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?

Yabvu, my sister has a nut allergy and is absolutely fine with others eating nuts around her.
My point being: you don’t know what the passenger’s allergy was exactly.
The fact that she didn’t disclose it properly to the airline and declined an emergency landing once nuts were being eating around her is however a hint that it wasn’t that severe, isn’t it?

God, when I saw I was quoted I thought I was in for some serious wrath

So why is only the OP ( who moved to eat them) who is the asshole? Why not everyone else eating them on the plane?

Any form of peanut or nut on planes should be banned.

Like others that have posted, I’m a mother to a child who could experience anaphylaxis from an allergy. I ask to board first to clean the area with my own wipes, which is always allowed. Cabin crew do not serve nuts on planes when I have mentioned it and put out multiple announcements passengers to avoid eating nuts.

You’re perfectly entitled to a snack but did it have to be a nut? Really? Are your snack needs greater than those who have deadly allergies? No, my child’s isn’t airborne but reactions can happen from simple cross contamination of touching cabin hold storage, door handles to toilets. Touching communal spaces.

Surely your beef wouldn't have been with the hapless person sat next to you, but with the cabin crew who served them to EVERYONE, the one lady eating nuts at the back of the plane would have made no difference. If the cabin was full of open plastic cups of nuts your child would have had an allergic reaction immediately. Cabin crew (airline protocol) totally to blame for the incident, put the blame where it belongs. I didn't think they served nuts on planes anymore, even after the cabin is cleaned traces would remain.

it is unreasonable to restrict the diets of 200-plus people on the off chance.

How many children have a true “need” to be flying?

If you have an allergy to actually eating them then simply don't. If you can't trust yourself not to then don't expect anyone else to 'protect you'. That is not our job. It was your parents' job, but you're all grown up now.

If you don't like the smell that is something else. Consider a mask. There are many smells I don't like.

As the mother of a child who is allergic to peanuts I would have considered anyone who did this a total arsehole.

The risk is not necessarily about being airborne. It's about this risk of cross contamination because people eat nuts with their hands and then touch seats, trays, toilet door handles etc. It makes every surface the equivalent of being potential covered with poison. The trip must have been a bloody nightmare for the woman.

Bad language against you isn’t right. She filled in her form wrong. The flight attendant asked about an emergency landing. You moved to have the food you needed. I hope you told her that she should get help with form filling. Headphones on ignore.

I am all for majority rules most times, but for me to not eat nuts for a plane ride is an easy thing to do. Or take my own snack. This isnt a big deal.

No one forced her to board the plane.

If I had a potentially fatal allergy and was asked to complete a form detailing my needs you can be damn sure I'd have filled it out to make sure I wasn't put at risk but according to MN failing to take your own snack if you need it to take medication is more irresponsible.

With hundreds of other people eating nuts around you I think it was courteous of you to offer to eat the nuts elsewhere. The other passenger was incredibly rude.

People with nut allergies should be allowed to fly without being put at risk.

I think so too..And I dont have any allergies. Neither does anyone in my family. It's simple humanity and not difficult.

Quite recently I had a glass of wine in the airport lounge and unthinkingly ate some peanuts with it. As I boarded my flight the staff were announcing that a passenger had a severe nut allergy so please, no nuts were to be consumed. I sat in my seat and didn’t the poor guy RIGHT NEXT TO ME start coughing! He asked to be let out of the seat, went to retrieve his bag from the overhead and then was moved to a different seat.

I felt so awful. Lesson absolutely learned. So yes, OP, I think you maybe could have asked for a different snack.

I get the allergy fear, I really do, but if its an airborn allergy, then does it really make a person safe just banning the person sitting next to them from having nuts?

Light the touchpaper and settle back, OP..

If her nut allergy was as serious as that it should have been on her form and she should have taken up the offer of an emergency landing and NO-ONE on the plane should have been given nuts

There can absolutely be cross contamination of allergens such as nuts in such close quarters even if she is known to be triggered by ingestion rather than respiratory means. Once any passenger has selected such a well known and serious allergen as nuts, just leave them off the flight rather than find out the hard way that it can get to them this way too, or they touch something someone has touched and then their mouth. The airline fucked up. The woman only answered to the best of her knowledge. They should have been cautious

The 'OP', obviously not a real poster in this case, behaved like a solipsistic arsehole. That woman, if real, would have been worrying the whole trip. They should have requested a different snack. It's not about what you can get away with within the rules, it's about being a decent human being trying to help others as well as yourself.

I don't really understand why airlines feel the need to serve nuts when there are plenty of other options! If they had had to make an emergency landing it would have been extremely disruptive for everyone and costly for airline. It is quite possible the lady in question did not know for sure if she would react but was nevertheless worried she might. An emergency landing if she didn't react would have been very disruptive and embarrassing so she may well have been in a dilemma and worried. Even if I really wanted to eat the nuts I think I would have asked for an alternative snack. If the airline couldn't provide one then as a last resort I would have done what you did and go to the back of the plane to eat them and take the medication!

Just because it's not an airborne allergy now, doesn't mean that your next exposure to them automatically won't be an airborne reaction.
Allergies can worsen with each exposure.
You might be "fine" one time, then in anaphylactic shock the next.
Honestly, as an allergy sufferer myself (thankfully not to nuts) the amount of ignorance (and entitlement by some) others is astounding and pretty frightening.

She could have been nicer about it. I’m guessing she didn’t actually have an allergy and wanted to be an arsehole tbh.

My child’s entire school were asked to not even eat nuts for breakfast as one pupil was joining with a severe nut allergy. People die from it.

Like you say how were your nuts any different from everyone else’s in the enclosed atmosphere?

To people that think OP was wrong - what do you expect parents of children who may react badly to other foods to do? Should they be calling for bans of any food on planes? Should people never be allowed to eat outside their own homes? There are lots of things that can trigger anaphylactic reactions, and obviously I understand the danger of airborne allergens, but why is that that ingested nut allergies are treated as so much more special than an allergy to anything else?

No, they just need to ban nuts on planes full stop. There are many many other foods that may be eaten. Most schools are nut free now, surely this same curtesy should be shown in any enclosed space. I love nuts, and nobody in my family thank goodness has this allergy. I couldn't imagine how scary it must be to have this!