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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Nut allergy on plane

131 replies

HomeCookingWannabe · 07/03/2025 22:38

I've been on a plane today. At the airport I bought Pret's choc almond cookie as a treat. We get on the plane and they say don't eat anything with nuts in as someone severely allergic.

So I didn't, because i'm not a dk and I want to keep someone alive.

But if said allergy person is worried about airborne transmission, surely the cookie sitting there for the 4 hour flight is worse than if i'd eaten it and it was in my tummy? It doesn't seem to make sense to me.

AIBU in thinking it's a load of nonsense?

OP posts:
muggart · 08/03/2025 16:56

Neemie · 08/03/2025 07:56

If I had a severe allergy, I would never trust the general public on this. It isn’t malicious, it’s just that people forget that certain things have nuts in them. Almond croissants and chocolate hazelnut products are always around at my ‘nut free’ work place.

What does that mean in practice? You would never take a plane? eat at a restaurant? Go to school? Go to the gym? Leave your house?

Food allergens are everywhere and people with allergies have to live with that risk, but they still have to live their lives. Even staying home and only eating home cooked foods carries risk as it could have been incorrectly labeled in the supermarket.

Neemie · 08/03/2025 17:14

muggart · 08/03/2025 16:56

What does that mean in practice? You would never take a plane? eat at a restaurant? Go to school? Go to the gym? Leave your house?

Food allergens are everywhere and people with allergies have to live with that risk, but they still have to live their lives. Even staying home and only eating home cooked foods carries risk as it could have been incorrectly labeled in the supermarket.

Show quote history

In practice, it means I would risk it but assume nowhere was genuinely nut free. I would take as many personal precautions as possible.

StrawberrySquash · 08/03/2025 17:31

roselilylavender · 08/03/2025 01:12

I was on a flight recently when they announced it and DD and I had just both finished eating snacks that contained nuts. We pressed the call button and told cabin crew who then told the family. I was feeling so awkward as I presumed that we had ruined their holiday as they would need to disembark and that we would delay the flight as their cases would need to be removed but they just stayed on the plane. On a flight since then, the announcement wasn't until we'd taken off and someone else had to confess that they had eaten something. I don't understand why they don't announce this when waiting to board.

Surely it should be announced before you even get to the airport? The airline know who is travelling and the allergic person should tell them in advance. Then people knows not to pack a Snickers.

Adventitiouslungsounds · 08/03/2025 17:48

TickingAlongNicely · 08/03/2025 15:09

They can still announce it on the plane.

Just means that someone would bring a jam sandwich not a peanut butter one, or a kit kat not a snickers, or crisps not nuts.

Show quote history

But then what about the person that has a strawberry allergy, or dairy or wheat? Where do you draw the line? Why do nuts trump other allergies or medical needs?

I say this as someone with a nut allergy.

notimagain · 08/03/2025 18:03

@StrawberrySquash

Surely it should be announced before you even get to the airport? The airline know who is travelling and the allergic person should tell them in advance. Then people knows not to pack a Snickers.

Airlines don’t really know with 100% certainty who is definitely traveling until very late in the process (e.g. due very late bookings, connections rushed/missed/re-jigged) and of course there’s a danger that the individual with the condition being one of the passengers not making the flight….

lily219 · 10/03/2025 18:23

If I had a life-threatening allergy to airborne allergens, I don't think I'd be brave enough to risk sitting in an enclosed space with over 100 strangers for a few hours, even if they were supposed to be following rules. You only have to watch drivers on the roads to see how little regard a lot of people have for rules.

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