A passenger reviewing the Delta One Lounge at New York JFK shared her experience on the ground, and up in the air, as much from the perspective of her pooch as from a passenger. Her dog loved the new business class-only space, including the food, showing the pet dining and eating various courses from the table.
The vest the dog is wearing, plus that he’s being allowed out of a carrier not just in the airport but on the plane, suggest he’s being transported as an emotional support animal – though this is clearly not a service dog.
While airlines, under DOT rules, have cracked down on planes as Noah’s Ark with two of each animal, that’s largely just through paperwork and requiring passengers to self-certify their service animals. People still use the loophole to bring various kinds of animals into the cabin, and to bring dogs without paying a pet in cabin fee and without having to keep them in a carrier.
Instead, the dog enjoys Delta’s fully flat seat for its journey.
The overall review of the Delta One lounge at New York JFK that’s offered is positive from the perspective of the passenger, and the dog, but what about the other passengers? The lounge is busy enough it seems that some probably don’t notice, but bringing the dog into the sit-down dining area and having them eat at the table (from the same plates that other customers will eat from, after a wash) surely seems beyond the pale.
@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
Then again I’m not sure whether this is better or worse than shaving over a bowl of soup at Delta’s New York JFK Sky Club.
(HT: Eye of the Flyer)
“Emotional Support” dogs are NOT Service Dogs .
The airline has cognitive difficulty , if they allow this to happen .
Dogs carry intestinal worm eggs on their tongues , duh .
As a total dog lover…I found the content of that posting DISGUSTING. I simply cannot imagine ANY reason the airline would permit that sort of behavior from a passenger, i.e., permitting their PET to behave in that way. It seems “entitlement” has no limits whatsoever.
For a premium travel experience with your beloved pet, please consider Delta.
Emotional support, my butt. It’s a pet.
Have a dog and want to fly to your destination instead of drive? Just buy a service dog vest on Ebay. Problem solved.
The dog situation is out of control – on planes but also in 4 and 5-star hotels. We just returned from the St Regis Aspen and spent $1300/ night on our room. There are animals all over the place. One morning at breakfast there were THIRTEEN DOGS in the restaurant – some of them were taller than the breakfast tables. One got off of its leash and started running around the restaurant, which started a barking frenzy amongst the other dogs. Our three–year son was terrified to come down to breakfast the next day out of a fear that one of the “big dogs would hurt him”.
I would honestly laugh to see something like that happen because it would be too funny
The market forces are interesting here. This post, bo’s post on the St Regis Aspen, and others are starting to strongly suggest that airlines and hotels see more money in accommodating dog owners than they do in more aggressively restricting dogs. Hotel chains started making a huge deal about being pet friendly in the past five years or so.
Luckily for most sensible non USA airlines and hotels, this kind of pet fetish is simply prohibited. It’s time that common sense prevailed and so called support animals were consigned to the hold.
My cousin is blind, like really totally blind. My cousin has owned guide dogs for over 30 years. When other dogs are given deference it diminishes my cousin and her very much needed guide dog. I say NO! Only guide dogs should be permitted and the owners certainly, certainly do not act like that privileged woman. Guide dogs do NOT eat from the table nor do they beg for food from the table. They are trained, these are working dogs. When they have the owner put the harness on they know they are at work and they behave how they have been trained. I know taking your dog with is the thang now but i do hate it. I hate dogs in restaurants in particular. They are dogs, they do not belong in a restaurant.
I have been on 2 flights where I questioned the ESA entitlement. It seems odd, but if you have a travel companion – spouse, partner – why do you also need an ESA? Isn’t having a ESH – emotional support human good enough. The couple had 2 animals, the man put his “Pet” into a carrier and set them under the seat in front of him. The woman, had her “pet” out of the carrier – yes they had two pet carriers.
The next couple… on a flight this past weekend had a rather large service animal – I don’t think it was an ESA, until half way through the flight, I saw a face on the wall. It seems the animal (pet) or owner was in distress and the owner sat on the floor of the aircraft. Never once alerting the other human traveling with them. He was fully asleep, with a hoodie pulled over his face. If indeed the customer was in physical distress and the service dog was alerting her to a condition, I will never know – but I questioned it in my own thoughts. Alerting the companion seems the most logical of solutions for a medical issue. I’m not judging, but what physical issue would be solved by sitting on the floor as opposed to sitting in a chair?
I expect the new Delta One business-class lounge will begin catering to dog owners by offering premium refrigerated gourmet dog food like Fresh Pet or The Farmer’s Dog. Recipes from The Farmer’s Dog meet the legal standard of real food that anyone—people or animals—can safely eat because they’re made with human-grade ingredients cooked at a USDA-inspected facility. Accordingly, Delta One business-class lounges could offer dog food on their food buffet so passengers could share their meal with their pet or service dog.
What’s next? Delta Air Lines could give away complimentary Service Dog harnesses to Diamond, Platinum, Gold, and Silver Medallion® Status members.
Of course, we have never seen pets in AA or UA lounges, right?
As a common carrier, AA, DL and UA see all of the craziness of American society – and that of some foreign countries as well.
Add in that the customer paid for a D1 seat for the dog and it gets even more complicated but this is far from a DL-unique issue
Funny, I was in the plain old Admirals Club in Boston on Sunday. Listen up Premium Airline: NO LINE, plenty of seats, check in staff was super polite, great hot food with a local twist (hot breaded cod with arugula and tartar sauce, mozzarella with pesto and chick pea salad, clam chowder). Nonstop AA flight to Miami left on time and arrived early. Ticket in First cheaper than Delta. Same experience two weeks ago in Boston Admirals Club. Consistent, great service. Someone at AA is actually looking at capacity and the amount of people that have potential access to their lounges. There are never lines at Admirals Clubs. Unlike Premium Airline.
Tim Dunn – what is the actual rule for animals in D1? The Delta website claims that animals “cannot ride” in Delta One. But we keep reading stories about passengers buying D1 seats outright for dogs.
Well this means Delta has actually “gone to the dogs”. Congratulations Ed.
Bring a squeak toy or dog whistle with you where ever you go. Really pisses the owner off
Take a picture post it to google maps and call Them out on it
Call dept of health and file a complaint. Referring to the google post
The jealousy of everyone trashing Delta Airlines is laughable. People are so devided in this country that it spills over into airline hatred? Delta is simply better than United and American Airlines currently. The awards (for North American based airlines) reflect that.
The only animals that should be in a lounge are those being served at the buffet.
This is so disgusting and entitled! Your dog is not a child.
@T-
Yeah, those “rankings” are always so accurate…
Spirit’s “ranked” better than Delta, as well
https://aurn.com/2024-airline-rankings-spirit-soars-to-top-3-southwest-lands-last/
Those of us with at least a million miles on each of the Top 4? Understand the dislike for DL comes from their terrible performance in IROPs
Man, can’t make this sh*t up! What next, I wonder?
Anthony,
I don’t know and I personally have never seen an animal occupying a seat in business or first class on any airline but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen.
And since Gary just posted a story about bare feet in FC on AA, and he posts repeated articles about bad human behavior on all airlines, this is not any different than what is seen on other airlines. There just happens to be a lot more money involved.
Hey! It’s probably cheaper to take your “fur baby” with you as an “ESA” than pay for boarding them.
I am getting more than a little sick and tired of travelling with weak, needy, whingeing and “entitled” people.
Will the dog be registered to vote in time for the November 2024 election so as to provide emotional support for its owner?
Personally, I’m not offended by this, at all. Some of the best behaved people on a flight are doggies. As for eating off of the plates, that’s what its there for. The plates will be washed and sterilized as they always are regardless of who eats from them. And, I’m willing to bet that a lot of people don’t wash their hands after using the loo and then touch plates, tables, armrests, and so on, and I don’t hear people complaining about that! The pup is likely no more unsanitary than many of them. Besides, the look of the pup sleeping in the first class bed is simply too cute for words.
Lol anyone who calls Delta One, a mediocre business class product, “first class” can’t really be taken seriously ….
@ Gary — Dogs should be kept at home or with a boarder. People have no manners anymore.
For all of the dog haters out there, here’s another way to look at it… Would you rather have this cute little fluffball as your fellow passenger, or the average Spirit Airlines pax from Miami? Yeah, thought so!
this bullshit has to end. how many health codes did her little darling violate? When this idiot’s dog takes a dump on a flight and causes Delta, or any other airline, to cancel a flight or deny boarding for a paid customer because a seat is soiled because of a dog, or when the dog bites some child in the face and the airline is sued because they have the deeper pockets, maybe then the airlines will stop allowing this insanity and / or sue the DOT to make the rules in alignment with the ADA.
I pray….pray….they don’t have children
Delta Airlines is to blame (period) followed by the dog owner, NOT the dog!! Disgusting!!!
I once saw someone using his fork to pick foods from self serving country. But, that’s not the worst thing that I saw … moments before, the tip of the fork was inside his mouth!
Delta CEO could p0op in Timmy’s plate and Timmy be like — so what? This not Delta specific. And Delta po0p smells better than AA/UA, so HA, you haters.
Delta One Lounge rules are:
“Delta’s Carry-On Pet Policy will apply for pets accompanying customers into the Delta One Lounge. Pets permitted in the Delta One Lounge include dogs, cats and household birds. Pets must be at least 8 weeks old and must remain inside the kennel with the door secured at all times. We reserve the right to ask owners to remove pets from the lounge at our discretion. Pet must be placed on the floor while at the food bar and cannot be within the restaurant area.”
If they paid $5k plus for an additional ticket, no issues from me. Dog lovers don’t think any of this is weird. If I could afford it, I would do it too.
The folks with the ESA type animals really irritate me. I have spent over $4000 so far this year on in-cabin pet fees. My 4lb Yorkie remains in her carrier under the seat in front of me while on the plane and remains in her carrier while in the Admiral’s Club. Nobody is even aware she is on a flight — except one time when there was a cat in the row behind and a dog across the aisle — when they started meowing and barking she barked twice.
I wish I could get loyalty points for her travel!!!
Some jokes just write themselves.
You think if you were going to write an article like this, you bother to figure out and explain the difference between emotional support animals and service animals.
I am not a dog owner and don’t have an issue with people who are traveling with small dogs and keep those small dogs in pet carriers under their seats, when they are flying. I do have a problem with these people bringing in these so-called large service dogs, often times letting them room freely around the Airport off leash and behaving poorly. The airlines need to regulate this better because many of these so-called service dogs are nothing more than peoples pets with their owner, having no disability. It’s getting out of control
Delta has blocked Emotional Support Animals since the start of the pandemic. Small pets in carriers are allowed. Seems like Delta did not follow their own guidelines
I have the same issue with the Trader Joe’s here in Cathedral City. They allow “service” animals off their lease to roam the grocery store and once one of the animal jumped up on my bare legs. I complained and was told that they are service animals. I went home and looked into it and it turns out that ONLY seeing-eye dogs qualify as “service” animals according to the Department of Health for the State of California. I complained to the state but of course nothing happened. I just don’t go into that flea-ridder worm infested shop any longer. But is Delta International telling the public subtly that their food and public areas are fit for animals? I say, this is not Paris leave your goddamned animals at home where they can befilth yourprivate space but leaves ours in peace!
This ESA — please spare me — this is a pet that the owner didn’t want to have to pay for. I am VERY well versed in this stupidity. My lit fella and I were a Therapy Animal Team. We did volunteer work all over the Country, and I always paid to carry him on even though he was totally behaved (he had to be as a Therapy Animal). The horrendous “ESAs” we had to deal w/ were totally unacceptable. This entire situation is so grossly ridiculous — why, on God’s green Earth, did Delta put up w/ this total BS? Really?? Someone needs to get a brain, and this person who did this w/ the animal, they need to not travel commercially — you are disgusting!!! Rent a private jet!! Don’t know whom you think you are. and quite honestly, don’t give a damn. You are not that important!!!
thank you, David.
As usual, Delta rules prohibit what happened and yet there are people that can’t understand that common carriers – all of them -see the best and worst of human behavior
What is wrong with the airlines? what is wrong with people? I suppose if the airlines attempted to do anything about it the dog’s ownrer wiould have sued for some sort of discrimination as is the normal course nowadays in this crazy world especialy with the me me me’s and entitlement everyone seems to have nowadays, unreal, disgusting, hopeless, etc etc etc.
I sat next to an “emotional therapy” dog on united once, SFO to EWR. The dog stunk so bad, I had to wear my scarf over my nose and mouth the whole flight and was so pissed I wouldn’t even talk to the owner. Therapy my arse.
Another childless femoid who’s eggs are dried up and uses her dog as a cope for never having any children.
Disgusting. Yesterday, I had my first ”interaction gone wrong” with a so called service dog. Upon entering a lounge, an unleashed dog began barking, literally chasing me (a 6,5” male), caching up and finally trying to bite me repeatadly. I managed to kick it really hard to make it back off, and another passenger managed to restrain the dog. When the dog owner caught up, she said ”oh, he must have gotten off his leash somehow”. The employees who witnessed it did nothing. (Writing this as someone who grew up with dogs.)
I have to admit I’m a little confused. I’ve read a few of your articles and you keep using ESA and service dog interchangeably. Which one is the actual subject of the article?
“The snob class for you…… Always the snob class.”
ROTFLOL. In this case it seems true — perhaps unless the dog owner was playing the refundable ticket schtick to access the Delta One lounge.
Anyone who needs a dog, cat, ostrich, monkey for “Emotional Support” is not mentally fit to fly on a plane and should be banned for life, with our without the pet. These are the type of people who snap while sitting at the McDonalds drive thru.