By Scott Vogel
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, August 5, 2007

Q My husband has severe food allergies. We want to travel to Europe but need to prepare our own food. Where can I find rentals with kitchens?

Carol Foley

Ashburn

AThere is no shortage of agencies ready to help you locate week-long apartment rentals in most every European country, and we'll get to those in a moment. But when it comes to travelers with food allergies, having one's own kitchen might not be enough.

According to Anne Muñoz-Furlong, chief executive of the Food Allergy & Anaphylaxis Network (FAAN), a Fairfax-based nonprofit group, European food labels can be dangerously deceptive, and that's even if you're a fluent reader of the language in question. "The first rule is to not assume anything," she says. Europeans "have a 5 percent rule, which means that if allergens are present as less than 5 percent of the volume of the product, they don't have to be [on the label.] In the U.S., it's zero."

Muñoz-Furlong strongly recommends packing canned goods from the United States in your suitcase, and when abroad to shop for fresh fruits and vegetables, as well as plain meats. (For more suggestions, see the FAAN Web site, http://www.foodallergy.org.) You might also want to consider ordering preprinted translation cards that clearly state your husband's dietary restrictions, such as those available from SelectWisely (888-396-9260, http://www.selectwisely.com). These strongly worded pocket-size laminates -- "Keine Erdnüsse!" screams one in German ("No peanuts!") -- are sure to get the attention of even the surliest shop clerk.

But you asked about kitchen-friendly accommodations, and there are a multitude. Barclay International Group (800-845-6636, http://www.barclayweb.com) offers apartments, cottages and villas all over Europe, as do Interhome (800-882-6864, http://www.interhome.us) and Rentalo.com (305-558-5577, http://www.rentalo.com). And don't rule out Craigslist for short-term rentals; the popular online classifieds site now has Web pages for several European cities and more than a dozen countries ( http://www.craigslist.org).

The bottom line? "Lots of people with food allergies go to Europe and they have a wonderful time," Muñoz-Furlong says. "But it's all about being very careful and conservative with regard to what you eat."

A flight attendant was very helpful to me on a recent flight, and I want to let the company know. What's the best way to compliment a member of the flight crew so that he or she really gets recognized?

Shahryar Rizvi

Laurel

You'd think that finding an airline representative eager to hear good news from a passenger -- rare as that might be these days -- would be easy. You'd be wrong.

Every airline has a place on its Web site where you can e-mail its customer relations department, but as you put it in a subsequent note, "I just feel that's an automated, ignored 'yeah, we'll read it' " route. 'Tis true that e-mails are easy to write and even easier to dismiss, which is perhaps why the airlines we contacted -- Continental, Delta and United -- agreed that plain old-fashioned snail mail was the way to go. A typed or handwritten letter sent to an airline's corporate headquarters, and specifically its customer service department, is the best bet for ensuring that your flight-time flattery makes its way to an employee's file. In your case, send it to United Airlines, Attn: HDQPR, 77 W. Wacker Dr., Chicago, Ill. 60601.

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