Airlines stopped serving peanuts primarily due to the rapid rise in severe airborne allergies, shifting to pretzels and weirdly highly seasoned generic snack mixes instead.

A closer look

Airlines stopped serving peanuts primarily due to the rapid rise in severe airborne allergies, shifting to pretzels and weirdly highly seasoned generic snack mixes instead. Delta Air Lines and others made this pivot to avoid terrifying medical emergencies at thirty thousand feet, which is genuinely a very solid public health decision. However, this transition leaves the rest of us desperately trying to open microscopic plastic bags of stale pretzels with our teeth while wedged between a snoring stranger and a dirty window. It is truly remarkable how the modern travel industry has convinced us that receiving exactly twelve miniature pretzels is an act of premium hospitality, essentially tricking fully grown adults into feeling immensely grateful for toddler-sized salt rations