They said what?
Those who suffer from a food allergy of any kind understand how challenging it can be, especially when in a confined space such as an airplane.
Airlines are supposed to have policies in place for these passengers to make the flight experience more comfortable — but one flyer on a recent United Airlines flight experienced everything but.
In a viral video with over 19 million views, a content creator named MK, who focuses much of her social media content on food allergies, is seen approaching a flight attendant before takeoff, telling them that she has an airborne, life threatening — as she specifies in the caption of the video — peanut allergy and politely asking for them to announce a buffer zone, which is to announce to those sitting near her in the hopes that they avoid eating nuts.
“We are not allowed to make that announcement,” a crew member is heard saying. “Even for medical, like I have EpiPens and everything,” MK replies, clearly disappointed and frustrated with the airlines. “Email them and let them know,” was the only solution offered to her.
To add insult to injury, not only does United Airlines specify on their site that flight attendants are to know before taking off if any passenger has an allergy so they could announce it, but MK also specified in her lengthy caption that she called the airlines ahead of her flight to double-check this policy and that she protects herself by always wearing a mask in flight.
The Post reached out to both MK and United Airlines for comment.
“For me specifically, inhaling aerosolized peanut protein particles could increase my risk of exposure or trigger physical symptoms. Though such reactions in-flight are rare, I nonetheless prefer to take extra precautions for physical well-being and peace of mind. Allergies manifest differently in every person and I speak only for my own diagnosis,” she explained on her post.
“Not only was I told to essentially deal with it, I was dismissed with a suggestion to email a billion-dollar multinational corporation. That’s not a solution. That’s a failure in their duty of care. It is incredibly concerning that policies that existed to keep passengers safe appear to have been withdrawn,” her caption read.
Many of the thousands of comments on her eye-opening post agreed with her, slamming the airlines.
“All they had to was make a announcement to the surrounding .seats and hope the passengers listen and don’t eat peanuts. It’s a flight not the rest of your life,” one wrote.
“I would rather know if someone has allergies so we can avoid causing problems on the plane. If a person has severe anaphylaxis it can be life threatening. We are very selfish in general sometiems as humans. Allergies are serious,” chimed in someone else.
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