nut allergy and flights to australia?

[tatt]

any airlines that fly to australia that will remove nuts from the flight? Or any that include nuts in all the food and are best avoided?

I would avoid any Asian airline, e.g. Malaysian, Garuda, as they just don't seem to "get" the concept of nut allergies. BA hasn't served peanuts in years on most routes AFAIK, but I have had a quick look on their website and it looks like there would possibly be other kinds of nuts on board. I would guess it would be hard for an airline to guarantee a nut-free plane, as passengers may even bring them on as a snack.

I know they can't guarantee nut free but peanut free would be a start. We have managed to get a message from the captain on one flight asking people with peanuts not to eat them . I'm checking other websites for good/bad stories but I know there are some people using this site who are likely to have used soem of the airlines.

Well, definitely avoid Malaysian! They hand out peanuts and the air gets so thick with peanut smell that my husband and I both started to feel a bit odd (he is allergic, I am not!). I think that Singaporean also serve peanuts with the drinks (or at least they did last year).

I flew business class to Australia with Emirates last year. The hostess did not ask me but gave a plate of peanuts to my son there was also nuts in the icecream. We are lucky as he does not have a nut allergy but I wrote to the airline after saying I thought it was daft as a child could go into shock at 35thousand feet.

I haven't flown with them for a while but KLM used to dole out peanuts.

Emirates don't offer nut free meals on their flights so I've croseed them off the list. We take our own food on short haul flights but don't see how we can keep food edible on long haul.

I e-mailed singapore airlines and they say they will not serve nuts if you give 99 hours notice and supply a doctors letter saying the allergy is serious. So they are back on my list . Malaysian airlines boast about their satay so they are definitely out.

Ctahay Pacific have had to be croseed off too - they are, at least, honest about the problem. www.cathaypacific.com/cpa/en_INTL/helpingyoutravel/peanutallergy

tatt we are flying Virgin Atlantic in October. They also offer to provide nut free meals if given enough notice. You can contact their special assistance section for further advice. Perhaps you could arrange to supply your lo's food and they might store/heat it for you.

Trouble is that they can't stop other people from bringing peanuts onto the flight.

My ds is only allergic to peanuts not tree nuts, so only one major worry at least. We are going to take his own food. His only love is vegemite sandwiches so storage is not such an issue with those. We plan to take a sheet or something to place on the seat under him and will wipe down all surfaces he is in contact with. We will also place him in a window seat and seat ourselves so that he only has contact with us. We can't really do much about the air but we will be carrying zyrtec and 2 epipens just in case.

Thanks - check your food carefully as Virign have been known to supply chocolate with "may contain nuts" warnings.

We always take epipens on the flight with us and a letter saying why we need them. If you ask the airline they may serve a diffferent snack instead of nuts and ask people in the rows near you not to eat nuts. I'd forgotten Virgin fly to Australia too, they are on my list of better airlines .

Have been having problems with insurance too as one child is awaiting more allergy tests. Atlas wanted to exclude her allergy totally as a result although they would cover her after the tests. I told them they had no understanding of allergy because the tests would not make any difference to her risk. Tesco would cover the allergy but not cancellation cover relating to the test results - we're not likely to cancel whatever the tests show so that isn't a problem. But they want a 50% loading for another minor family medical problem that doesn't even require medication normally!

Looks like we'll insure with Norwich Union - who were not perturbed by anything I told them. Perhaps my comment that we've never had to claim on travel insurance had something to do with that!

I have been on Virgin flights where they have asked ALL passengers not to open any snacks brought on board which contain nuts.