NJ mom slams United crew for ignoring son’s peanut allergy

A New Jersey woman has filed a complaint against United Airlines after she said crew members on a recent flight refused to inform nearby passengers about her son’s life-threatening peanut allergy.

Linda Mandelbaum, a food allergy advocate from Livingston, shared her experience with ABC’s “Good Morning America” after the March13 flight home from Texas, where the family visited a college.

“I went up to speak to the flight attendant and I said, ‘My son has a life-threatening peanut allergy. I would appreciate it if you could just tell the surrounding rows to be careful,’” the mom of three told “GMA.”

She said a supervisory crew member reacted rudely to the request.

“I went to go pull up [United’s] policy on my phone and she literally put her hand in my face like this and got close and she goes, ‘I don’t care what you’re going to say or what you’re going to show me. I’m telling you, this is not going to happen on this plane. So what are you going to do about it now?’” Mandelbaum alleged.

“And at that point, I really did feel threatened that she was going to kick me off,” she claimed.

According to United’s website, passengers with severe food allergies are encouraged to inform the crew and to request an “allergy buffer zone” by alerting nearby passengers.

However, it says it can’t stop people from consuming allergen-containing products.

Mandelbaum, who runs the nonprofit No Nut Traveler, said her son was embarrassed by the episode and urged her to drop the matter – but she decided to speak out.

She also filed an official complaint with the US Department of Transportation through her attorney, Mary Vargas.

It claims Mandelbaum “was subjected to denial of accommodation, humiliation, retaliation, and intimidation because she disclosed her son’s food allergies and requested accommodation,” according to “GMA,” which obtained the complaint.

It alleges that United violated the Air Carrier Access Act and Airline Passengers with Disabilities Bill of Rights amid “a pattern or practice of discriminatory treatment of passengers with food allergies and those who advocate on their behalf.”

The mom wants the airline to be fined and its employees trained for violating discrimination laws.

She noted that her family had a far better experience on their flight to Texas a couple of days earlier.

“Great kind considerate crew on our @united flight – informed them re my sons #peanutallergy – told all around us to be careful and asked not to eat peanuts,” she wrote on Twitter. “The wind is changing in the air.”

But after their return flight, she posted a different message.

“So much for a change in the winds,” Mandelbaum wrote, claiming that the “crew flat out refused to make announcement about my sons #peanutallergy – embarrassed me intentionally called me to front to let me know it’s illegal for them to ask people to be careful or not eat nuts – talk about inconsistency.”

In its response to the complaint, United acknowledged that she spoke to at least two crew members about her request – but said it “denies that the Mandelbaum family was subjected to ‘discriminatory treatment’ or that there is a ‘pattern or practice of discriminatory treatment of passengers with food allergies and those who advocate on their behalf,’” “GMA” reported.

Mandelbaum told the show: “I’m trying to model for [my son] so that when he is an adult flying without us and going back and forth to college, that he models my behavior and he asks for things that are going to keep him safe.”

“There’s no reason why his food allergy should stand in the way of him achieving any of his goals,” she added.

A United rep told The Post in an email: “We’re looking into this incident.”