Travelling with nut allergy sufferer

foodster1983

I have lived with an allergy to both peanuts and tree nuts for the majority of my life. Although I am fully aware of the classification of a peanut, I would tell people that I am allergic to 'all nuts', not 'some legumes and some tree nuts' as most people are not botanists nor are they likely to look up everything I say on Wikipedia.

Whether a peanut is a nut or a legume does not alter the fact that they can provoke anaphylaxis.

thegirlintheattic

If you let the airline know ahead of time and remind at check in they will not sell nut products on board (although their idea of nut product is a bit iffy) and will request passengers do not eat nuts during the flight, although they cannot really enforce this.

Travel insurance shouldn't be too much of a problem.

You will need a doctor's letter to be allowed epi-pens in the cabin.

Bongedone

Summer01 wrote: »

On board a Thomas Cook flight this month there was an announcement made that there was a passenger on board with a nut allergy, therefore they would not be serving nuts or selling Snickers bars on board (as advertised in their brochures snack pages).

Hope this helps anyone who's travelling and is worried.

This happened on a flight I was on with Thomas Cook in May.

My wife has shellfish allergy and she takes Epipen and has never had a doctors note. No issues in any county or customs. She just removes it from her bag and shows security.

LWIF

It maybe worth looking at 'Allergy components'. These are new and Specialist Immunology or Allergy specialists will be aware of these rather than GP's. They enable the testing of molecular parts of e.g peanut and can identify the risk of allergic reaction.
Someone with a peanut allergy, not having had an anaphylactic reaction may not actually need an epipen or go through the paranoia of reading labels depending on the component test. You could have a peanut allergy but it so helps knowing whether it's something to worry about or not.

kim_kat

allthe2s wrote: »

Food allergy whilst travelling is a real problem that I don't think the airline industry has yet fully reacted to.

I have a close family memeber with an egg allergy and we find it infuriating that whilst airlines provide different meals for peoples choice of lifestyle you can not get a meal because of a medical condition.

Supermarkets are always being asked about and provide detailed ingredients but airlines seem to think this is not necessary. It is not possible to simply get a full ingredients list for each meal. Why not I don't know because the impact of someone going into anaphylactic shock at 30,000 ft is surely worth the effort.

2222

I am Coeliac (gluten intolerant) and had no issues on my Air Canada flight in May, except that the snack was pretzels which I couldn't have ( the stewardess got me some fruit from first class instead!) My boyfriend also booked a gluten free meal as a back up if there were any issues with mine.

I do however agree with the labelling of the meals. On our flight back my salad was droppend, and they offered me the standard salad everyone else was having. However, as there were no ingredients listed I could not be certain that the dressing was gluten free (this is where my boyfriend's meal came in handy as he swapped with me!!). If the ingredients had been listed, it would have been much easier to identify any issues.

sophief333

I remember on a Virgin flight once, the hostess said over the tanoy that someone on board had a bad nut allergy and politely asked that no one board eat any nut products.

spiro

A recent post on this forum by someone who had contacted Ryanair was that passengers can bring their own food onto the plane and therefore the airline cannot guarantee any flight will be nut free.

pinkteapot

kim_kat wrote: »

I am Coeliac (gluten intolerant) and had no issues on my Air Canada flight in May, except that the snack was pretzels which I couldn't have ( the stewardess got me some fruit from first class instead!) My boyfriend also booked a gluten free meal as a back up if there were any issues with mine.

My husband has coeliac disease and travelled to Canada with BA. He requested a gluten-free meal and was served... Two plain rice cakes. That was it. :mad:

Gloomendoom

I suppose that if the airline can't guarantee to provide food to cater for a specific dietary requirement then there is nothing to stop a passenger taking suitable food and snacks with them to eat on the flight.