AIBU for eating nuts next to someone with an allergy on a plane?

[PrincessJoann]

Had a bizarre situation today. I was flying from Hawaii to Florida. The stewards were walking around giving out mixed nuts.

The woman seated next to me said to the flight attendants that she didn’t want any because she is allergic to nuts and that there should’ve been a note in their system regarding not serving her nuts.

The attendant said in the survey she’d filled out for the airline regarding injury she had not indicated that it was an airborne allergy and only checked that she couldn’t ingest nuts. She stated they still shouldn’t have served them and she shouldn’t need to be that specific.

The attendants asked her if we needed to make an emergency landing or if she required medical attention. She said no.

The woman asked me if I could not eat the mixed nuts. Everyone around us had an open plastic cup of mixed nuts. I told her I wasn’t sure how my eating them or not would help her in this situation. She said it was just a courtesy.

I told her (truthfully) I hadn’t eaten at all yet and needed to have something in my stomach to take a medication. I asked her if I could go to the back of the plane to eat the nuts then come back. She sort of rolled her eyes but said this was fine.

When I came back she was complaining to the flight attendants about me and asking to be moved, specifically using the term “that asshole.”

I feel badly that I didn’t handle the situation better. AIBU?

It was an emergency situation she could’ve died. The airline behaved badly. They should’ve moved her straight away or insisted that you move. You were inconsiderate, actually inconsiderate is a mild word. I’m trying to be polite.

If you knew you needed to eat to take medication, why hadn't you eaten something before boarding, or taken your own snack with you? What if they hadn't served everyone any complimentary nuts - what was your plan? I appreciate her logic seems off as everyone else near her was also eating them (although perhaps she was concerned re nut dust on you, being right next to her possibly accidentally transferring to hands / mouth etc) but you also seem to be expecting her to accommodate your condition which you haven't managed appropriately?

A tricky situation I think but based on the specifics in the OP I think YANBU. She has stated that the allergy is not airborne. Perhaps the airline should jot hace offered her nuts (I agree with her on this) but if everyone else was allowed to eat them, the passenger declined medical help, and she agreed with staff that there was no emergency, then how would OP eating the nuts make any difference to her whatsoever. You have 50 cups of nuts in your vicinity, how does making that 49 cups of nuts make any difference…?

I'm starting to wonder if the woman was just batshit with no allergy at all. Who fills out the form obtusely and waits til the nuts are handed out to complain? Why wait until OP had received her nuts to demand she doesn't eat them - jump in and say 'shit sorry, I thought I filled the form out correctly, I have a nut allergy!'

Ironic

If a passenger next to me asked me not to eat nuts due to her allergy then I would not eat the nuts.

If I needed to eat something to take medication, then I would have bought my own snack on board the plane and not rely on the airline providing one.

I think you would still have nut traces on your face or hands or clothing which could have become transferred to a service and then to her hands and mouth. Obviously the risk of this is much greater with the person sitting next to you.
Was she in the aisle seat, or was she 'trapped'

eating elsewhere on the plane is fine as others were doing so. I ate my nut based snack (not a packet of nuts) on my last flight, there was as an announcement but only once in the air rather than when I bought it in the airport! I think any changes to catering including nut free requests should be emailed or texted to all passengers ideally in the email when check in opens or when you check in online. That way we can make suitable arrangements.

I’d have asked the steward to swap the nuts for something else.
Surely if her nut allergy was severe she’d have informed the airline in advance?
And insulting you only made her look bad.

I have a child with a nut allergy. I really don’t see how in a situation with 200 cups of nuts being munched throughout the plane one person not eating them is helping. The airline was being ridiculous. If she had become unwell it would be a whole load of hassle for them. They shouldn’t serve nuts on flights when there are people who are anaphylactic to nuts on them. Yabu for not having other food if you need food to take your medication with but I would have eaten the nuts. I eat nuts right in front of my allergic ds (although tbf I wouldn’t on a plane where it’s hard to clean things and the air is recirculating).

Surely you could eat pretzels instead?

Woman sounds like an attention seeker. If she’s not allergic to airborne nuts then she had no need to ask you to move and you were very kind for moving to eat your snack.

If airlines removed everything that people can be allergic to if they ingest it then no one would be allowed to eat on planes ever. Someone with a peanut allergy that only exists when nuts are eaten are no different to the people who are allergic to dairy, or eggs, or wheat, or strawberries.

What hogwash. On a flight from Hawaii to Florida, of course there is going to be snack and meal service. The OP isn’t being “accommodated” by planning on food aloft.

Allergy Nut could have reiterated any concerns to the gate agent before boarding, if it were that big a deal. Or reserved two seats, so no one was next her. Or worn a mask and gloves. Or not flown at all. Instead she tried to make her admittedly non-emergency issue everyone else’s problem.

I do not understand the need to serve nuts on planes, no one is going to die or be ill from not having them. Why don’t they just serve a non nut snack, we are not bloody squirrels are we. I’m surprised they do, they can make an announcement but if a passenger brings their own on and scoffs them what can they do, they wouldn't be liable but serve them yourself as the business and they may be. I am not allergic to nuts so have no axe to grind.

People on here acting like it's a case for the ECHR not to get their delicious warmed nuts.

It's a minor snack choice inconvenience.

I'd have used it's as an opportunity to try and blag one of those free tubs of pringles that cost more than the flight.

Last year on my plane home from holiday, no sooner had the announcement asking people to not eat nuts on the flight due to a severe allergy ended, the woman in front of me just immediately opened a Snickers and started to eat it, I mean really? 🙄

It was her mistake . I would have eaten the nuts too. If it’s not airborne then eat away. I work for an airline and the minute we get told of allergies for flights we remove the items from the trolley and make the announcements . Infact flying to Paris the other week we were advised of a peanut allergy on board .

Cheap wheat flour rather than healthful low carb nuts? Not equivalent.

If you have an allergy that could result in anything ranging from an unpleasant reaction, all the way up to death, and you know that if you disclose this allergy to your flight provider, they will ensure that you are safe, why on earth would you only tick that everyone else eating nuts was fine and that it was only you ingesting them that would be the problem, and then get the hump because you’ve been taken at your word?

Sounds like two assholes sitting next to each other. She needed to have informed the airline properly (if you are that allergic, you really would go out of your way to make it clear); you could have asked for something else to eat.

Why on earth are airlines still doing this?

Agree. If it’s that serious (which most are not) send a text alert to all passengers before boarding.

I don't take anything with nuts or seeds on to planes. Because I am a wonderful human but also I don't want to be delayed by someone going into anaphylactic shock.

I thought it was just to cushion her medication? This is a snack on a plane, not here main meal.

You've said what I was thinking as I've read and heard the same recently. If nut allergies were so bad than no airline would ever serve nuts at all.