Flying with LTFA -- what NOT to do?

[ajasfolks2]

So,

say the airline CSR (customer service rep)

and the flight attendants

and the cockpit crew (pilots)

refuse to make a "no eating XYZ food (e.g. peanuts)" on this flight due to LTFA passenger. . . .

and so you (the parent or allergic adult)

decide to stand up at your seat and announce to the other passengers that there is LTFA person aboard and to not eat the food.


~ ~ ~

Potential outcomes?

Passengers are thankful and compliant.  All is calm and good.

~or~

Some passengers are not so thankful.  Even belligerent.


~or~

Flight Crew calls for security and you are removed from the flight by security, either before flight takes off or when it has landed.  Perhaps you are refused boarding if you made your announcement in the terminal prior to boarding.





A passenger standing up to make an "announcement" on board aircraft could easily be perceived as interference with flight crew.  Consider:

For the duration of the flight, the instructions of the crew are law. Literally -- it is illegal to disobey the instructions of a crew-member. This sounds like a bit of a stretch, but this interpretation has held up so far. The actual FAA regulation says:


14 CFR 125.328
No person may assault, threaten, intimidate, or interfere with a crewmember in the performance of the crewmember's duties aboard an aircraft being operated under this part.

And it turns out that disobeying any instruction from a crewmember constitutes interference with that crewmember's duties, whether or not you intended to interfere with his/her duties by disobeying.

[ajasfolks2]

I am reminded of fellow FAS (and previous-to-FAS) member(s) who had rather unpleasant dealings with airline -- occasions where boarding was denied as the parents attempted to argue their point as to the no peanuts and/or announcement . . .

and also a couple of instances where the passenger(s) were not allowed to board as the air crew deemed they were not "well enough" to fly and could not safely be transported by air (according to the crew).

Just points to ponder.

[maeve]

I was a little surprised by that post on Facebook. But I was more surprised by the person who said that their child had had a reaction in the terminal and they still got on the plane. Personally, I wouldn't want a biphasic reaction to hit mid-flight.

[ajasfolks2]

Hubby said that flight crew could easily claim passenger attempting to incite riot and that it.would.not.be.pretty.

In flight would mean a seat change to share with Federal Air Marshal.

Good luck with that!!

[ajasfolks2]

I can recall at least 1 instance where Delta denied boarding to a LTFA family and Northwest did as well . . .

One made national news, if I recall.

ETA -- quick Google came up with a pretty recent Air Canada boarding denial for a family with PA child.

Hmmmmm . . .

[ajasfolks2]

And since both American and United sometimes serve "warmed nuts" (tree nuts)  in first class, don't expect them to announce a NO NUTS FOR YOU rule for a specific flight. 

[maeve]

I didn't know that you could have announcements made the couple of times we flew with DD. A person across the aisle on our outbound flight had trail mix (and had never heard of a napkin as he slapped his hands together to "clean" them) and on the return flight the people in the row in front of us had trail mix. DD was fine on both flights. But that's our experience and is unique to DD.

[CMdeux]

We were nearly denied boarding our Aer Lingus flight simply for requesting to board early in order to wipe down the area and cover our seats without "causing any inconvenience to other passengers."

I was told that "making a big deal about this" would mean that we were NOT getting on that airplane.  This was at a layover point 14 hours into our itinerary and nearly 1300 miles from home.

The gate agent evidently meant that I was not to cover seats or wipe anything down.  Because that might imply that they didn't "clean" the aircraft well enough.    Strong hints about lack of fitness to fly, and-- just as Ajas indicates above, that we were "trying to cause some kind of incident." 

It was fairly appalling.

What is more, the tenor of such conversations recently seems to be veering toward "you're a risk and we're not letting you fly."


Honestly, if you need ANY kind of accommodations to fly-- as of right now, you'd better be prepared with a backup plan in case you're denied boarding unexpectedly, because it really can happen.

We did everything "right" when booking those flights.  EVERY.THING. 

Not one ticket agent,  not one gate agent, not one flight crew knew about the allergy before we told them. NOT. ONE.

[twinturbo]

I'd be thrilled to be seated next to an air marshal. I'd probably get it sorted out faster.

[ajasfolks2]

I'd be thrilled to be seated next to an air marshal. I'd probably get it sorted out faster.

ROFL!!!   

[SilverLining]

The gate agent evidently meant that I was not to cover seats or wipe anything down.  Because that might imply that they didn't "clean" the aircraft well enough.    Strong hints about lack of fitness to fly, and-- just as Ajas indicates above, that we were "trying to cause some kind of incident." 

Ever seen a picture of Howie Mandel flying.  Mask..gloves..the whole nine yards.  Bet they wouldn't threaten to kick him off.