A passenger in the gate area of a Delta flight snapped a photo of a woman preparing to board for Detroit – bringing with her a large dog and four carry-on items.
The dog wasn’t in a bag that fits underneath the seat, which is required for a pet in cabin. She had registered it with the airline as a service animal – but it clearly wasn’t. A pet in cabin is treated as a carry-on which means she should only have had a single personal item with her – not four.
Once on board the Bombardier CR-9 regional jet, the woman found she didn’t fit in first class seat 2A. She didn’t quite have room for herself along with her dog. So the flight attendant on this Delta Connection trip allowed her to move across the aisle to sit in 2C, and for her dog to take 2D. They did this even though both of those seats were assigned to other passengers.
The passenger who was in 2C boarded and was told she had to take 2A. But then the passenger who had 2D boarded. He was given 1C. Then the passenger who had 1C boarded and was told there was no first-class seat for him.
The first class passenger in 1C was “involuntarily downgraded to a comfort-plus seat” which is extra-legroom coach.
Naturally, the passenger who bought only one seat should only have been afforded one seat. Other passengers shouldn’t have been moved – let alone downgraded – to accommodate them. Need more than one seat? You can buy more than one. Although even an extra seat doesn’t increase your carry-on bag allowance.
Despite the shenanigans, Delta Air Lines flight 4331 pushed back 10 minutes early this morning and arrived into Detroit 20 minutes early.
Passengers can bring service animals on a plane, and don’t have to pay extra to do so. They just have to fill out paperwork, which largely amounts to attesting that it’s a service animal.
Emotional support animals aren’t supposed to be a thing on planes anymore, but it’s really an ‘honor system’ sort of thing.
That means that there are still plenty of animals on planes, even if it’s not the Noah’s Ark two of each animal situation that it used to be. The average passenger wanting to bring an emotional support animal also happens not to be very good at handling the paperwork in advance.
Here’s how to fix this if only airlines had the courage not to bend to the whiniest among us:
1) if a pax doesn’t fit between the lowered armrests of their seat(s), they will be moved to two empty adjacent seats. If two empty, adjacent seats are not available on the same flight, the pax will be accommodated on the next available flight.
2) if any pax in the immediate vicinity of a “”””service animal”””” has allergies, the pax with “””service animal””” will be denied boarding and accommodated on the next available flight.
Everyone is accommodated and the chance of being denied boarding will incentivize larger pax to buy two seats and for “””service animal””” fraudsters to have a healthy attachment level with their pet (i.e., board them at a local kennel and go on vacation without pets like normal people). Personally, I would pay extra to have guaranteed animal free flights due to severe animal dander allergies.
Passengers are required to show ID to get on a flight; why shouldn’t a service animal also have to sho ID identifyng the animal as a trained service animal? I’m assuming that when someone obtains a service animal that there are papers or cerificates of some kind showing that the animal has received the approprie training.
@Garyst16 the assertion that this is clearly not a service dog is arrived at with very little logical acumen.The dog pictured is obviously some sort of Doodle lab experiment. It may be a wonderful Emotional Support pet but would be a very unlikely candidate as a professionally trained/certified service animal.
What evidence do you have that the dog was an ESA and not a service animal? Furthermore, I’m bigger than her and fit fine in a coach seat, so commenting on her size just seems like low hanging fruit. There seem to be a lot of assumptions in this blog post with little proof to back anything up.
Service dogs have an ID card and number. Pretty easy to get proof. I have one so I know. I would not need to bring it on a plane. I have seizures and would pre-medicate. he is a bloodhound. Delta erred big time here. I hope the person that was downgraded got a full refund
Mr. Dunn: You posture as an intellectual, but the entirety of your manic comments only points to one inescapable conclusion: you are a fragile individual who overcompensates through temper tantrums and narcissistic tendencies. It’s not a good look. Case closed.
This is better than SNL
A great reason why it’s time to criminalize disability fraud.
There should also be a policy against disability fraud, something like: “Any false claims of a disability to obtain an accommodation will result in the permanent loss of travel privileges on any Delta flight.”
Easiest solution is to go back to the days when flying was an elitist activity reserved for only the wealthiest and most worthy among us.
Raise fares back to 1970s levels and put troglodytes like this woke fat-ass ho back on Greyhound.
Flying is NOT for plebs.
I agree with above coment. I am allergic to cats and dogs as well. I was recently on a Southwest flt and I was sitting in my aisle seat when 2 people with cats boarded the plane last and sat next to me. I complained about my allergies and they made me move to a less favorable seat to only have the woman sitting ahead allowed her dog to come out his kennel. I felt like I was flying with a bunch of 4 legged animals and was very unhappy with my flt experience.
If there weren’t 2 seats next to each other that she would fit in then she should be rebooked to a flight that can accommodate her. And yes, I put my armrest DOWN. Always. If that makes the middle seat person (fly comfort plus) uncomfortable oh well!! Not making it my issue
She should have not been allowed to board until all rules are complied with.
I always book row 1 on AA and have never been bumped. But Delta does warn you when you choose a seat that pax in row 1 can be bumped for other pax with special needs. So I’ve always been afraid to choose row 1 on the rare occasions I fly Delta. And I’ve noticed that row 1 always seems to be the last to fill up on Delta so other pax are likely just as nervous about booking seats in that row as I am. Paying for first and getting bumped to coach is total BS in my opinion. A great way to lose loyal customers.
The problem is just like the inconvenience we face with the country the way it is! Catering to the less than 10% has brought us here. Either buy two seats or don’t be allowed! Why move the people that follow the rules to benefit the people that will always push it!
Service animals is the biggest scam perpetrated on the public. These peoples should be made to pay extra.. Do you want to do a cross country trip with a dog under your feet?
Let’s not pretend that Delta actually cares about passengers these days.
To “Kuck Famala. Just because someone is a larger person doesn’t make them a bad person. I won’t use your terminology but I will say that your ignorance is on full display. There are thousands of people who have weight issues that are no fault of their own. DNA, diabetes, thyroid disease and other causes can make weight an issue. Rude and ignorant comments about them are do kindergarten level. I agree that she should have checked her bags but she has every right to fly. She knows about her weight. At least she may be able to lose some but you on the the other hand cannot lose your ugly mouth. As a retired nurse and Army Combat Helicopter Medic I find you to be the one who should take the Greyhound bus. As far as the “elite and wealthy ” you sure are not in that group. Just make sure you lock the doors on your Fleetwood trailer.
Could the fact that she’s “plus-sized” be removed. There’s no point in body shaming, and she’s honestly not even beyond a normal American. We can disagree with what she does without being rude.
Ken,
All I can say is, being compassionate has only encouraged bad people to walk all over the Compassionate!!!!
Gary
it is complete hogwash that you don’t financially gain from the comments to articles on your site and anyone that understands the business model knows it
Once again, you wrote a story based on hearsay from someone else that wasn’t even involved in the situation, you don’t have the story of both sides of the story but you call yourself a thought leader?
Yes, there are people that will continue to call you out for what you wrote. Some comment about grammar.
I focus on your incessant focus on anecdotal events in an industry that serves over a billion customers per year and your inability or unwillingness to present the facts that drive decisions when it is clear that you either know them or you aren’t really a thought leader.
but I gave you a bunch of page clicks for this story which proves that I do want you to succeed – I just want you to do better. I don’t “steer clear” of you because I don’t dislike you.
I just know you can do better because you have. Today is just not reflective of the quality of work you do – a small percentage of the time.
I identify as an emotional support rhinoceros. Give me 6 seats for the price of one.
Flight is an hour, 240 miles, Northern MI summer vacation area to Detroit. Lady obviously has medical needs and the baggage type indicates at least one medical device carrier. Dog is unknown, so any one’s guess as to service dog veracity is just that: A guess.
The assumption is that the flight attendant F’d up by booting paying customers out of their seats to accommodate this person, when a better solution seemed possible. But we dont know any details, of anything. Besides a picture and anecdotal story from an unknown source.
I gotta wonder at the reason for posting this as a legitimate story. What’s the point? Fat shaming? Sick of dogs on planes? It may help to have some, any, factual information when writing these stories. Because without evidence, these are just that: stories. And its becoming obvious there’s an agenda behind this blog/thingy.
Thank you Delta. No consequences means she’ll do it again, and likely more frequently.
@Brett Larsen, your comment indicates you don’t have much knowledge of the service dog community. While attending the training with my daughter for her service dog, there were many mix breed dogs, all doodle mix, that were there with their new clients. Doodle mixes are incredible medial alert service dogs. This is the organization that provided my daughter’s service dog https://www.4pawsforability.org/ Interesting they have a doodle on their home page. It is always best to be educated on a topic where you comment.
I hate to get political, but this nonsense is why Democrats lose elections. And I’m a registered Democrat. Airlines don’t have the balls to stand up to people who are clearly bending the rules, and flight attendants pretend they don’t see fat people who clearly can’t fit in their seat, and let other pax fend for themselves and deal with the discomfort instead. You can’t call anyone fat anymore. If you are too fat to fit in the seat and there aren’t two seats, get deplaned.
Maybe she paid for the dog to travel? But that’s not a service animal
As for luggage seems like alot, should have checked the roller
The real issue is she was flying a CRJ 9.
4 carry-ons are a no-go to me. 2 or 3 ought to have been ‘gate checked. Playing Russian roulette is bleedin’ ridiculous. I’m sorry, I feel the flight attendant was in error playing seat shuffle with paying customers. Especially, sending a. 1st class paying customer back to the economy prime. This whole deal was a game of errors.
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4 carry-ons are a no-go to me. 2 or 3 ought to have been ‘gate checked. Playing Russian roulette is bleedin’ ridiculous. I’m sorry, I feel the flight attendant was in error playing seat shuffle with paying customers. Especially, sending a. 1st class paying customer back to the economy prime. This whole deal was a game of errors.Your comment is awaiting moderation.
4 carry-ons are a no-go to me. 2 or 3 ought to have been ‘gate checked. Playing Russian roulette is bleedin’ ridiculous. I’m sorry, I feel the flight attendant was in error playing seat shuffle with paying customers. Especially, sending a. 1st class paying customer back to the economy prime. This whole deal was a game of errors.
I’m really surprised by all your assumptions in this article. I certainly would not believe you were a “specialist” or a journalist. You have not provided even one known fact in this situation. You obviously are writing with much judgement and dare I say anger. You don’t know what her disability was. They may have allowed her so many carry ons because she would have been unable to retrieve her luggage without assistance so to save time they allowed her to bring them with her. Or maybe there was life saving equipment in them. IMy assumptions are as valid as yours. It was a situation between her and the airline. I’m really disappointed to see another “journalist” and/or specialist in this field reporting without any facts. You certainly seem like you are tightly wound. Maybe it’s time you take one of those seats and have a little vacation so you can calm yourself and reevaluate what you should be doing with your life.
I don’t believe a word of it.
@Garyst16 seems like pretty much any dog can join the service dog community: Color me skeptical I would love to see whether these dogs can actually fulfill their missions:
4 Paws service dogs can be trained in high and low blood sugar detection for children with diabetes, by responding to the smell of the chemical body changes that occur as blood sugar levels increase or drop. Uniquely trained to the scent of the individual they are placed with, service dogs can detect and alert to the changes, oftentimes long before adverse medical reactions occur.
Whether or not she is plus size is irrelevant. Whether or not the dog is a support animal is irrelevant. She bought one seat, the other first class passengers each bought one first class seat. Giving her two first class seats while denying another first class customer their paid first class seat is outrageous.
You know what’s sad? Is that nobody was put out that bad in this situation, instead of showing some sort of class and being decent human beings, all you posters show just how disrespectful and uncaring that you are. Everyone made the flight and got to the next destination early. I am sure the downgraded seat got a discount. Such disgusting despicable people. Including the supposed journalist who wrote this.
There should be serious financial repercussions to Delta for this. The passenger forced to downgrade should have had full fare for the seat awarded and maybe even double that. Once it starts costing Delta real money, they will start applying rules like the person with too much baggage having to buy two seats on a later flight if that person doesn’t fit in the space bought.
In Michigan, claiming your animal is a service animal or service animal in training when it’s not is a misdemeanor punishable by a fine of up to $500, up to 30 days of community service, and/or 90 days in jail.
This seems implausible. I have a service dog. He’s registered with the USDA and I have to get pre-approval from the airline before every flight and provide his USDA number. Regarding the commenter who says I should be tossed off if any passengers are allergic, it’s a tough dance when two people have conflicting medical issues. I wash my dog right before every trip. I work with people who are allergic. They’ve had no issues because we’re clean and I put a tee shirt on him to make him even cleaner.
How is this “clearly not” a service dog? People have invisible disabilities that benefit from the aid of a service dog. Why are you shaming a disabled person and posting photos of them on the internet because someone is upset about being downgraded from first class?! Articles like this are deplorable.
@ Gina. USDA does NOT register Service Dogs. If you are a breeder transporting pets then yes, you need to register with the USDA, otherwise it’s just one step further along the fake service dog scam.
All the childless cat people are out in force in the comment section I see. Look, you and your fake “service” animal should only be allowed to fly on Spirit. Either that or get back in Greyhound where you belong.
Quadruple airfares. I don’t care….I can afford it. Time to start pricing these people out of air travel again. We didn’t have this nonsense in the 80′ and 90’s.
Ideas in another comment lead to another more equitable solution. Have the woman with too much baggage and a dog take the seat in comfort plus with an extra seat beside her. This allows for her to travel with her dog that needs extra room. When the person in the extra seat shows up, reseat them in first. No hard feelings from people getting moved and the only person getting downgraded gets an extra seat in compensation.
Unless you’re blind you don’t get a dog. Simple fix. This country has turned into an idiocracy. I’m bringing a horse with me next time I fly!
Fact people – there is no “official” service animal registry, only online scams that will sell you a sweater for your ESA and a fancy certificate. There is a large legal distinction between ESAs and service animals.
Bring my emotional support skunk that gets nervous when close to people and sprays.
What BS, only trained dogs, real ones, not all this fake crap.
I was on a flight where a small dog was scared so much it was puking and peeing, service dog ya right.
Couple of points to hit as a Disability rights advocate:
– There is no indication anywhere that this dog is not a service animal. Service animals do not have to wear a vest especially if that may impede their job, endanger them, or cause discomfort.
– There is no registration of service dogs. This is for the benefit of the business owner. If a dog is not acting like a service animal, ie barking, jumping, growling, eating food off the ground, defecating. It does not matter how disabled the individual is, that is no longer considered a service animal.
– This picture was taken at the gate, so the large suitcase either may be being checked, and she was able to take it through the TSA because it contains supplies for her service animal, or it may be a medical device/mobility aid that will be placed in a special spot. Similarly, many airlines allow you to bring an extra bag with supplies for your service animal, which is possibly what the other bag is, you have to usually call in advance to get that cleared. Though again, we are taking this on the basis of this clearly biased reporter, and she may have checked all of the bags, or she is flying with someone else and those 2 bags are someone else’s.
– If there is not enough seat for her service dog to fit, it is a requirement of the airline to make accommodations.
– It sucks to get downgraded and reassigned, but people get kicked from flights for less, such as overbooking. Plus those reassigned passengers would be able to get reimbursement for losses.
– Golden Retrievers and Poodles are some of the most common service animals so I don’t see any reason a doodle couldn’t be. Hell, some of the best alert dogs I’ve met have been Pomeranians, which would surprise many people.
This article right here is why we will never know if we are alone or not in the universe.
Higher intelligent beings will monitor us and see how idiotic we are across many fronts and come to the conclusion that making contact with us will only make them dumber. The end result is they will steer away from us or blast our planet from existence from far away.
Maybe the dog is trained to schlep all those carry on bags she needs
I have absolutely zero respect for the author of this posts. You are full of assumptions. While I agree that the airline did a bad job managing passengers and should have made her check 2 of her items, I do not agree about your assumptions about her service animals. She is IN THE RIGHT to travel with her animal. And no absolutely she does not owe you or any of your opinionated a list fan base “proof” of her disability. And Service Animals ARE NOT PETS. The Americans with Disabilities Act does not require registration with any entity and there are extremely limited questions that can be lawfully asked. And this is for GOOD reason…. To require every person with a service animal to register would place a multitude of undue burdens onto the disabled. If you see a “registered” service animal, know that literally anyone can go online to do this and get a legal but meaningless card saying the animal is registered with their organization. Unfortunately there are a million of these shady businesses online offering a certificate with zero proof, just a money making scheme to accommodate the feelings non-disabled people like those in this comment section.
No, I do not have a service animal, however I am disabled although you might not know at first. I also have a child with an invisible disability. I will always advocate for disability rights. You should be ashamed of your uneducated and ill-informed attempt at an article.
Raylan was 100 % correct in the answer that was given.
PERIOD.
The picture explains it all.2 components tell me they did this to try and avoid a PR nightmare. That failed miserably
I am stunned at the level of nastiness and ignorance in many of these remarks. Nobody, including Gary, has the complete story here but so many are rushing to post their uninformed thoughts. First, you cannot say with any degree of certainty whether this dog is a service dog or not. Almost every breed can be trained as a service dog. Second, you cannot know whether in fact the passenger did show the gate agent the paperwork that confirmed the dog’s status. Third, I’m unsure why she didn’t fit in the seat. She is overweight but no more so than many of the passengers, often business people, who I see in airports. She may have needed a seat belt extender but she looks as though she should fit in the seat. Which raises the question as to whether she had some sort of medical device attached which caused the problem or needed to be near a medical device in one of those bags. Again, nobody here knows. I know I would not appreciate my first class seat being unavailable when I boarded but this is a short flight and even the front of the plane is not that spacious on these regional jets. She had a first class seat as well. Finally, it is disgusting that people can use such derogatory language, such as “ho” on this site. It happens over and over again from the same set of posters but apparently Gary believes these types of comments are just fine. They are not.