Up in the air, Dua Lipa was up in arms.
On board a United Airlines flight on Wednesday, the “One Kiss” singer tweeted her disbelief after a flight attendant allegedly refused to cater to her sister Rina Lipa’s peanut allergy.
“I can’t believe i’m on a @united flight rn and I told the steward that my sister was severly [sic] allergic to nuts and his reply was ‘we’re not a nut free airline so if she has an epi pen she might have to use that as we can’t not serve other passengers in your section nuts,'” wrote Dua.
“Is it just me or is that kinda mental???” I would have to agree. Clearly, they need some new rules (sorry).
When a Twitter user questioned whether the airline made an announcement informing other passengers of her sister’s allergy, Dua replied: “They didnt! They just said well we wont serve you two nuts but thats all we can do! LOL.”
United’s official policy states that while they don’t serve the pre-packaged nuts, they do “prepare and serve meals and snacks utilizing a variety of other ingredients including major food allergens.” They tweeted the below in response.
“We have spoken to Ms. Lipa directly to apologize for her experience and have reached out to our crew to learn more about what happened,” United said in a statement to People. “On Ms. Lipa’s flight, United did not serve pre-packaged peanuts, as we don’t serve that item on any of our flights. While we cannot guarantee an allergen-free environment, we work to address allergy concerns onboard.”
United’s official policy states that while they don’t serve the pre-packaged nuts, they do “prepare and serve meals and snacks utilizing a variety of other ingredients including major food allergens.” Earlier this month, Southwest Airlines announced that they would be making the move to prevent situations similar to this.
United Airlines is no stranger to controversy. On Tuesday it was revealed that the company’s CEO is reportedly being fined $24,000 for taking sand from a public beach in Florida to create protective dunes in front of his $6.8 million home.
As of August 1 however, the Dallas-based company will no longer be serving peanuts on any of its flights due to passenger allergy concerns.“Peanuts forever will be part of Southwest’s history and DNA,” the airline said in a statement. “However, to ensure the best on-board experience for everyone, especially for customers with peanut-related allergies, we’ve made the difficult decision to discontinue serving peanuts on all flights beginning August 1.”
Dispite being synonmyous with airplane food, nuts will cease to exist - on planes at least - for the reasons Dua Lipa went to Twitter about. Though the in-flight nuts will soon be a thing of the past, the airline will continue to serve other snacks like pretzels and cookies.
“We’ll miss the peanuts, but, at the end of the day, it’s our Southwest employees and the hospitality they deliver that set us apart, far more than peanuts ever could,” the company said in their statement.
