A furious airline passenger with a severe nut allergy says she was forced to spend three times the cost of her flight buying up all the nuts onboard after flight attendants refused to ban the snack.
Leah Williams, a 27-year-old design firm worker from Alton, Hampshire, has suffered from a nut allergy for her whole life, and asked staff on her flight from Dusseldorf to London to announce her allergy to passengers and request they did not buy or eat peanuts.
But she claims that staff on the budget Eurowings flight refused to do this, which she says left her with no option but to buy all 48 packets onboard and asking staff to bag them up.
‘The stewards looked at me blankly like I was crazy and said, “But there is a lot, we’ll have to count them all”,’ she told the Mirror.
‘I said, “Please do count them and I will pay for them all, seeing as you have left me with no choice”,’ she added.
Bone of contention
The 27-year-old said that she spent nearly £150 on the nuts, which cost £3 each, three times the price of her 80-minute flight.
Ms. Williams is now looking to have her money refunded, claiming that she shouldn’t have been burdened with the eyewatering cost.
‘Eurowings should be ashamed of how they handled this situation and for the way they made me feel,’ she fumed.
The airline’s website states: ‘We can’t guarantee our meals are nut free. We serve nuts on all our flights, either as a meal ingredient or as an accompaniment to drinks.
‘Other passengers may also bring food on board that contains nuts, and traces of nut residue could be passed on to other surfaces of the aircraft as well as through the air conditioning system.
‘If you have a nut allergy, we recommend discussing your travel plans with your doctor before you fly.
Airline tenders apology
A spokesperson added: ‘Our medically trained cabin crew always has access to medication to provide emergency care in the event of an allergic shock.’
The airline has since apologised. Spokesperson Anke Carola Walter told LADbible: ‘We are very sorry that the flight with us did not go as smoothly as planned and we regret any inconvenience this has caused Leah Williams.
‘One thing in advance: Leah Williams was not forced to buy all packages of peanuts on board – on the contrary, our purser tried to offer her an alternative solution by informing all passengers sitting around her about Leah’s allergy. She agreed at first but then decided to still buy all the packages.’
