Whether it’s between saving one’s life or saving one’s money, one woman took extreme measures to save her life. Leah Williams, a plane passenger onboard a Eurowings flight, ended up purchasing all the peanuts in the aircraft despite having a severe peanut allergy.
Williams explained that she was left with no alternative but to buy all of the peanut packets since she couldn’t stop the flight attendants from offering them to fellow passengers.
She was traveling from London, England, to Dusseldorf, Germany, when she observed the cabin crew getting ready to serve snacks to the passengers. Due to a severe nut allergy, she raised her concerns with the flight attendants so they could tell other passengers about the allergy and stop them from buying peanuts during the journey.
The cabin crew didn’t oblige to her request so she had to come up with another solution to stop people from opening up the packets. Her next best alternative was to spend $184 on 48 packets of peanuts. The nuts ended up costing her three times the price of the plane ticket, which is why Williams is now demanding a refund.
Williams recalled: “The stewards looked at me blankly like I was crazy and said, ‘But there is a lot, we’ll have to count them all.’ I said, ‘Please do count them and I will pay for them all, seeing as you have left me with no choice.'”
She added: “Eurowings should be ashamed of how they handled this situation and for the way they made me feel.”
“The worst thing was they actually asked if I wanted to take the peanuts, and I said obviously not,” Williams complained. The flight attendants ended up putting the peanut packets in a plastic bag since Williams didn’t want to kill herself with a stash of peanuts right next to her.
A Eurowings spokesperson shed some light on the situation by saying: “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. 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.”
The airline confirmed that they were “unable to guarantee that the aircraft is free of foodstuffs that may trigger an allergic reaction, such as peanuts,” since passengers are allowed to bring their own food on the aircraft. According to the airline, passengers with nut allergies need to take precautionary measures by bringing their medications in their hand luggage.
It’s unknown whether or not Williams got a refund but it might be unlikely given that the staff acted in line with their job responsibilities. As for the other passengers who had a craving for some salty peanuts, this was the wrong flight to board.
Source: https://www.insider.com/passenger-nut-allergy-bought-all-48-packs-peanuts-flight-2023-8