Highland Beach Condos, Boca Raton Homes, Boca Raton Real Estate Advice and Opinions: Delta Air Lines and their Peanut Policy for Kids with Allergies!!

I have flown Delta a number of times, I had a flight on 07/13/2010 at 9:10 AM.  It was myself, my wife and my 1 year and 5 year old daughters traveling with me to NYC to see Dr. Sampson (one of the world's most recognized pediatric allergists at Mt. Sinai).  I notified delta about my 5 year old daughters severe peanut allergy when I made my reservation.  I then went to the gate and notified them as such.  I also notified the stewardess on the flight.  She mentioned that delta's policy for peanuts is not to serve them to the passengers 3 rows in front and 3 rows ahead.  She would also speak to all the passengers in those rows and tell them not to eat anything with peanut products.  We were getting ready to fly and still no announcement then something happened where we had to stay on the tarmac for an hour at that time i asked the stewardess if she made the announcement and she told me she had.  I then smelled something from the passenger behind me.  It was peanuts.  I politely asked him to not to eat them and he obliged and I asked him "by the way did the stewardess ask you not to eat peanuts" He said no.  Okay, I asked the stewardess again if she made the announcement and she told me she did.  Then we went back to the gate to gas up and waited on the tarmac another 2:30 hours because of bad weather in NYC.  During this time we were told to go get drinks and snacks in the back of the plane.  My wife takes my 5 year old daughter back there and there are peanuts everywhere.  Passengers are eating them, dropping them, and my wife immediately takes my daughter back to the seat. 

My child starts wheezing a little and coughing.  Now I am very angry as you can imagine it was my daughter who I am trying to protect so I ask the stewardess yet again did she make an announcement and she said yes.  I proceeded to tell her that she is lieing.  Apparently the first class cabin knew and they were not allowed to eat peanuts  (We were seated in row 5 bulk head), but the other people did not.  The stewardess kept telling me it is delta's policy and i am sorry.  I had to give my daughter 2 doses of the inhaler and I asked my daughter to get off the plane as my daughter has a severe peanut allergy she told me I could not and that she had not given peanuts to anyone around us, but that was not true they were going to the back of the plane and bringing them to their seats.  Luckily my daughter did not have an anaphylatic reaction.  Anyway shortly there after they cancelled the flight.  We waited over 3 hours on the plane.  Totally understanable considering the bad weather, but the above is not.  Strangely enough we flew flight 487 home to PBI on 07/20/2010 and the stewardess decided not to serve peanuts at all on the flight and they made several announcements.  Apparently this is not Delta's policy on peanuts, but the stewardess made a judgement call.  This was a horrible experience that got worse.  When we got off our cancelled flight there was no one to guide you where to go, and 1 announcement which we could not hear.  Everyone did not know what to do.  It was so unorganized. 

Waiting on long lines and them telling us we could not help you and so on.  Delta told us there were no flights for 2 days until Thursday.  I called my father and he called the priority number and he got us tickets to a flight 60 miles away.  So we originally were dropped off by a friend, but he could not pick us up so we had a friend drop our car off, and we drove another passenger on the cancelled flight to PBI.  We got on the flight and everything was great.  We however had to leave our car there for the 8 days.  The big problem is the service on the plane, and how and why would they continue to serve peanuts on a plane with a child who has an allergy. 

I really do believe it is horrible the way Delta reacts to people with allergies.