02-22-2008
09:59 PM
Posting here again concerning my daughter's experience on a flight from Portland to Sacramento. I just received a letter in the mail today from Southwest. I am responding here because I was given no contact information for Adrienne E. Browne, who wrote the letter, and was simply referred to contact Aviation Consumer Protection Division if I needed anything further. I did want to clarify a couple of things that were misstated in the letter. Again, my concern is still that policies be followed so that passengers are not given a false sense of security about what is going to happen. I phoned well in advance of the flight to inform Southwest of my daughter's allergy. I was NOT told about a form to fill out - I only found out about it after the fact when I was researching the issue on your website. My daughter informed the female flight attendant as soon as she boarded, as I stated before. This fact was left out of the report. In fact, the two male flight attendants were mentioned in your letter by name, but there was absolutely no reference to the third one, the one she spoke to. There were many on the flight who heard her do this, both people in the group she was traveling with and other passengers she did not previously know. When she saw saw later that peanuts were being handed out, she again said something. That is when the announcement was made to return the unopened bags, but as you know, it was already too late. I appreciate that you responded to my letter and "looked into" the issue, however, I do want to make it clear that your summation of what occurred was inaccurate. We followed to the letter what we were told to do by Southwest employees both before the date of the flight and once my daughter boarded. It seems that the blame was wrongly shifted to my daughter and myself for Southwest's failure to follow your own procedure. I do appreciate Brian Lusk's immediate response on this blog and thank him for forwarding my inquiry. I also want to thank Carole Adams for her e-mail and concern. Again, I would like Southwest to see that although it was an accidental human error on the part of the flight attendant, it still affected another person quite adversely. I still wish that Southwest would follow some of the other airlines and step up on this issue by removing peanuts from their flights. Thank you.
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01-28-2008
07:33 PM
I would like to find out who to contact about an incident last week on a Southwest Flight from Portland to Sacramento. My 15 year-old daughter has a peanut allergy, so I called ahead and requested that peanuts not be served on her flights to and from Portland. I had been told previously by a Southwest flight attendant that this was an option for us. This was confirmed, that they would not serve peanuts on her flights. I was asked that she remind them when she boarded the plane, which she did. The flight to Portland was uneventful; no peanuts were served. On the return flight, however, they were handed out to the passengers. In fact, the flight attendant that my daughter spoke to about her allergy when she boarded the plane was the same one who handed them out! Unfortunately, by the time they realized and tried to collect the bags, some had already been opened. My daughter ended up having a severe reaction, having to use 2 of her Epi-pens on board. After that, it seemed the situation was handled properly. Paramedics met the plane at the gate and my daughter was taken to the hospital by ambulance. I am just so thankful that she had both Epi-pens with her and was ot afraid to use them. I hate to think of what might have happened if she hadn't. Anyway, I need to contact someone at Southwest to follow up on the incident. I would also like to mention that I noticed some comments in this blog from other frequent flyers, disgruntled that they may have to be inconveienced by not having peanuts served. One even mentioned it being another case of the will of a few imposed on the many. This is a very dangerous attitude, and unfortunately, many people are ignorant about the dangers of peanut allergies, especially peanuts packaged the way they are and served in a closed environment. I would like to see Southwest step up and discontinue serving peanuts on their flights. It is great that the airline has a policy in place that offers no peanuts served on a flight, but not so great when the policy is not adhered to. Thank you.
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