A Delta Air Lines elite passenger received a rare first class upgrade – but 15 minutes later was sent back to coach in order to give their seat up front to a dog instead. The airline told the customer that the dog was a service animal, and there’s “nothing they can do.”
I got upgraded to first this morning, only to 15 mins later get downgraded (to a worst seat than I previously had). I asked the desk agent what was going on and she said “something changed”.
Okay, fine, I am disgruntled but whatever, I then board only to see this dog in my first class seat … And now I’m livid.
I immediately chat Delta support and they say “you may be relocated for service animals” and there is nothing they can do.
I genuinely don’t see Delta’s logic in bumping a passenger from first class to accommodate a dog in the bulkhead. To be sure, airlines are generally required to provide reasonable accommodations under the Air Carrier Access Act, and one way they do that can be with bulkhead seats. However a last minute seat switch certainly wouldn’t be required.
- Airlines must provide seating accommodations for passengers with disabilities if needed (e.g. for legroom, mobility, or being near a service animal). Bulkhead seats are often used for this purpose.
- However, they are not required to displace other passengers from their assigned seats unless the airline has not implemented policies to reserve specific seating for passengers with disabilities (e.g. Southwest, but they pre-board such passengers who can then choose their own seat adventure).
- Airlines must prioritize disabled passengers for bulkhead seats only if those seats are necessary as an accommodation for the passenger and only if that accommodation has been requested in advance. (They should make reasonable efforts to accommodate at the airport, but don’t have the same obligation, and again wouldn’t have to displace another passenger to do it).
It’s only if an accommodation had been requested and approved in advance but Delta failed to execute on it, or mistakenly upgraded the passenger in a seat that should have been set aside for the dog already, that the airline’s downgrade makes any sense.
And upgrading a passenger and then downgrading them should be treated much more gingerly by an airline that fancies itself premium (as much as Delta executives despise doing upgrades at all). Proactive compensation would have been appropriate here, since this only could have arisen do to an airline error.
Delta does seem to have gone to the dogs, and not just because only about 13% of passengers in first class are sitting there with upgrades these days. In late summer I wrote about a first class passenger booted to accommodate a plus-sized woman with an emotional support dog and 4 carry-ons.
And here’s a dog recently eating at a table in the new Delta One lounge at New York JFK before flying business class. It was hardly the only dog making themselves at home in a Delta lounge.
@oliverbelles My review of the new @Delta One lounge @jfk✈️ But seriously…what do you guys call this dessert?! #fypage #maltipoo #dogsoftiktok #dogvoiceover @delta @Les Belles NYC ♬ original sound – oliverbelles
Last month I was actually on a Delta flight that the pilot turned around due to an unauthorized dog on board, they offloaded the passenger – and then let her and the dog back on. This led to a couple hours’ delay due to a shift change for refueling. The woman spent the flight petting the dog in her lap (hint: it wasn’t really a service animal).
Easy solution – grab the dogs two front legs (lean over the head) and pull them out sideways, away from each other, sharply.
The legs will break at the scapula and puncture the lungs. The dog will be dead inside of three minutes.
And you’ll get your seat back!
@James- not sure if you’ll get to enjoy your seat- lots of witnesses to an act of animal cruelty with malicious intent, not to mention destruction of property.
I’d estimate you would be looking at 2-4 years in prison, depending on the state where you committed the offense and how good a lawyer you can afford…
Whoa. Gary both you and the folks on reddit are way out of line.
Start by assuming the service dog is legit. Given that dogs size there is no way another to properly accomodate another passenger in that row.
Yes those with disabilities do and should have priority over giving someone an upgrade. It is likely that the gate agent screwed up by not noticing that the seat was blocked for dog.
Should Delta have tried better to “smooth things over” yes. But the reactions that the now not upgraded passenger was entitled to the upgrade over the dog being in the space are outrageous.
Like it or not the ADA is the law.
Upgrades are a nice privilege.
Between the two the law wins.
Gary you know all this so shame on you.
No shaming. I’m sick of dogs everywhere I go! I don’t own one don’t want one and would not impose in anyway on others. I have lived with non stop barking for two and a half years disturbing the peace in my home. Dogs have more rights than humans now?
Joanie Adam’s no the dog does not but person who the dog supports has rights too. You should be ashamed.
James
if you were to try that on a harmless animal (whose certainly not to blame) on most flights, you’d probably be the one to end up with broken legs (if you were lucky, that is).
@Michael Lissack it’s not even the ADA that governs, it’s the Air Carrier Access Act and that law does not require moving a passenger out of an assigned seat to make an accommodation. If there was an agent error, Delta should have made an effort at a real apology for it.
I have shipped dogs in a kennel in the baggage area. It is expensive. These ” emotional support dogs” are fare evaders. People learn how to game the system and the airlines want to avoid lawsuits.
Get the animals OFF THE PLANE!!!
The “Service Animal” Idiocy had gone too far.
It is far past the time when service animals need to be licensed.
These dogs need to be licensed and registered like every city does
Sometimes it is better to not be entitled to an upgrade. Everyone knows that airline personnel lie about many different things (such as the weather caused the delay) so don’t be a sucker.
It was an upgrade- not like you “purchased” a First Class seat. Get to the back you moron!
Delta Internation never gets it right. They should have made a seat change with someone else in the cabin rather than giving the seat to a dog. Since the passenger had a boarding pass, this constitutes an “involuntary downgrade” and so he is due some sort of compensation. Too bad there is no compensation for poor business decisions made by their staff.
Just put the dog and its owner into baggage so that they can move around. They will also have lots of room down there.
Enough with fake service animals. Shame these people publicly, tell them as walking by “nice fake disability, you selfish POS”, or else it will never end.
I approve. Thank you Delta.
In a situation like this the upgraded/downgraded passenger should get his original good coach seat back, not an inferior coach seat.
Another one, Gary? Whenever VFTW posts anything on dogs in the travel industry, without fail, it brings out the worst in some people. *deep sigh*
Listen, I like nice things, too. If I really want it, I redeem points or pay the bug bucks for first or business class, especially when it’s lie-flat, because I like to sleep on longer, overnight flights. Otherwise, even with top-tier status, I know I am not entitled to a complimentary upgrade. Maybe some of you forgot that. Also, over the years, I’ve been bumped from ‘oversold’ flights, too, which is always frustrating, and usually involves compensating me for that inconvenience, but I am certainly not going to kill or injure a dog over a seat. Yikes.
Please, attack me personally if it makes you feel better. Call me names, too, if you wish. It’s kind of my kink, you know, like how some of you get off on threatening defenseless pets and service animals over seats on airplanes. Continue to blame others and fix nothing. Don’t look up. “We had it all, didn’t we?”
Earlier this year I flew AA BCN-DFW in a coach bulkhead window seat. In the middle and aisle was an older couple; she (in middle seat) was legally blind, accompanied by a service dog that was appropriately trained.
While I’ve had numerous encounters with so-called service animals that were not properly trained, this was my first extended encounter with one that was. Over the course of 11+ hours, at no point did the dog interact with me or other passengers; he laid on the floor on a blanket at their feet, never encroaching on my space.
It was interesting to observe and I had no complaints about the experience. I am amazed, however, that Delta downgraded a passenger to make room for a dog that looks no larger than the one slept next to my feet.
“ Dogs have more rights than humans now?”
No, their pathetic, unable-to-cope-with-life-without-a-fake-friend owners do.
It sounds more like the passenger with a dog had purchased the extra seat for the dog
Or
It was a celebrity animal where the seat was purchased
Delta agent jumped the gun, by upgrading the coach class passrnger
To FC , maybe the party with the dog showed late at the gate but with enough time legally to still occupy their paid FC seats
Looks like a premium animal, so no issues
It’s not really accurate to say that this could only have been the result of an error on Delta’s part. That’s certainly one possible cause, but another (not unlikely) possibility is IROPS causing the person with the service animal to be moved to that flight. Someone traveling on an F ticket rebooked due to IROPS has higher priority for F seats than someone getting a complimentary upgrade. This has always been the case.
Hold my beer. My sister and brother in law were kicked out of transcon first and moved to economy after already seated for Cellos on an American flight from jfk to lax 15 yrs ago.
If your animal can’t fit in YOUR FOOTPRINT, then you need to buy a comfort seat for them. PLANE (ha) and simple.
Why are so many posters not acknowledging the fact that the passenger was moved to a WORSE seat in economy class than the one they originally had???? This is what had really pissed off the passenger!
“I then board only to see this dog in my first class seat … And now I’m livid.”
Sounds like a lot of whining here. Mostly from the aggrieved passenger, maybe a little from Gary too.
The dog is a passenger, just like any other. Delta double-booked an assigned seat. Why? We would have to ask them — which apparently neither this passenger nor Gary did
@sullyofdoha…Exactly! That was my first thought as well. I would’ve requested Delta to at the very least give me my original seat or better yet, put me in a better seat than the one I had.
While it is possible that this wasn’t a fake service animal, it doesn’t look like the guy is visually impaired. He’s looking as his cellphone. As a teacher of the blind, I know it’s possible for visually impaired people to use cellphones using accessibility features like VoiceOver, but they don’t stare at the screen like this guy seems to be doing. Of course, there are other legitimate disabilities for which service animals are appropriate.