Has anyone with peanut allergies flown on Southwest lately?

[d-man's mom]

We are taking a quick trip to my brother's for Memorial Day weekend (Phila-Providence, pretty short flight). Got a rate of $29 each way per person on Southwest. Better than driving!!

I booked online the first flight out to get there, but am on the second flight in the am returning.

I called cust svc today and told them of ds' peanut allergy. They noted the records and suggested that I change my morning flight on the return to the first flight of the day. It's just SO early and we are going to be pretty far from the airport, so I'm keeping my original flight.

Anyway, my question-

She said that when I check in, I have to tell them of the peanut allergy, and they will give me a form to fill in. Has anyone heard of this before? What is the form? Is it a liability release form or something???

Also, I found out that people with WDW in Dec, and Donovan will have his 5th bdy while we are down there, so for the return flight he will be 5 years old.

Does the fact that I will have to wipe down the seat to get rid of any previous peanut residue override the age limitation? I am going to try and get the first flight out, but if I cant, I really want to be able to board early so that we are not stuck in the middle surrounded by a bunch of people eating peanuts! The agent I spoke to couldn't answer my question.

 

[Forevryoung]

I dont have a peanut allergy but I fly Southwest all the time. I say dont worry about the second flight of the day thing, I bet that if you get there and tell them about your concerns they will be more than willing to help you out. They also have pretzles for anyone not having peanuts, just ask

 

[SueM in MN]

I don't know about SW, but when my MIL and FIL flew to Florida recently, they told us that the flight attendent made an announcement before the flight indicating they had someone with a peanut allergy on board so they asked that anyone who had peanuts on board wait to eat them until they had gottne off the plane.
I expect the form may be something for the flight attendants so that they know how much of a problem your child has (ie, do they have to ask that no one on the flight eat any peanuts or would it only be a problem if you are surrounded by people eating peanuts). If the allerrgy is severe, they might even do something like make sure that they have all non-peanut snacks for that flight.

 

[Selket]

On the peanut allergy bulletin board Southwest generally has had a bad reputation. However I think they have new procedures - including the form you mentioned. Here is their policy: http://www.southwest.com/travel_center/disability.html#peanut

You can check out a lot of posts on the PA bulletin board about Southwest - there is a sub-board devoted just to Airlines so scroll down to get to it: http://www.peanutallergy.com/bbpage.htm

One thing consistently mentioned is be on that 1st flight of the day - I think the SW policy is that they generally don't serve peanuts until after 9:30.

Good luck!

 

[Nanajo1]

In Feb on our SW flight the flight attendent announced that a passenger had a peanut allergy and only pretzels would be served and requested that no peanuts/peanut products be opened.

 

[dakyak]

I was watching AIRLINE, that show about SW, and one of their employees got on the plane before anyone could get on and vaccuum a couple rows of seats. He did let the mother know he couldn't make any promises though...They said in the followup that the family arrived at their destination without an issue.

 

[d-man's mom]

Thanks for the info!

 

[kcbean]

Will you come back on here and tell us how it goes. Our three DS's have severe nut allergies and we have not flown since we discovered this. I have been told there is a problem because the air is recirculated in airplanes. My brother works for an airline and got us on a plane just to sit once (empty plane of course) and did not have a problem but I worry about trying a flight. I would be interested in how your trip goes if you are willing to share your info. Thanks!