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I wrote a long letter to United describing my experience of flying them pre and post diagnosis (which was last April) when I went from being able to eat something on a flight to only getting a fruit plate. My aim was to show just how much money United was losing by not having my business any longer, all because they don't do g-f meals. I'm lucky that my company flies me business class for international travel and I take 4 or more of these trips a year, let alone lots of US trips. I was able to make it clear just how many thousands of dollars they are losing as I now take other airlines.

I sent it to the CEO, CFO, Exec VP of Sales and Senior VP of In-flight operations. The letter worked. Sort of. In two days, I got a personal call from the assistant of the last of these people. They had taken my points seriously and done some investigating. Bottom line is that they aren't opposed to g-f meals. They used to serve them. Amazingly, they stopped serving them b/c they weren't getting enough requests for g-f meals, and, supposedly, food that had been set aside was being thrown out rather than be used!

I'm interested to know how many of you, especially the frequent flyers of the bunch, have switched from United because of this issue. I'm going to get back to this individual and educate them a bit more, assuming there are enough of us for whom it makes a difference.

Meanwhile, If I hear anything different from the other management to whom I wrote, I'll let you all know.

David Wurtman

* Visit the Celiac Web Page at www.enabling.org/ia/celiac/index.html *