Wednesday, August 22, 2007

Southwest Airlines - Shout out!

My husband flew to Santa Ana for business this week. He flew Southwest (aka the peanuttiest airline around - check out their header image - blech).

When they were boarding the stewardess notified the passengers that there was a peanut allergic person on the flight and that they wouldn't be serving peanuts on the flight (and if you wouldn't mind, please do not eat any peanuts you may have brought on board?). Mark was shocked (and appreciative). How cool was that?

I've only flown peanut free airlines with Bella (United, American), and wouldn't fly SWA because of the nuttiness factor (e.g. left on the floor, etc), but things like this may slowly make me come around. Upon further inspection, I found their policy online. Pretty good (I like the tip about flying early in the day). They included all the CYA stuff too about not being able to control what other people bring, blah blah blah, but it's nice to see them addressing it.

With something like 1 in 17 children having some sort of food allergy (just saw that figure somewhere recently - probably on the peanutallergy discussion board), it's smart for them to accomodate travelers (young and old) - it's just good business.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

To Gab - It may appear like good business if you are only looking out for yourself or anyone with a peanut allergy. However, on an airplane, there may be many other people who are not pleased with no peanuts and decide not to fly an airline because of their policy. So you end up with an airplane with one person with a peanut allergy - how does that work for making money in a business?

Gab said...

You make a good point, but if you had a child who was anaphylactic to peanut dust (luckily mine isn't) you'd be pretty psyched about this. Would you rather forego peanuts or have an emergency landing that would delay you even more?

I don't think this policy is affecting SWA's bottom line - I tried to fly them a month ago and couldn't get a seat (their fares are pretty great!).

Anonymous said...

To the first response, Yes many people would not be pleased that peanuts are not served, but people would not be pleased that the plane was diverted because someone had a reaction to peanuts. Southwest would not be happy to be in headline news that someone had an allergic reaction to peanuts on their flight and died. Peanut allergies are extremely serious and unfortunately more and more young kids have this allergies.

Anonymous said...

Hi Anonymous,

You are an idiot. If I boarded a flight with my 8 year old daughter who is in fact allergic to peanuts, would you tell me to my face you feel left out because you couldn't not have your peanuts? I bet not. Suck it up and buy yourself a twinkie for your on flight meal. I'll give you the 75 cents.

Jason

Anonymous said...

When southwest takes apart their planes, they are covered in peanut dust. A friend that worked for them said even if your not anaphylactic, you still should not fly with them if you have a peanut allergy. As their planes are literally covered in peanuts.