Imagine turning up for your flight not even knowing if you’re going to make it onboard. A survey of over 4,700 people showed that 11.8% of people with severe allergies were refused boarding by airlines: either by gate crew or removed when they said they had an allergy, specifically a nut allergy.
When you’re served something onboard, how do you know whether it contains an allergen or not? Understanding what’s inside food is important.
I minimise my anxiety by looking up the airline policy and understanding the onboard menus. When things are transparent online that makes it easier for passengers to fully understand what’s onboard.
With a lot of airlines, you can now call customer services, speak to a support team member and ask questions. I do this to check onboard procedures, whether I need to let the gate crew know about my medical condition and if they know about my onboard meal request.
Thinking ahead
If they can’t cater for a nut allergy that’s fine, but I check if I can bring something to eat instead. The airline needs to have something in place so that we can ask the questions or easily find that information. As people with allergies, it makes us feel better and we can make decisions.
Getting onboard not knowing whether someone is taking your allergy seriously is worrying. What happens if the crew mishear you on the flight? This has happened to me many times. They’ve not realised that I’m allergic to nuts and sesame – they’ve just taken nuts and not thought about the second allergy, served me, and, unfortunately, I’ve had it.
Terminology can be an issue too. We need a global system that, at least, declares the 14 top allergens, since food labelling regulations differ vastly from nation to nation. What does ‘vegan-friendly’ mean? A person with allergies could take that as it’s got no milk and egg, but that is simply not true.
Multiple studies have shown that one in three labels is wrong. That’s a big issue and it plays into the anxiety. How do you know whether a product is safe for you?
It creates fear, so that people genuinely don’t want to get onboard. No one should have to feel physically scared to travel.
I minimise my anxiety by looking up the airline policy and understanding the onboard menus.
