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?

I feel like this falls into the ‘being a decent human’ category. Is it a big deal to not eat a cup of nuts? If you need food for medication then ask for something else or bring some with you? Personally I think it’s pretty dickish to eat nuts next to someone who you know is allergic and concerned about it, but you’ll get the ‘you’re entitled to do it blah blah’ squad (whose Venn diagram with ‘people who would be outraged if the roles were reversed’ is a perfect circle).

You come off as entitled and selfish. If someone has a food allergy, you don't expose them to it, period. Seeing first hand how this can escalate from contact with an allergen, not just digesting some, I'd simply go without those precious nuts.

I would probably have asked the cabin crew if there was an alternative snack they could offer me as I needed to eat something to take a medication. However, I don’t see how it would make a difference if you ate nuts if her allergy wasn’t airborne and all other passengers were eating them.

It wasn’t an emergency situation and as the other passenger don not eat the airline nuts, she couldn’t have died. The airline behaved according to the information that they were given. Neither the airline nor the OP did anything wrong.

This “ok, can I swap this for a biscuit instead” problem solved.

OP are the nuts because she wanted to eat the nuts.

Because people like nuts, and the vast majority of food allergies aren’t life threatening.

My question is why don’t people who are THAT at risk refrain from flying?

I think you were being quite accommodating. I agree you couldn’t have sat next to her eating them, but it’s reasonable to move away, eat them and return. She was rude. With people on all sides eating nuts, I don’t see how she can specifically lay blame with you. The crew should have taken back all the nuts and provided everyone with an alternative snack, and she should have given them the correct information in advance. I’m guessing she didn’t have any reaction to the nuts being eaten around her?

I would rather err on the side of caution and not eat the nuts. If you had to eat something with your meds why didn’t you bring something yourself?

The passenger chose to expose herself by taking a plane. Not OP’s problem.

I don't think you handled this badly. You also have medical considerations, and needed to eat before taking medication. I think you were considerate to have discussed this and moved to the back of the plane to eat. Also, not everyone who has a nut allergy reacts on exposure. The onus was on the passenger to inform the airline, and by her own admission completed the documentation to state she would react to ingestion, not airborne particles. I think you were more than accommodating in the circumstances, and that she was extremely rude to refer to you in the way she did.

And I suspect the asshole comment was more to do with the dialogue leading up to it, rather than the fact you did eventually go away and eat them.

Do you really need people to tell you you shouldnt have eaten the nuts? No decent person would have. Cmon on!
It was a minor inconvenience for you.

People like other things too.

Exactly. I would feel terrible if I caused her to go into shock.

I’m surprised that an airline is handing out nuts! There are loads of suitable alternatives. Madness.
Given that the whole plane was eating nuts she was unreasonable to ask you to not eat yours. Also madness.

Should they have moved everybody else on the plane? Why single OP out?
Either the allergy was airborne and the passenger would have accepted the emergency landing (as everybody was eating nuts around her at this point) or it isn’t and then why is OP eating nuts an issue vs the passengers in front/behind/across the alley?

Cant believe the number of people who think its ok. And I have no allergies at all. But just dickish behaviour to send someone else into anaphylictic shock

Nobody in my family circle has a nut allergy thank god as I can imagine the anxiety that comes with it.

I wouldn’t have eaten them op sorry but I would have asked for a different snack.

im surprised the airline didn’t have alternative snacks considering nut allergies are lethal

If the whole plane was full of nuts and she was OK I don't see how you eating the nuts (in the back of the plane) would have any affect, people across the aisle were eating nuts, people in front and behind were eating nuts, can't be a very serious allergy. Mind you I think the cabin staff should have immediately removed all the nuts from the cabin if there was the slightest chance of a serious reaction, if they didn't do that, they were the ones being stupid and ignorant.

If you were in the room with someone who had a poisonous snake and they said “it’s ok, it won’t bite you” would you be happy to sit next to them? Or would you want to be further away from something that could kill you?

It wasn't a minor inconvenience - OP had medication she needed to take, and had to eat first. If the passenger with the nut allergy had informed the airline that nuts could not / should not be served then the airline would have provided a different snack, or advised passengers to bring their own. As she advised that she could inhale nut particles, but not ingest nuts, both the airline and the OP acted correctly and reasonably.

Research studies (including aircraft simulations) show no evidence to support airborne transmission of nut allergens as a likely phenomenon. Announcements requesting ‘nut bans’ are not therefore supported, and may instal a false sense of security.

https://adc.bmj.com/content/110/5/334

If your medication is that important, relying on a complimentary cup of nuts on a plane so you can take it seems like a bad idea.

Exactly.

I have a friend who’s a professor at a US university; she is heading a project analyzing hundreds of millions of health insurance claims records to discern the true incidence. It’s early days yet but they are finding that true food allergy diagnoses by scientific methods are FAR below the incidence of people claiming / self reporting to have food allergy.

So I’m skeptical.

Snakes are unpredictable because they have the ability to move. Nuts pretty much stay where you’ve left them.

This woman was fine, there wan no risk.