Delta currently has a policy that allows passengers with nut allergies to preboard in order to clean their seat area from traces of nuts. You just need to tell the gate agent before boarding in order to preboard.
Of course the other advantage of preboarding, often prized by elite members, is that you will have space for your carry-on luggage in the overhead compartment.
This will work even if you’re on a basic economy fare.
American announced that they too will allow preboarding for passengers with nut allergies starting on December 12. They don’t serve any nuts onboard, but the policy is in place in case previous passengers had nuts so that the new passengers can better clean the area.
I’d assume that the other US airlines won’t be far behind in matching this policy.
Have you or a family member with a nut allergy taken advantage of a preboarding offer?
Leave a Reply
73 Comments On "Delta And American Will Preboard Passengers With Nut Allergies"
All opinions expressed below are user generated and the opinions aren’t provided, reviewed or endorsed by any advertiser or DansDeals.
Uh, I’m allergic to nuts too!
And so is my emotional support squrill
Nebish squirrel
+1 you made my day
How does one prove to the gate agent that they have a nut allergy? Seems like without that, the policy can be easily abused.
Same question
I highly doubt that they’ll ask for proof.
You can show them the epi pens. They will start to ask for proof if people abuse it.
True. I guess time will tell.
If the Epipen is more than 3 oz , they might ask you to actually show them what your reaction looks like… Maybe they’ll keep a bowl of nuts on their counter or something…
Maybe to you it’s funny, but if your kid could die from nuts you wouldn’t be joking about it.
Thank you, a! After spending a night in the ER with my son who had an anaphylactic reaction to eating peanuts, there’s nothing funny about it. You’d have to be a pretty terrible person to pretend you have an allergy so that you can preboard a flight.
+1000
there are plenty of terrible persons out there. question is what does it matter? they’ll always get what they want at the expense of the non-terrible persons.
It’s not like they’re taking the only peanut allergy seat on the plane. What does it take away from others with allergies?
I am buying now an epi pen.
Awesome, it runs us $450 per pack (for each of our two kids). So now all you need is a BS prescription and the money to spare!
We’ve been preboarding with southwest for years as a result of a peanut allergy
Southwest? LOL the ultimate airline to preboard!
Same here. They are not supposed to serve nuts when someone on board is allergic. They once served it anyway. My wife asked the flight attendant not to. They said too bad. She asked if she could ask the people next to my daughter not to eat them. The flight attendant said she wasn’t allowed to do that. My wife did it anyway.
I wrote a letter to them. They gave a $300 voucher. (I have companion pass so it may as well have been $600)
You know what? Not my problem. If the nut allergy are so severe, don’t fly. Drive with family. Buy every seat on the plane and fly by yourself. Why should I cater and craft my day for other people? I’m thinking about raising bees on my property for honey. Neighbors tell me they are allergic to bee stings and concerned with going outside more than ever? Stay indoors, not my problem. If you do get stung, or I eat snickers bar, the results will help clean up the gene pool.
Lol people must not like you. Wonder if you’d feel the same in a hospital… “Oh you just need a minor sergury? You’ll share a room with someone with the Plague…Don’t come to the hospital if you don’t like it”
Hope my surgeon spells better than you! No, I’ll pray she does!!!
Ugh this is… um…nuts. All of a sudden every dans deals dude flying chase UR in basic economy will develop an allergy.
For anyone who is considering ‘faking’ an allergy…there is a well known Mishnah that says that someone who feigns to have some type of disability, he will eventually be stricken with that disability…don’t play around with this stuff…(I could never understand this low-lifes that go to amusement parks and rent a wheelchair claiming to be injured so they can skip lines)
Worse case scenario, I’ll have a honest reason to preboard
Worse case scenario u cld die from inhaling the scent of peanuts if u become extreamly allergic. Every had an anaphylactic reaction?! Clearly not or u wldnt joke. It’s no fun having ur kids watch u turn blue, lose feeling in ur extremities because the reaction was so fast and so strong. And then the helplessness when the epipen doesn’t work right away thinking ur gonna die now with urnkids watching in ur living room! Bh Epi kicked in eventually but easily cld have gone the other way. seriously, don’t take advantage of this!
Ps- air canada has been doing this for year!
I agree with you. But people who don’t look disabled but rent a wheelchair may have a hidden disability. So if you are quoting the Mishnah also remember Don Lakaf Zchus
How long does it take to wipe down a seat? Wouldn’t it make sense just to clean and wipe the area down during regular boarding? Or are they cleaning the entire row?
I dont Know of any that did, But i sure know some that will now…….
People will have “nut sensitivities” as well. This is going to Make emotional support pets look like nothing.
Bamba fed to toddlers early on works magic
While it’s true that studies suggest that, it’s not that simple. Some people are severely allergic and giving them bamba when they are toddlers could kill them chas v’shalom.
We’ve known that my son had severe peanut allergies since before he was eating food…
Make sure you pack it in your checked in baggage
If you are gonna have a ‘nut sensitivity’, make sure that you (and your travel mates) don’t have any nuts, peanuts, peanut butter items etc. packed in your food/snacks.
And definitely don’t take peanuts from the flight attendant…
My son has peanut and tree nut allergies. One reason we pre-board is to let the flight attendants know his needs and insure a nut free zone around him. We always show our epipens. Most airlines (including Delta) have long allowed us to pre-board. American just changed its “official” policy.
To falsely claim an allergy so you can pre-board and get overhead space is beyond disgusting. I will reserve the right to rip the kippah or sheitel off any DDF faking allergies on a flight I’m on – because you’re faking being frum.
Please save your snark and cynacism for other matters. Seeing an anaphylactic allergic reaction is watching a person die in very slow motion-and hopefully getting revived.
Again, since all seats can potentially be wiped clean of peanuts, what are the others taking from you?
Why is it only for nut allergies there’s other highly deadly allergies out there too
Not too common to eat gefilte fish on-board..
My wrote is allergic to certain nuts,but I don’t get how preparing will help anything if there are nuts there they are already there and there is no benefit of a person whom is airborne allergic (allergic even just to the smell) (well, it’s more than just the smell, I’ve seen people have a reaction from being in the room with certain nuts) going to pick it up
Jet blue has been letting people for years to pre board if they are allergic to nuts etc. This applies to airborne allergies. Like if u are allergic to nuts airborne, they will also announce before boarding for people to refrain from opening nuts during the flight. I Baruch hashem don’t have allergies and I still wipe down everything from air vent, tray table, hand rests, window etc .. but of course I don’t pre board. The people who have severe allergies know already what airlines are the most accommodating.
Random related fact I was on a Norwegian flight and the pilot made three announcements over the course of the floor that there was a person on board who was allergic to miss,so no-one should take any out. I don’t know off this is policy our a courtesy from the pilot, but if it is policy then those is who actually do have to deal with these type of issues may benefit from this
Was wondering same thing, we pre board with dairy allergy for same reason.
Should a person with a nut allergy traveling solo clean the seat of matter that they’re highly allergic to? Doesn’t that put them in closer contact than they would be if they just left it?
I have a Trump derangement syndrome you think they will allow me to board Early as well?
FYI often airlines do insist u provide doctor’s note to prove allergy. Southwest will remove an animal from your flight if you have a doctors note but if it’s just ur word against the animal owner SW will allow you to change ur flight for no fee in the event the next flight is more expensive.
There are very few people in this country (USA) that are severely allergic to peanuts. Some quick research shows that .6-1.4% of the population is allergic to peanuts and the vast majority of these the allergy symptoms are not severe.
In addition “the perceived prevalence of food allergies is substantially higher than the actual prevalence. Up to 30% of the general population believe they have a food allergy, and up to 30% of parents believe that their children have a food allergy.”
Don’t think peanut allergy is really a problem in this society.
You realize that 1.4% of the country is 4,500,000+ people right?
With average plane size nowadays that would mean at least one passenger on each plane has nuts alergy.
You realize that the vast majority of these the allergy symptoms are not severe, right?
Exactly. 4.5MM people or 1.4/100 has ANY peanut allergy. What portion of those have a sever nut allergy, some studies show approx. 4/100 with any nut allergy have what’s considered life threatening. That’s 180k people out of 400MM or .045%. With domestic flights averaging 90 passengers in 2017 that’s an .0405 people with a life threatening nut allergy per domestic flight. You’d have to fly 24 times (which isn’t much for some people – i admit) before you’re likely to cross a single person with a life threatening peanut allergy.
Obviously, people with serious but not life threatening allergy should be allowed some accommodation for comfort. But still, i’m pleasantly surprised by how not serious this allergy is in this country.
You know what they say about statistics right?
For example “About 40 percent of children with food allergies have experienced a severe allergic reaction such as anaphylaxis.”
-https://www.foodallergy.org/life-with-food-allergies/food-allergy-101/facts-and-statistics
You can bend all these numbers both ways I’m sure. But to make a point that only .6%-1.4% of a population has something is not going to be a good argument.
Also your research is likely out of date:
“New research being presented at the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology (ACAAI) Annual Scientific Meeting suggests that peanut allergy in children has increased 21 percent since 2010, and that nearly 2.5 percent of U.S. children may have an allergy to peanuts.”
-https://acaai.org/news/new-study-suggests-21-percent-increase-childhood-peanut-allergy-2010
Now we are talking about 8,125,000 people with a nut allergy of which 3,250,000 have or will “experienced a severe allergic reaction such as anaphylaxis”
Where did you get 8,125,000 from? it says 2.5 of CHILDREN. before we had 1.4% of the ENTIRE POPULATION, not just children. There ain’t no 350,000,000 children in this country. Please check the math.
POPULATION = 350,000,000
ADULTS = 77% = 269,500,000 X 1.4% = 3,773,000
MINORS = 23% = 80,500,000 X 2.5% = 2,012,500
That’s 5.7 million. That only raises your original count by about 25%, not almost double.
Given that only 48% of people in the US travel on a plane annually, you can chop that 5.7million down to less than half. If only 4% (@GTR) have a severe enough reaction, your number comes down 109,440 people. (at 40% (@JJ) it’s 10 X that)
Now let’s work with those two numbers.
Ooof. And 40% of children with food allergies suffering severe effects includes all food allergies. While peanut is surely the most prevalent (and severe) for childhood food allergies i’m sure the numbers go down if your lose the other major food allergies, maybe by close to 50% (unless people need to also preboard to clear the seats of remainders of eggs, dairy and shellfish).
@Emes I wasn’t going to incorporate the stratification of flyers like you did re: repeat fliers (also likely lower instances of people with allergies flying or higher likelihood that people with allergies fly together, i.e. siblings).
But yeah… not sure there’s a lot of understanding going on with actual numbers and math but I’ll take my numbers all day. Proportionally, It’s just not a major problem and most that will claim the need to preboard are either 1) less than severely allergic and being cautious which is fine I agree with that approach, 3) misunderstanding the extent of the allergy or 3) faking.
Why do so many kids today have peanut allergies and autism? Is it related? Is it the right arenting? Hmmmmm.
In terms of annual US travel that’s 405k individual/flights that include a passenger with life threatening peanut allergies. That’s the equivalent of 3.5 days of ALL of LAX’s traffic. And again, that’s life threatening.
The population of Wyoming is 0.178% of the population of the United States.
What are the odds that you fly with a Wyomingite who has a peanut allergy?
GTR you should do some more research before playing this numbers game. There is no such thing as a non severe peanut allergy. Anyone who has a diagnosed peanut allergy (positive skin testing) has the potential for a severe reaction. Some people will have various mild reactions to peanuts until one day they get hit by a severe reaction. Your comments are quite insulting and belittling a community that is facing a very real challenge.
Thank you A! I’ve said the same thing…. there is no such thing as a minor plane crash. Any plane flight has the potential of being a severe plane crash. Some people will never experience a plane crash until one day they get hit by a severe plane cease. Your comments are quite insulting and belittling a community that might be one flight away from a real challenge!
My mother-in-law is nuts and I think I’m allergic to her, will that qualify me for preboarding?
Only if you are flying with her.
Thanks! I needed that laugh now. Gut Shabbos!
What about if I’m allergic to the nut-case standing next to me in line?
This is a terrible policy and is going to quickly teach all passengers to say they have a nut allergy. There’s also no reason a person with a nut allergy needs that much more time to clean their seat. If they want to do this right, they should just allow anyone to preboard, as long as they gate-check their carry-on.
Disho-Nuts-tey (read: Dishonesty) never prevails. Stay honest and stay ahead. Simple as that. (This is a message to all. I just happen to be replying to your comment because it’s currently the last one posted. 🙂 If the great flood came about because people were stealing grapes, don’t let nuts, or any little white lie, be our downfall….
Someone just took all the fun outta the room. Geez. Negative much?
Everyone I know is about to develop a nut allergy.
Just for your info, peanuts is not a nut, it is a legume. My daughter is severely allergic to nuts but NOT peanuts! You make 2 different brochas on those. People make this mistake all the time.
I’m allergic to deez nutz.
Serious question: Why is this needed? Why can’t people with nut allergies just clean their seating areas when they board at their assigned times? Given how valuable overhead storage space is, people who pre-board due to allergies should be required to gate-check their luggage to dissuade people from abusing these new rules.
time for Delta to stop serving peanuts, i will take advantage of this , this week when i fly.
I need a mask on me for Delta. Yes i do have my proof and my medicine with me.
Dan, unrelated question.Hope you can please advise!
Were flying JFK to TLV Detla comfort -bulk head seats 10D and 10F. Would they allow a car seat/Doona in the space in front of the seats for our 10 month old? Or would we be required to hold her the entire flight?
Only if you’re willing to put her in the overhead bin on takeoff and landing.