United Airlines is updating its onboard allergen policy, offering specific guidance to flight attendants on how to handle passengers who claim to have a severe allergy.
Onboard Allergen Policy Details How United Airlines Handles Passengers With Severe Allergies
In a memo reviewed by Live and Let’s Fly, United lays out its updated onboard allergen policy.
When a passenger notifies flight attendants of a severe allergy, flight attendants should offer to inform other passengers seated in the vicinity:
When made aware of a customer with a severe allergy onboard, ask the customer if they would like you to inform passengers nearby of the allergy. If they say yes, you may inform nearby passengers by using the following verbiage: “We have been advised that a customer seated near you has a severe allergy. For the safety and comfort of everyone, we are passing on that customer’s request that you refrain from opening or using/eating any products you may have brought on board. Thank you for your understanding, which we greatly appreciate.”
Note the verbiage places the flight attendant in the role of messenger rather than enforcer.
We should inform the passenger that, while we will pass on their request to nearby passengers, we cannot guarantee that other customers will not eat food containing the allergen that they have brought on board and cannot guarantee an allergen-free buffer zone on the aircraft. Confirm that they still wish to take the flight.
Passengers will be warned that a 100% safe environment cannot be created and they will be offered a chance to step off the aircraft, knowing there will be some risk.
Flight attendants are also advised they can establish a buffer zone in an effort to protect the allergic passenger:
The flight attendants can then attempt to create an allergy buffer zone after providing a warning to the customer that an allergen-free flight or zone cannot be guaranteed, nor can we police the food items our customers eat. To establish a buffer zone, the passenger with a severe allergy should not be seated in the bank of seats where the allergen is located or facing the bank of seats where the allergen is located. “Bank of seats” is defined as seats that are immediately adjacent to each other. Flight attendants may reseat the customer with the allergies or may reseat the customer who has the allergen. Use your best judgment when determining the course of action for protecting the customer with the allergy.
While a buffer zone is optional on most flights, on flights to/from Canada it is mandatory upon request.
On flights to and from Canada, the above procedure is a requirement by the Canadian government for customers with severe allergies who have requested United to establish an allergy buffer zone. Under Canadian law, after the customer with a severe allergy makes this request, the above steps must be taken.
This buffer zone, even though guaranteed under Canadian law, is by request only.
Concerning Peanuts
Peanuts are a particular concern considering more tend to be allergic to those and those reactions can quickly become deadly. United does not serve peanuts onbaord, but some of its food may contain trace amounts of peanuts or be processed in a facility that also processes peanuts.
In order to be sensitive to customers who are allergic to peanuts and products that contain peanuts or peanut oils, United does not board pre-packaged peanuts. Some food offerings may still contain trace amounts of peanuts or may have been processed in facilities that handle peanuts. Our policy is compliant with all applicable regulations. We do not offer to remove peanut-based products from a flight at a customer’s request. While we cannot guarantee that a flight will be peanut free, we can demonstrate that we care about the well-being of customers who have a peanut allergy by following our onboard allergen policy.
Don’t expect a bag of peanuts on your next United flight.
Website Vs. Memo
You’ll find much less info on the United website concerning passengers with allergies. If anything, the policy seems far less accommodating to passengers with allergies than United is in practice:
For operational reasons, we cannot remove any onboard products based on individual customer requests, and we do not guarantee allergen-free buffer zones on our aircraft. Since we cannot guarantee allergen-free flights and cannot prevent customers from consuming allergen-containing products, we encourage customers to review any health concerns with their physicians prior to flying.
CONCLUSION
United says its onboard allergin policy is compliant with applicable regulations and demonstrates care for the well-being of guests who have allergies. While United will not guarantee an allergy-free flight (literally impossible unless passengers are not allowed to consume their own food onboard), it has taken steps to create a more inviting environment for those traveling with severe allergies.
This a difficult one. While I sympathize with people that are allergic to peanuts and other foods, it is hard to keep them safe when you are in a commercial flight. Very few companies are able to claim their products are allergen free mainly because most of the packaged food we consume today are produced by third party co-manufacturers which makes it very hard to control allergens as they produce food to several customers on the same plant. Bringing back animals, how about people allergic to those? I am not allergic to dogs but I am extremely allergic to cats? What’s the policy when a passenger brings a cat on board?
While the new guidelines acknowledge the threat of allergies, it also brings a nightmare for reseating passengers at the last minute but offering no guarantee. I see no real benefit and a lot of headaches.
Does anyone envy the FAs having to explain all this on an one-to+one basis to pax in a bunch of languages that they don’t speak? Hopefully they will be sensible enough to prepare printed notices to hand out in this type of situation, but a lot of the time airlines just aren’t sensible!
@PM I feel for the FAs on this. Printed notes may not fulfill the CYA of this exercise. Many people are truly sympathetic (as myself) but we will see how many are willing to comply.
Seems like a reasonable approach to me. It’s not United’s job (or the FA’s, either) to solve all your life issues. They’re asking others to do their best to help, but ultimately the responsibility lies with those who have such allergies (or claim to do so).
Unfortunately, you know what will come next: Emotional Support Allergy-Free Zones. Yep, it won’t be long until some idiot demands that everyone seated around him moves away, leaving empty seats beside said “allergy-challenged” passenger. Of course, who wouldn’t prefer an entire row of seats to himself?
“Yeah, I got really bad allergies, I need a big, big buffer, maybe one up in business class.” Expect this soon.
United’s script is too vague. So if someone has an allergy, other passengers are asked not to eat anything brought aboard? So if the person has a peanut allergy, they are suggesting that other passengers also not eat potato chips or drink bottled water?
How about allergies to dog and cat hair?
For one thing, potato chips can easily be fried in peanut oil. Also, from a legal perspective, this makes sense. United has control over the food products it brings on board and the food they serve is likely to avoid the most common deadly allergens. It can’t control what other people bring onboard and they aren’t expecting passengers to determine every ingredient in what they bring on board. It’s easier just to ask passengers near someone with an allergy to refrain from eating their own food for the flight. It would be nice if United would offer free food to those willing to accommodate the passengers, but that would take money away from their shareholders so we can’t have that.
At the end of the day, this is yet another situation where personal freedoms collide. Personally, I think the freedom to fly on an airplane with an attempt to minimize one’s risk of death is a more fundamental right than someone’s freedom to eat food that they brought on the plane with them, but a lot of freedom absolutists seem to disagree that potentially killing or seriously harming someone is worth their right not to be inconvenienced even a little bit.
How about instead of updating allergen policies, update the catering to be competitive with DL and even AA?
Judging by the FAs on my most recent United flights, I have a hard time believing that they will care enough to actually explain the policy to passengers.
I had a flight last summer on United where a kid in the row in front of me had a peanut allergy, so the FAs asked my whole to avoid eating anything with peanuts in it. Peanut M&Ms are my favorite flight snack, so I was mildly irked at not being able (in good conscience) to eat any that I’d brought with me, but I thought United did a surprisingly good job explaining everything in a fair and compassionate way.
United seems to be doing as good a job as reasonably possible in balancing a couple of really difficult opposites.
Nobody has food allergies in Ukraine.
shouldn’t the allergics be traveling with several epipens?
The epi pens are very expensive. Even with my health insurance, my copay is $100 for 2 of them. Also, the epi pen is not a guarantee someone will live through a very severe reaction. I consider myself lucky in that I have to actually ingest something to get a deadly reaction. I don’t have the proximity versions. I do feel for people with proximity versions, because there are so many things out of our control. I wonder if one of the face masks (that we got for covid) would be sufficient to stop peanut dust?
I bring my own snacks on board, sometimes this includes nuts, not specifically peanuts, but I don’t go out of my way to avoid them either.
Not just nuts. Some are allergic to any fish or seafood. Some any beef products. Etc.
Sorry but I’m not going hungry. I’ll eat what I brought with me. If you don’t like it, leave.
I would really feel bad if anyone you loved had a severe food allergy. Your inability to sympathize with someone who has a medical condition that is completely out of their control is mind boggling. No one wants to have food allergies I can assure you of that. Gd forbid you cant eat your nuts or fish for a few hours, who knows you might die of hunger.
And saying people are allergic to beef etc… is going overboard, yes people can be allergic to beef and fruits and other foods but those allergies do no come with airborne anaphalaxis like peanuts and fish can.
Although I do have compassion for people with severe allergies, I am curious what they are doing to protect themselves. Personally, if I had the potential of having a life threatening allergic reaction while flying, I would certainly wear a tight fitting N95 mask, possibly disposable gloves, and of course would refrain from eating anything. The first question an FA should be asking is where they have their EpiPen, inspect it to make certain it’s full and not expired, and of course that the prescription is valid.
Oh my word, when can we put the “airborne peanut allergy” myth to rest?!
https://www.aaaai.org/allergist-resources/ask-the-expert/answers/old-ask-the-experts/peanut-air-travel
On my blog, The Military Frequent Flyer, my co-author was an M.D. and I encouraged him to write about peanut allergies on plane. He wrote that it was medically impossible for allergenic materials to fly through the air in any quantity that would cause a reaction. Oh, the hate mail received on that post! People just do not want to believe a true doctor as opposed to a rumor on the internet.
My daughter, also and M.D., says her worst enemy is the internet.
My daughter is allergic to peanuts.
Epi pens are unpleasant and stop her dying, she still ends up in hospital. She does not eat plane food – only what she brings, she wipes the seat down when she boards. The asking of people around not to eat peanuts on the flight as a nice courtesy to a fellow human is not a big ask. The smell of peanuts makes her nauseous, is some of that in her head … Probably…
All I ask as a father of a kid with an allergy is that you are kind and decent and maybe skip the trail mix for the next 2 hours to make my kids flight more comfortable. Not looking for an upgrade or a bubble or sympathy – just looking for a minimum stress flight !
Hello, ik got an meal with Cashew nuts in it despite asking the stewardess of the food had any kind of nuts in it. She said The food didnt had any nuts in it. I ate some, I got sick and had to take My medicine. Had a horrible flight back Home. This was in an united flight from Chicago to Amsterdam. I didnt make a complain in the airplaine because I felt so sick . Now im Home en feeling better but The more I think About it I feel like I Should do something About this so this happens any other passenger but I dont know were to start. I live in Holland. Any suggestions?
I would suggest reaching out via Twitter, where United seems to be much more responsive.