An Allegiant Air passenger has filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Transportation over the airline’s denial of food allergy accommodations for her son, and for its treatment of them. After requesting a nut allergy accommodation, the Washington state mom says that a flight crew removed her and her 8-year-old son from the airplane.
Crystal Shelton says in the complaint that she and her son were labeled “unruly” simply for asking the crew to refrain from serving nuts. She also alleges the flight attendant who wanted them off the flight said she earned commission on cashew sales, and wanted those earnings.
On July 7, 2024, Shelton and her son (called I.S. in the DOT complaint) were booked to fly on Allegiant from Chattanooga, Tennessee to a Tampa Bay airport. The duo ended up stranded in Tennessee after the crew denied their request to not serve snacks containing cashews and pistachios, according to the complaint. Shelton’s son has severe allergies to cashews and pistachios.
“This cannot be allowed for any passenger to be removed for disclosing a disability,” says attorney Mary Vargas. Vargas, a partner in the civil rights law firm Stein & Vargas LLP, filed the complaint for the Sheltons on September 5.
The family accuses Allegiant Air of violations under the federal Air Carrier Access Act and the Airline Passengers with Disabilities Bill of Rights.
The airline “denied accommodation, humiliated the mother and child for having requested disability accommodations, and then removed them from the airplane,” says the complaint.
Allegiant Air did not provide comment to Allergic Living on the complaint.
Allergy Accommodation Denied
The formal DOT complaint outlines Shelton’s account of the Allegiant allergy incident. The mother notified the gate agent about her son’s allergies and asked whether cashews or pistachios would be served. When the gate agent informed her that cashews would be served on the flight, he told Shelton to ask an attendant to refrain from serving those nuts.
Shelton says the first flight attendant she spoke to (Flight Attendant A) agreed not to serve cashews. But another flight attendant (Flight Attendant B) “became visibly enraged” and said that cashews would in fact be served, the complaint says.
Shelton and her son went to their seats after Flight Attendant A again said that cashews would not be sold.
However, the situation escalated. Flight Attendant B “began loudly mocking Shelton and her son,” according to the complaint. She called the child’s mother “too stupid” to read Allegiant’s allergy policy, the complaint states.
The policy addressing food allergies on Allegiant Air’s website includes a warning that airline’s food might contain “trace amounts of nut ingredients.” The airline states that it cannot prevent other passengers from bringing nuts onto flights. The policy says: “Unfortunately, Allegiant is unable to guarantee an allergen-free flight.”
But the Sheltons did not ask for an allergen-free flight, only that cashews not be served. Allegiant Air’s policy does not address whether airline will refrain from serving nuts or other allergens at a passenger’s request.
Tears, Then Removed from Airplane
The complaint alleges Flight Attendant B was loudly saying that she didn’t want to lose out on commission given on nut snack sales. It cites her stating that she was going to get the mother and son removed from the airplane.
“Silent tears were now running down I.S.’s face and he whispered to his mother that he was scared of what the flight attendant was going to do,” the complaint says.
Vargas says Shelton and her son were trying to stay calm. “They just wanted the humiliation to stop,” she tells Allergic Living.
The Sheltons were removed from the flight for “being unruly”. The gate agent informed Shelton that they were being labeled as such and removed, “because a food allergy could cause an emergency landing,” the complaint says.
But the gate agent later admitted that the Sheltons were not in fact unruly, according to the complaint. It alleges that Allegiant Air was discriminatory and retaliatory “in falsely claiming Shelton and her 8-year-old son were unruly simply because they were seated with a disability.”
Any member of the crew could have stopped the situation, but “they didn’t step in,” Vargas says.
Removed from Airplane: Relief Sought
The complaint asks DOT for the following:
- A finding that Allegiant Air “discriminated and retaliated in violation of the Air Carrier Access Act.”
- A fine imposed against the airline in relation to disability discrimination.
- Mandatory training for airline staff regarding the treatment of food-allergic passengers and their families.
- Other compensation, including attorney fees.
- Reimbursement for the family’s travel expenses.
According to the complaint, Allegiant has not reimbursed the family for their tickets. Nor has it compensated additional travel expenses incurred after being removed from the airplane. Shelton rented a car, paid for a hotel room, and additional airline tickets on another airline.
Shelton initially told her story in a Nonuttraveler.com website testimonial, then decided to pursue the formal DOT complaint.
Beyond financial costs, removal from a flight after disclosing an allergy leaves lasting concerns about flying in general, Vargas says.
On this airplane, “I.S. was humiliated, terrified and under mental distress,” the complaint states. Shelton tells Allergic Living that on the first flight the morning after the Allegiant Air incident, her son was “very scared. He was scared of airport workers and flight attendants.”
DOT and Food Allergy Complaints
Anxiety with flying is generally common among food-allergic passengers, according to a global survey on air travel with food allergies. The survey was conducted by Northwestern University’s Center for Food Allergy & Asthma Research (CFAAR).
Of 4,700 survey respondents, 98 percent reported some level of anxiety over air travel. About two-thirds of the survey participants said better accommodations would lessen their stress. The survey found that 11.8 percent said they were asked to leave a flight or denied boarding.
Other airlines that have made accommodations for Shelton’s son’s nut allergies have eased some of the boy’s anxiety about air travel. “His confidence in those airline carriers has helped, along with assistance from a mental health professional,” his mother says.
For these travelers who are sitting on an airplane ready to takeoff, there is an additional burden, Vargas says. They worry that they are “at risk of being thrown off just because of disclosing an allergy,” she says.
The attorney says the federal government has an obligation to respond to complaints about airline discrimination toward passengers with food allergies. Shelton’s complaint is the seventh DOT complaint Vargas’s firm has filed since 2022 on behalf of food-allergic travelers. They are all pending with no action from DOT, she says.
“It’s incredibly important for the U.S. DOT to step in,” Vargas says. “Unless the DOT says it has to stop, it will continue.”
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