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?

Very surprised an airline was serving nuts. I thought they had stopped this because the allergy is so common.

I don’t see a problem with what you did. She should have said she needed to move whilst you are them especially given it wasn’t just you, there would have been people behind and in front eating them.

We are all responsible for our own health, it was on her to move not you to stop.

It varies from person to person as to their tolerance

As soon as they heard that she had an allergy, they should've put a halt on the nuts being eaten

Nuts on a flight is a silly idea imo, when they literally kill people. With all of the deaths we've seen from allergies too. Shame.

No, nut allergies CAN be deadly. If this woman had an airborne allergy then she most definitely would have filled in her passenger information correctly.

I have a friend with peanut allergy. We go to the pub, I have peanuts, he has a packet of crisps. My eating peanuts has no effect on him. Him EATING a peanut would mean deploying his EpiPen I have pupils at school with nut allergies. They have EpiPens (or generic auto injectors) and our kitchen is nut free, however, they do not have airborne allergies so other children can have nuts or nut products in their lunchboxes.

The woman had no genuine allergic reaction to people eating nuts around her - it sounds like she just wanted to be rude and annoying.

Agree that she should've had an issue with everyone on the flight - and it was a mistake not to make it clear before flying

But I did read the op, and think that simply saying 'no thanks' to something that might kill a person on your flight isn't too much to ask

So sad

Where did the poster say they "didn't like the smell?"
They just said the smell alone can make them feel ill.
Not every reaction is a fatal one.

Surely there was something else you could have eaten with your medication
Was the attendant only giving out nuts or were there other food options, if there were no other food options being handed out you could have asked the attendant if they had any other food options at the back of the plane that you could have had

Many on here clearly don't understand the difference between being allergic to eating something and being affected by airborne allergy which is far more serious. If the passenger had completed the forms correctly it could have been dealt with by the cabin crew.

Some people are allergic enough that if someone eats it and touches them or the surface they touch they can get reactions. So if someone ate the nuts and touch the seat handle that is shared by both a person with an allergy can then have a reaction from this. So many people do not understand allergies. Not all are the same. My relative can get a reaction if someone eats the food and then touches something she then touches. For example, if she has a play date she asks the parents of whoever is coming over not to give them the allergy foods before coming, as it will be on their hands, face etc and then they touch all over the house. She learned her lesson early one when not asking and her daughter broke out in hives because her friend had eggs before coming and then touched her toys putting eggs residue on.

No, I wouldn’t have eaten them.
Why the hell are airlines still giving out nuts anyway??? So unnecessary. There are plenty of other options.

My adult Son is allergic to nuts, and I’m terrified when he goes on flights. Why can’t people just be kind and considerate?

”snacky time”? No, the OP needed to take her medication and couldn’t do so on an empty stomach. The passenger was absolutely fine despite everybody else on the plane eating the nuts so her allergy clearly was NOT serious.

If it’s not airborne there’s no reason not to eat them. Dd3 is allergic to coconut but I still love a Thai curry in a restaurant sat next to her.

Nut allergies aren’t usually deadly. That’s very rare, actually.

I think you were very strange to do that yes. If you’d got peanut residue on the seat/table and she touched it and then touched her mouth she could have died.

I think it’s odd the FA didn’t do an instant recall of the nuts tbh.

And what about the nuts the rest of the plane were eating? It's not as though the OP took her own personal bag of nuts on

@EverythingElseIsTakenthe OP could have bought a snack or asked the FA for an alternative to take her meds. She didn’t need to eat the nuts.

Nonsense. Most allergies aren’t life threatening.

Could a different "snack" not be consumed?

Allergy Woman likely didn’t “need” to be on the plane, either.

There’s always the option to stay off planes.

It’s actually allergy awareness week this week and I think it would be useful for you to educate yourself on the difference between life-threatening allergy and intolerance. The OP is not intolerant of nuts, they are deathly allergic to nuts.

I think it’s on the allergy sufferer to declare clearly that they can be affected even if they don’t eat the nuts themselves.
Im wondering why that person didn’t move seats themselves. For personal protection.

Perhaps the airline guidelines to all people with severe allergies need to be improved so they Do fill out the forms correctly

well, the OP is stolen, so nothing anyone asks will be answered, and the OP will not return as they can't answer any of the questions.. so it makes a mockery of everyone even bothering to post in reply to the OP

The OP is not intolerant of nuts, they are deathly allergic to nuts.

Nowhere in the OP does it say that !

Did you know in advance of your flight about the nut allergy person? I suppose this information isn’t given out. Lots of ready made foods could have nuts as well. Not your fault.

Airline should follow the example of others and not serve nuts at all as a policy. Plenty of other snacks are available.