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Passengers on American Airlines with peanut related allergies will now be allowed on first for boarding to wipe down their seats to prevent allergy related reactions. This change will occur on December 12th.
After several incidents related to peanut allergies have occurred, major airlines are beginning to make accomodations, or completely ban peanuts. Southwest has stopped completely serving peanuts, while Delta has a similar policy where people may have extra time to wipe down their seat.
There are still horrific stories of people with peanut allergies on planes posted every day, with some resulting in near death experiences.
While peanut allergies can be difficult to accomodate, I believe the airline can do a better job of catering to this audience. While having extra time to wipe down your seat is nice, it seems like a small temporary solution to a bigger problem.
It is estimated there are around 15 million Americans that have some level of peanut allergy. There are even blogs entirely dedicated to those traveling with these types of allergies.
To make travel even more accessible to everyone, there needs to be a better effort among the airlines with these types of situations.
Do you have a penaut allergy? Have you had good or bad experiences flying when it comes to allergies?
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Dan Miller travels with his wife and 6 (SIX!) children. He loves to help families travel for free / cheap, especially larger families. If you are looking for help, drop him an email at 
So now everyone with a late-boarding group is going to have a peanut allergy – I really don’t think they thought this through.
I completely agree. I do think to control this potential issue, a doctors note is needed. Even these can be forged, but it puts more friction in place for the “fakers”.
Woohoo! I just found out after reading this article I have a peanut allergy, an allergy to Global Warming, and whatever ailment it takes to let me find some overhead space for my carry on. How can they prove that I don’t have an allergy?
That is a great question Ron. The best way to alleviate this is bringing a doctors note in my opinion.
I would test this out next time I fly American, but I’m flying Business and First Class next time. Thank you points and miles!
How about not carrying peanuts on flights?
Good idea, but when is the last time a US based airline had a good idea? All they seem to be interested in is to stuff more seats into their cylindrical torture chambers.
Ought to require a NOTARIZED signed doctor’s note, AND a notarized copy of the prescription for the Epi-Pen they are carrying. If someone has ANY allergy that potentially is life-threatening, they would have said Epi-Pen in their carry-on, and that is allowed by TSA. What would they do for instance if immediately entering their arrival airport, they had a severe allergic reaction to something in that airport? They’d better have that Epi-Pen readily available.
Perhaps airlines could require proper notarized documentation of ANY allergy and Epi-Pen Rx before a ticket is issued.
In much the same way one’s TSA PRE “KTN” (Known Traveler Number) and one’s passport number and expiration date are part of the traveler profile, the Rx (prescription number) could be required in the profile.
While your headline provides a good hook, I worry a out the rest of the article focusing on peanuts. AA’s statement refers also to tree nuts. I’d recommend editing your post to mention that. My son-in-law is allergic to tree nuts (but not peanuts)and citrus. So, he can’t consume any food or drink with these items in the ingredients. While, I can understand that some people need to more cautious about travel, I think this trend is out of control. Pretty, soon with all the people pre-boarding (elderly, disabled, traveling with small children , military, doctor’s note, global, 1K, credit card holders, etc) there won’t be any point getting elite status.
“there won’t be any point getting elite status” Exactly. What happens to the early boarding benefit one gets for the annual fee airline branded credit card? Why should I pay that fee? Perhaps the folks with potentially severe allergies without any frequent flier status should go immediately after those of us who have “paid” for early boarding and free baggage.