I could be wrong about this, but if I have a health condition, I do believe it is my responsibility to take care of myself and not leave that responsibility to others. What do I mean by all this? As we go along, you will see what I mean.
A year ago, I wrote a piece about this. Then it was the story of Sophie Draper, a 26-year-old engineer from Durham, (Durham UK, that is) who booked an American Airlines flight (with her boyfriend Pete) from Heathrow to JFK airport in New York. So far, so ordinary. All that is needed now is for Sophie to pack her bags, grab her passport and get to Heathrow. And this she does. After waiting a couple of hours to board, Sophie gets on the plane bound for New York.
Again, so far, so ‘this is the general scheme of flying’.
She gets on the plane and then realizes there might be a problem – with being on the plane. Sophie has a nut allergy. In that regard, she told the cabin crew about it, and she asks the cabin crew not to serve any nuts on the flight.
Needless to say, the cabin crew gave her some ‘confused’ looks, especially when Miss Draper told them that such nut allergy can be triggered by airborne particles.
Now we have the case of Dolly Fisher. Dolly is nine years old, and she has an egg allergy. Dolly’s parents, Carly-Jane and Craig Fisher spent £19,000 on a holiday to Disney World in Florida. Nothing wrong with that. That’s great! However, after Mom and Dad Fisher splashed out such an enormous sum, they come to find out that the airline they booked with, Virgin Atlantic, is a server of eggs. On the plane. So, Mom and Dad Fisher asked Virgin Atlantic not to serve eggs on their flight as this could have disastrous consequences for their little Dolly. That is, she could go into anaphylactic shock or potentially die.
Virgin Atlantic flatly refused to do that. So, what do people who find themselves in a position like this do? Yes, you are so right. They take to the socials, Twitter in particular, and vent how hard done by they are.
What they are really saying is that the airline people, including Virgin Atlantic, should not serve eggs (or anything they do not like) to their thousands of paying customers because of their one child. But Virgin Atlantic was not devoid of sympathy, and they even offered the Fishers a solution. The family could be seated at the back of economy class, as far back as you could be seated on a plane, and as far away as you can get from all the other sections, and…and there would be no eggs served in economy. Splendid idea? Not so, said the Fishers. This is not good enough! So, what do they want? Well, they don’t want any eggs or anything that contain eggs served on board.
I’m thinking, if I had a child who could potentially die if they were exposed to anything airborne that could cause that, why would I book a very expensive holiday abroad, where you needed to get a plane to get there? To expect Virgin Atlantic or any other airline to change their rules, and menus to accommodate one person, that’s a bit of a cheek and a stretch! The Fishers state that Virgin Atlantic didn’t say little Dolly couldn’t go on the plane but it’s at their own risk. Quite!
