.)
If at all possible, we suggest that Customers with an allergy to peanut dust book their travel on early morning flights, as our Flight Attendants do not begin serving peanuts until after 9:30 a.m. local time. If travel during the early morning hours is not feasible or the flights duration spans past 9:30 a.m. local time, Customers with allergies to peanut dust must check in at the departure gate one hour prior to departure and notify our Customer Service Agent at the gate of the allergy. (Please allow enough time to park, check luggage and/or receive your boarding pass, and to pass through security checkpoint.)
Upon advising our Customer Service Agent at each departure gate (including connecting flights), the Customer Service Agent will complete a Peanut Dust Allergy form and ask the Customer to present the form to our Flight Attendant upon boarding. This form notifies our Employees that a Customer with allergies to peanut dust will be traveling on the flight, and our Flight Attendants will make every effort to serve an alternate snack. As some of our other snack items may contain peanut particles, peanut oil, or have been packaged in a peanut facility, Customers who have allergic reactions to eating/ingesting peanuts should read the ingredients on any packaged snack before consumption. Of course, Customers are welcome to bring their own snacks with them.
Although following the above procedures will ensure peanuts are not served on a flight, Southwest cannot prevent other Customers from bringing peanuts or products containing peanuts onboard our flights. In addition, Southwest cannot give assurances that remnants of peanuts and/or peanut dust/oil will not remain on the aircraft floor, seats, or tray tables from flights earlier in the aircrafts routing.
Peanut Dust Allergies
Southwest Airlines takes the issue of peanut allergies very seriously. Because it is nearly impossible for persons who have an allergy to peanut dust to avoid triggering a reaction if peanut dust is in the air, Southwest Airlines is unable to guarantee a peanut-free or allergen-free flight.
We have procedures in place to assist our Customers with severe allergies to peanut dust and will make every attempt not to serve packaged peanuts on the aircraft when our Customers alert us to their allergy to peanut dust. We ask that Customers with allergies to peanut dust advise our Reservations Sales Agents of the allergy at the time the reservation is made. If the reservation is made via southwest.com or a travel agent, you should telephone Reservations afterward by calling 800 I FLY SWA (800 435-9792.)
If at all possible, we suggest that Customers with an allergy to peanut dust book their travel on early morning flights, as our Flight Attendants do not begin serving peanuts until after 9:30 a.m. local time. If travel during the early morning hours is not feasible or the flights duration spans past 9:30 a.m. local time, Customers with allergies to peanut dust must check in at the departure gate one hour prior to departure and notify our Customer Service Agent at the gate of the allergy. (Please allow enough time to park, check luggage and/or receive your boarding pass, and to pass through security checkpoint.)
Upon advising our Customer Service Agent at each departure gate (including connecting flights), the Customer Service Agent will complete a Peanut Dust Allergy form and ask the Customer to present the form to our Flight Attendant upon boarding. This form notifies our Employees that a Customer with allergies to peanut dust will be traveling on the flight, and our Flight Attendants will make every effort to serve an alternate snack. As some of our other snack items may contain peanut particles, peanut oil, or have been packaged in a peanut facility, Customers who have allergic reactions to eating/ingesting peanuts should read the ingredients on any packaged snack before consumption. Of course, Customers are welcome to bring their own snacks with them.
Although following the above procedures will ensure peanuts are not served on a flight, Southwest cannot prevent other Customers from bringing peanuts or products containing peanuts onboard our flights. In addition, Southwest cannot give assurances that remnants of peanuts and/or peanut dust/oil will not remain on the aircraft floor, seats, or tray tables from flights earlier in the aircrafts routing.
shelby2001
<font color=99CC99>Always thought "I'm a Believer"
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I to have 2 children who are allergic to nuts we did fly Southwest and we sat in the seat and what did my daugher find in the back of the seat a nut, out came the benadryl and epi-pen and takeoff was delayed until we knew she was OK, now I fly Jet Blue or Song they don't serve nuts as a rule Jet Blue had a product with almonds they just removed it from the plane as they serve no peanut products as a general rule and we have had no problem at all, I would be careful on Southwest as they told me they can't guarantee no nuts they would not serve nuts on our flight but couldn't guarantee there were no nuts or dust from a prior flight my suggestion is do a quick scan before your son sits down just in case and Southwest will work with you my DD was fine and the flight home was OK, however when the did announce no snacks or anyone with a snack with nuts to not eat them there were some groans but to bad. Hope your trip is a great one.
Christine
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I always try to fly a nut-free airline. The last time I flew, United was nut-free and we were able to get a comparable rate.
If you cannot avoid flying an airline that serves nuts, they usually will pull them (USAirways did for me) but it is highly recommended that you fly the first flight of the morning (the plane is more clean) and the nuts and candy will be less of an issue with other passengers.
If you cannot avoid flying an airline that serves nuts, they usually will pull them (USAirways did for me) but it is highly recommended that you fly the first flight of the morning (the plane is more clean) and the nuts and candy will be less of an issue with other passengers.
thanks everyone!! i feel a bit better about flying now... i never knew there was such a thing as a "nut free airline" although flying any airline other than southwest is not really do-able for us, so i am glad to hear that they have a policy in place...
we do have the first flight of the morning on our outbound flight, but an afternoon flight coming home... i will bring the benedryl and epi pen and have a large supply of clorox wipes handy to wipe down his area as an extra precaution!
we do have the first flight of the morning on our outbound flight, but an afternoon flight coming home... i will bring the benedryl and epi pen and have a large supply of clorox wipes handy to wipe down his area as an extra precaution!
There isn't anyway an airline will be able to stop a pax from eating a candy bar that they bring on board. Moving your return flight to the first flight of the day, extend your trip one day if you don't want miss park time, will probably help.
If a pax opening a Snickers bar will be fatal you probably can't risk flying any airline. If the epi-pen will counter the allergic reaction than the first flight, combined with no peanuts served and a request made to other pax should work.
If a pax opening a Snickers bar will be fatal you probably can't risk flying any airline. If the epi-pen will counter the allergic reaction than the first flight, combined with no peanuts served and a request made to other pax should work.
Delta serves peanuts. They will stop the serving, but that wouldn't clean the plane. I have also had peanuts on USAir, United and AA (but from reading maybe United has changed) However, keep in mind that just because you book United you may not be on a United jet you might be on USAir. (or if you book Delta you might be on Contiental etc.) So you probably would want to check who actually OWNS the jet you are flying before making a final decision.
Quote removed - Trekker
Umm, you can't just stop being allergic to peanuts/tree nuts. Is it an inconvenience to you to not be able to eat peanuts/tree nuts for a couple hrs or do you think it would be an inconvenience to have to land the plane because a child has gone into anaphylactic shock mid air due to passengers eating peanuts? My dd also has life threatening peanut/tree nut allergies. Should she not fly to WDW just because by us asking an airline to not serve peanuts/tree nuts it might inconvenience a passenger? Eat something else for crying out loud. It won't kill someone who isn't allergic to peanuts/treenuts to eat chips or something instead, but it just may well kill my child if you open up your little bag of peanuts.
Have a little sympathy. A person's life is more important than you having to eat chips instead of peanuts.
Umm, you can't just stop being allergic to peanuts/tree nuts. Is it an inconvenience to you to not be able to eat peanuts/tree nuts for a couple hrs or do you think it would be an inconvenience to have to land the plane because a child has gone into anaphylactic shock mid air due to passengers eating peanuts? My dd also has life threatening peanut/tree nut allergies. Should she not fly to WDW just because by us asking an airline to not serve peanuts/tree nuts it might inconvenience a passenger? Eat something else for crying out loud. It won't kill someone who isn't allergic to peanuts/treenuts to eat chips or something instead, but it just may well kill my child if you open up your little bag of peanuts.
Have a little sympathy. A person's life is more important than you having to eat chips instead of peanuts.
ducklite
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This topic comes up every now and then on these boards.
As an FYI--I've flown US Air PHL to MCO and back at least five round trips since the beginning of the year, and they've been serving pretzels--no peanuts.
As someone who has nut allergies, I can sympathize. BUT, I think that the advice to take teh first flight should be taken.
Once you've gotten to lunch time, you've got a lot of parents who pack lunches for their kids, and it's often PB&J. There's no way of telling them in advance that they can't feed this to their kids--I think 99.9% of parents would cooperate and substitute something else if there was. I think that most parents are going to feed their kids, as much as it's not fair to your kid, it's also not fair to thirty other hungry bellies and potentially very unhappy kids. I wonder if there's a surgical mask or something along those lines that you could use for your son?
In all honesty, if I lived in Long Island and had a kid with that severe of an allergy, I wouldn't take the chance. I'd drive. Just my two cents.
Anne
As an FYI--I've flown US Air PHL to MCO and back at least five round trips since the beginning of the year, and they've been serving pretzels--no peanuts.
As someone who has nut allergies, I can sympathize. BUT, I think that the advice to take teh first flight should be taken.
Once you've gotten to lunch time, you've got a lot of parents who pack lunches for their kids, and it's often PB&J. There's no way of telling them in advance that they can't feed this to their kids--I think 99.9% of parents would cooperate and substitute something else if there was. I think that most parents are going to feed their kids, as much as it's not fair to your kid, it's also not fair to thirty other hungry bellies and potentially very unhappy kids. I wonder if there's a surgical mask or something along those lines that you could use for your son?
In all honesty, if I lived in Long Island and had a kid with that severe of an allergy, I wouldn't take the chance. I'd drive. Just my two cents.
Anne
gigi1313 said:
i see that you are on long island as are we... you said you had to fly swa? we fly jet blue out of kennedy on every trip to disney just because we like the airline and the tvs for the kids. we do it just because we like it for you i think it would be worth the trip into kennedy more than just for the tvs but for your childs health. it really isnt that bad a trip in we usually take a limo but have also driven . i just wouldnt want to take a chance flying on an airline that serves peanuts and especially southwest since they are a value airline i know that they have a very short clean up time inbetween flights so the chances of something being left on the plane are high.
looks like the offending (and yeah, it was offending) post was pulled by the mods before i got back... thanks to the poster that reported it 
i will call southwest, and if their rcommendation is to leave on the first flight of the day (6:35 out of mco... can we camp there overnight to avoid hotel charges? or maybe it would be fun to stay at the hotel in the airport that last night?) then that's what we'll do...
driving is out of the question... ds (who also has sensory issues, adhd, and a host of other various special needs in addition to his peanut/tree nut allergy) would never make it that long in a car (van) even with stops... it would take our entire week just to get down to florida!
last year we were unaware of his allergies and he survived the round trip to/from mco uneventfully, so i will take some precautions and pray the same will happen this time...
i will call southwest, and if their rcommendation is to leave on the first flight of the day (6:35 out of mco... can we camp there overnight to avoid hotel charges? or maybe it would be fun to stay at the hotel in the airport that last night?) then that's what we'll do...
driving is out of the question... ds (who also has sensory issues, adhd, and a host of other various special needs in addition to his peanut/tree nut allergy) would never make it that long in a car (van) even with stops... it would take our entire week just to get down to florida!
last year we were unaware of his allergies and he survived the round trip to/from mco uneventfully, so i will take some precautions and pray the same will happen this time...
Quote removed - Trekker
is one eight year old kid's life not worth refraining from peanuts for two hours? i know i'd be willing to be "inconvenienced" for a few hours in order to accommodate my fellow man... not you, eh? and yep, the "truth hurts" the truth that there are such selfish people in the world around me... sad commentary on today's society...
i'll say a prayer for you "got quattro?" and your family that you never have to see your small child in a near death situation... it's not pretty, trust me...
is one eight year old kid's life not worth refraining from peanuts for two hours? i know i'd be willing to be "inconvenienced" for a few hours in order to accommodate my fellow man... not you, eh? and yep, the "truth hurts" the truth that there are such selfish people in the world around me... sad commentary on today's society...
i'll say a prayer for you "got quattro?" and your family that you never have to see your small child in a near death situation... it's not pretty, trust me...
ducklite
<font color=teal>Take the Poly, it's fabulous!<br>
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I have no problem with them not serving peanuts, but I think there is an issue when other parents have packed PB&J's for their kids, and then after they have boarded are told that "sorry, you can't feed that to our child onboard". If they are told in advance, I can't imagine any parent not making alternative plans. But to be told "your child has to go hungry for the next three hours", that's just not going to fly. (No pun intended)
There has to be some middle ground, and I think that parents of children with severe allergies need to think of alternate solutions as well. In addition to taking an early morning flight, I'd also try to get the very first or last row in order to keep as much distance as possible from others. Perhaps they could make arrangements to allow anyonw who will be feeding their children PB&J on the flight to have them sit as far away from you as possible?
Anne
There has to be some middle ground, and I think that parents of children with severe allergies need to think of alternate solutions as well. In addition to taking an early morning flight, I'd also try to get the very first or last row in order to keep as much distance as possible from others. Perhaps they could make arrangements to allow anyonw who will be feeding their children PB&J on the flight to have them sit as far away from you as possible?
Anne
gigi1313 said:
Anne said it much nicer than Quatro but the point is valid. You can't expect parents, who brought their kids lunch, not to feed their children during the flight. Certainly you can ask if they can switch seats and as an adult I'd be willing to skip my meal. If someone opening a candy bar anywhere on the plane could kill your child than you really have to think about driving or cancelling your vacation.
There are a number of hotels near MCO that offer 24/7 free shuttles to the airport. You can usually get one (3* only) for around $50.
Beca
Apparently, we all have more money than brains!!!
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Quote removed - Trekker
Yikes!!! Speak ONLY for yourself, please!!! If I were one of those 299 passengers on a plane...I would HAPPILY hold off eating my Snickers until I was off the airplane...someone's life isn't worth me getting my peanut when I want it!!!
Remember....airplane air is NOT "fresh" like being in a building...it is RECIRCULATED the entire flight...I just cannot IMAGINE where you are coming from??? I am so sorry that you are so easily inconvenienced by other's needs.
Beca
Yikes!!! Speak ONLY for yourself, please!!! If I were one of those 299 passengers on a plane...I would HAPPILY hold off eating my Snickers until I was off the airplane...someone's life isn't worth me getting my peanut when I want it!!!
Remember....airplane air is NOT "fresh" like being in a building...it is RECIRCULATED the entire flight...I just cannot IMAGINE where you are coming from??? I am so sorry that you are so easily inconvenienced by other's needs.
Beca
again, thanks everyone for your input... i appreciate it... i will call southwest and confirm that they will do all in their power to keep my son safe and if i am not comfortable with their position, i will make alternate arrangements...
by hook or by crook, we'll get to wdw
by hook or by crook, we'll get to wdw
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