Happy May 1st, 2010. Just flew Lufthansa from Boston to Munich with my son who has food allergies to milk, egg, peanut and tree nuts and I am happy to say the flight was extremely uneventful. Yeah!!!
The flight was packed, on time, and they didn’t serve those scary little bags of peanuts that some airlines can’t seem to break free from. I was so pleasantly surprised when we were 35,000 feet in the air and the beverage/snack cart made its first appearance and my eye caught a glimpse of the shiny blue and silver packet draped in tiny pretzels. Is it for real? Is that a pretzel? I pinched myself to be sure it wasn’t just wishful thinking (sorry gluten free people). The bag wasn’t bursting with tiny peanuts just waiting to choke my sleeping son. It was full of pretzels. And to add happiness to joy, there was no sign of milk, egg or nuts on the label. I sat there and freely enjoyed that tiny bag of bliss with my plastic cup of water while my 23 year old fell deeper into his peanut free snooze.
Row 52 of the massive jet liner started to feel like Mr. Roger’s neighborhood by the time dinner was served at 9:30 p.m. Bud was awake and had just finished a snack from his back pack when the food carts reappeared. He seemed very happy to be on his way to Munich and I didn’t feel my usual food guilt when I picked at the beef something or other on my tray and hubby dug into his pasta whatever. I consumed my carrots, beans and cheesecake, while number one son sipped on a glass of white wine. I thought to myself, this is a mother’s dream beyond the 15 minute rides in the car when the two of us were buzzing towards a friend’s house and he was still young enough to depend on me for a ride. We had another six hours to go and he was pinned between me and the outside wall of the plane.
Back to the food on my tray. Yes, there were dairy items and probably egg ingredients that he was allergic to, but nothing dusty that was sure to be airborne and dangerous like the forever dreaded bag of nuts. For the next few hours we chatted through the night, while hubby snoozed from exhaustion.
Approximately 8:30 am Munich time, the sun was up from a gorgeous sunrise and it was time for breakfast. We had 90 minutes left on our flight. Dear son had just finished the turkey and avocado sandwich from his bag, when the Nature Valley Oat and Honey bars arrived to potentially dampen my bliss. I thought “pooey“, my nirvana was about to be broken. I knew from experience that these bars when sold in the U.S. were made with peanut flour. Dare I break out the reading glasses? Dare I read the ingredients? Could they possibly use a different recipe than the one that breaks my heart every time I read the box in my local grocery store.
I mustered up the courage, dug out the extra strength reading glasses and did a double take after reading the label. Is that real? Did I read that correctly? Did that just say oat flour? What? No peanut flour? Am I thaaaat over tired? Whoah. It really does say oat flour. How wonderful is that?! Ok. Don’t get carried away. Reality check. There is a “may contains” statement for peanuts, almonds, and something else. Yeah, but that pales in comparison to breaking open almost 500 peanut flour bars.
Good day Lufthansa, good day. I will certainly be happy to fly with you again next time we embark on an adventure. And I will be sure to tell all of my friends and acquaintances that you are not addicted to peanuts like some other airlines. To top it all off, we arrived on time and it wasn’t even raining as forecasted.
See you on the runway!
Ann
