I flew Delta from New York JFK to Austin on Tuesday. Leading up to the long holiday weekend there was only one staff member working ‘Sky Priority’ check-in. Unfortunately I ran into an issue with check-in and had to make a stop there.

There was a long line, but I had given myself plenty of time. It seemed everyone seeking priority agent assistance was there with a dog. Some of the dogs were yapping. Others looked like fake service animals but were clearly ‘real’ because they wore vests that said service animal. It was just that kind of travel day.

After picking up the needed boarding pass, clearing security, and making the trek to gate A11, Delta flight 1167 boarded on time. And we pushed back on-time for our 1:30 p.m. departure. During our taxi out I heard a confrontation between a flight attendant and a passenger seated a few rows behind.

The passenger had a dog in her lap. They hadn’t paid a pet in cabin fee (in which case, the dog would have been required to remain in a carrier underneath the seat in front of her). And she hadn’t completed paperwork for bringing a service animal on the plane.

Gulp. The woman said she informed the gate agent about her dog, and was told it was fine to board. The flight attendant said that the unauthorized pet meant we’d have to turn the plane around and return to the gate.

We sat and waited for operations to find us a new gate to return to. Once we were back and the aircraft doors were opened, a Delta red coat supervisor came on board. It was explained she’d need to come off the aircraft to discuss the situation. She gathered her belongings and got off the plane.

Plot twist: a few minutes later, the woman and her dog returned to the aircraft. She was being allowed to fly, after all.

A half an hour delay, though, turned into two hours because the taxi out and return meant we’d need to add more fuel. And refueling was delayed by a shift change. A clearly frustrated captain made several announcements along the way, expressing disbelief about the inability to gas up and go.

A Delta spokesperson confirms,

Flight attendants noticed one additional pet in cabin than their paperwork showed. Dutifully, they alerted the Captain as this is a deviation from procedure.

To ensure correct paperwork/procedural compliance, [the] Captain returned to the gate to have our JFK airport team address.

The customer who deplaned said to our team that they had service animal paperwork for their dog but did not present it at check-in or prior to boarding.. [and] produced service animal documentation and was permitted to reboard.

Further delay ensued as timing for call for additional fuel by Captain came right at shift change for fuelers.

The extra fuel and payroll, of course, is a lot more money than the $95 pet in cabin fee for sure! And since the woman in 21D had the dog out on her lap, petting it through much of the flight, it appears this was treated as a service animal after all even though a service animal request form is supposed to be completed prior to flight.

You must complete and submit the U.S. DOT Service Animal Air Travel Form prior to your flight attesting to the animal’s health, training and behavior.

Apparently the published rule that service animal paperwork must be completed prior to flight is… at a minimum not enforced, despite significant cost to the airline.

Moreover, petting a dog in one’s lap is not typical for a service animal so it seems likely there was a rules violation in any case even though she “had paperwork” which I’ve been saying for years is all that’s required.

• There is a common myth that emotional support animals are no longer accepted for travel in cabins. That is not true – it is only true that the passenger must fill out a form attesting to the pet being a service animal.

• This does cut down on the number of fake service animals, but only because most people that would bring them on board aren’t great at completing paperwork.

• Here we learn that the paperwork does not even need to be submitted to the airline prior to boarding!

The issue was significant enough to force us back to the gate, but not significant enough to be stopped. Instead, everyone on the flight got delayed and everyone on the aircraft’s next flight did too. Here are five easy ways to spot a fake service animal on your flight.

So-called service animal violations seem especially common at Delta, where I’ve recently covered one of their Detroit lounges becoming a Dog Café with rules collapsing at the buffet as well as a dog eating off plates at a table in the new Delta One business class lounge at New York JFK.

There was the Delta passenger demanding a seat for her pit bull and vaping inflight and the Delta passenger who brought two dogs with them into coach, not to mention the airline booting a first class passenger to accommodate a plus-sized woman with an emotional support dog and four carry-on bags.