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.
Never ceases to amaze me how the internet trolls will jump on a subject/subjects and give an opinion! Scroll, read and keep it moving!! No need to put your 10 cents in on every article that you see! Some of these comments are just downright shameful!! No one but a few seem to possess empathy for their fellow human these days! It’s really sad! If you cannot say something nice or helpful, keep it moving!! There’s enough negativity in this world already!!
It’s a freaking CRJ9. People are so damn stupid to pay a premium to fly on that crap junk bucket in first class.
Behavior like these entitled posters is exactly why I left the airline industry. After 17 years of flying I got very tired of being called every name in the book. Grow up people.
I bet she was only called a ‘ho’ because she is a black woman.
As a black man I am reminded everyday in these comment sections just how the ‘white’ wing really feels about people like me.
It is obvious why she was accommodated.
How do you know it wasn’t a service dog? Service dogs come in all shapes and sizes and provide a wide range of tasks.
Talk about entitlement.
That is completely unacceptable If I’m paying a premium I should not be booted, because someone is fat and mentally ill. Greyhound exists for a reason, USE IT!
Some of these comments represent the worst of humanity. Can you imagine someone posting a photo of you, sharing it to thousands of people and pointing out your physical flaws? Why is this photo on here? Dang.
My daughter has a medical service dog she travels with often. The TSA contacted the vet and the dog trainer to verify it was actual 20K service dog
Service dogs are supposed to be for people that are possibly blind, or similar disability.. the rest of those needing animals for service are “emotional support” animals, dogs or whatever..this was an obvious emotional support dog, and I have no problem with this except when it puts others at a discomfort..and to have a first class passenger being told his seat has been stolen by someone else?? I would have so irate, the cops would have had to be called the in.. absolutely totally wrong what happened..totally wrong.. the woman should not have had more than 1 carry on and one personal, her dog either pays for a ticket(seat) or is in baggage, simple.. the stew really messed this up, probably a friend or something of the sort, but still wrong..that’s why I also.never pay for 1st class, even though airlines NEED this financial asset, the stews can ruin everything, at the last minute for no reason, and nothing is done to correct her stupid mistakes.
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Andy, I agree that it probably is a service dog and that the service it provides is likely licking up peanut butter.
Who cares if it’s a legit service dog? Why is another passenger being inconvenienced so she can take two seats that she didn’t pay for? Downgrade her.
Every pet serves an emotional support role. The question should be if she had a diagnosed disability or not. The journalist does not say one way or another.
The airline can be faulted for not enforcing their carry on regulations.
In my opinion there should be a federal law prohibiting the act of changing someone’s paid seat without consent.
Hmmm.. 1C sounds like they were upgraded themselves and then it back in their normal seat.. no one “picks” the first row.
But still I feel both sides. Sometimes weight is a complete health crises and unstoppable. But also I live my Delta Diamond 1MM upgrades. I’d be aggravated too but if digging down it’s a health thing, they can have it. Upgrades occur every week.
If I’m being displaced due to these circumstances, I’m demanding a refund plus a free flight on the same route .
Otherwise, I ain’t budging..
This PC crap is over the top.
Sick of it.
This “article” is incredibly presumptuous and ableist. I can understand that bystanders might be unaware of the ins and outs of being disabled, but to write something up based on their perceptions, as if those perceptions are verified fact is both lazy and inappropriate.
It’s a service dog if it’s been trained to accomplish specific tasks for the disabled person, and no one can know whether that training has been done by looking at a dog (who I will mention, in this photo seems to be perfectly calm, as I would expect a trained service animal to be).
Federal regulations also provide people with disabilities the ability to bring medical equipment as extra carry on luggage as long as the bags only carry that equipment and accessories. These bystanders have no idea what is in those bags, but it’s also not their job to make assumptions about it.
I’m never in favor of booting someone from the seat that they picked out and paid for, but it’s up to the flight attendants to determine how these situations are resolved, and this is what they chose to do. It’s even possible that this woman would have been fine in her seat, with her service animal sitting where it is supposed to, right in front of or under her legs, but that the flight attendant didn’t find that to be safe in this situation for whatever reason.
Please be more respectful about human beings with disabilities when you are reporting. Especially when it is solely based on hearsay.
A few things to note:
4 carry-on bags may or may not have included medical devices. The 2 carry-on limit does not include medical equipment, which is allowable in addition to 2 regular carry-ons. (Cpap being among the most common addition bags.)
Service Animals & Emotional Support Animals are very different yet indistinguishable to a passerby. The airline limits the type of animal allowed. Very little is done (by law) to verify that a Service Animal is indeed a Service Animal (& not an Emotional Support Animal). There are only 2 questions that can be asked, 2.
Allergies are a conflicting medical condition and both are valid.
The plus size mention, which some found offensive, is key. The airline can require purchasing an additional seat to accommodate for size. In a case where a person did not purchase 2 seats, a paying customer should not be inconvenienced. Bulkhead comfort seats are also a disability seating option, & upgrade the comfort pax to the now vacant 1st. If time/space doesn’t allow for this, then the pax needing additional yet unavailable seats should be moved to the next available flight.
The lack of ifactual information and abundance of assumptions is mind-blowing & irresponsible.
All of the nasty experts should read the ADA, and be happy you don’t need a service dog.
Just wow. I have diagnosed PTSD and recently moved across country with my 100% disabled veteran partner and our four emotionally supportive cats for health reasons. But they aren’t service animals, so I don’t treat them as such! I bought four plane tickets to do so — one for each cat to have its own under-seat space — hired friends to help as escorts, and paid 4 pet fees. It cost thousands. Each human had one carry on, so we had 4 seats with 7 small bags, cats and extensive medical supplies included. It took months of planning, saving, and research. It’s really angering that some people skip all this work at the expense of (not the airline) customers who made the effort to do the right thing.
Shame on Delta for enabling cheaters at others’ expense! I didn’t know I could save thousands by just ignoring the rules!
I have a service dog. She’s an Akita. Not your typical breed for a service dog. Many do abuse the system with ESAs. Especially since they’re not allowed many places anymore.
Since there is no longer a national program or testing to have a service dog, it’s an honor system. However, any establishment can ask “what service does your dog perform?”. If an answer like “they calm me cuz of anxiety” or anything to thay affect, then that is not a service dog, and you pet can be removed. It’s up to that establishment.
I must fill out a bunch of paperwork for my service dog for air travel cuz technically, she’s medical equipment, not a pet and I gotta have all ducks in a row.
Honestly wherever I go even in town. I even carry a medical bag incase I seize.
Granted we don’t know the full story, it’s just off a photo seems like assumptions. The removal of the 1st class passenger would peeve me off cuz they paid for that seat and should have accommodated them as well. It like when families guilt trip a person to move so they can sit together. Nope….
When the flight attendant determined this passenger needed more space than one first class seat, they should have stopped and looked at the full flight chart instead of playing musical chairs and relocating passengers as they boarded. It’s just silly that so many ended up shuffled from their assigned seats.
Since somebody was moved back to comfort plus, it sounds like there was at least one open seat there. A more fair outcome would have been to upgrade a comfort plus passenger to her first class seat, and give this woman the 2 seats together in comfort plus, and leave everyone else alone.
Black people expect everyone else to bend over backwards and compensate them for free and if met with refusal they will just resort to calling you a racist!!! Then they play dumb and wonder why people of EVERY other kind HATE them so much….
Sorry – is no one else confused what this person is complaining about? They didn’t have to move their seat, that guy likely got a credit from Delta (hence the reason he didn’t write this article complaining), and sat only 1 class down. Shock horror how did he survive! With extra leg room and a free drink likely. Lastly, they arrived early. This person wrote an entire post to complain about sitting in their assigned seat and having their flight land early? Because there is no way in the year of our Lord 2024 this random woman, who’s body size did not need to be mentioned in the title or at all, and her dog were any of your business. You will not be in your 90’s reflecting on life thinking about this woman. Or this supposed issue. Do your kids know you’re on the internet complaining about something that literally did not affect or delay your day. Did her 4 bags stop you from bringing yours on?
If they booted me out of first class when I paid for it I would have demanded a complementary bj from the flight attendant.
The world we live in now is so angry and worried when it’s truly not your business. Find something kinder to talk about. Really the language of some is rude and uncalled for. I have a husband has lost a leg and toes on the working foot he has a licensed and trained 80 Lb Staffordshire terrier. We have no problem flying. Delta is not my favorite airlines. But long story short. SO JUDGING. MIND YOUR OUN BUSINESS. Make our would less judgmental and please be KIND. ❤️Angry
Be kind and mind your business.
I have a trained service dog and the TSA form requires you to provide who trained the dog, your physician, where, and what it’s trained to do. It is a 1st degree felony if you make a false statement and the crew has access to all that information. Bumping people to accommodate someone is totally unacceptable and that person should have bought an extra seat like we do or don’t fly.
Simple solution: do not do business with Delta. You are a second class person if you try to purchase first class services.
The very best in DEI idiocy.
Why are we posting rude photos of the other passenger instead of the gate agent/FAs who bumped other passengers? It seems unnecessarily nasty.
Also there are some really gross comments on here about other humans which also seem unnecessarily nasty. I’m fine enforcing size rules, but there’s no need to publicly shame someone on a wide readership blog based on one angry dude’s version of the tale and a stealth photo.
According to some commenter’s, they can ‘just know’ whether it’s a service animal. Just like you ‘know’ if someone is disabled just by looking at them! Patent absurdity! The immature attitudes displayed above is evidence of humans in humanity.
Allergies are not a reason to deny service animal admittance. The law explicitly states this! I’m allergic to BS. Does that mean I can bar anyone from flying because they are full of it?
Frankly, anyone complaining of a dog on a flight should be given the opportunity to disembark and rebook their flight. I have little compassion for whiners, snowflakes and immature adults behaving like little brats.
Think about trying to evaluate a burning jet around all that mess. If the person can’t fit through a plug type Window emergency exit (plus they have a lg dog and 4 carryons that she’d probably want to gather before jumping out). This clearly would stop the flow of the other passengers escaping with their lives. As a retired flight attendant I have experienced this woman more than once. And it’s not always due to the size of the person. People can just be like that. Self serving clueless people.
Second guessing the airline staff…. attacking the passengers appearance, assuming the dog isn’t a service animal based on what you “think” a service animal looks like, all without knowing any of the underlying facts. It’s says way more about the entitled know it all poster/ Karen
Wow!! A lot of people sure are with out any compassion. I’m not talking about someone losing their seat they paid for, that’s wrong in its self, and yes I definitely would be a little bit upset with the airline. That being said, but dragging someone through the mud is absolutely unnecessary!! Who on this plane knows what this woman’s medical history is?? It seems that she was just trying to do what she was told by the airline. Be kind, you may be in this situation one day.
Commercial flights, like any public situation requiring humans to overlap their personal space, require a modicum of social acumen.
If you’re illiterate in the in the art of common customs and courtesies, you have no business being in such an environment. There’s a reason why certain behaviors in public will land you in jail. That is to remove foolish disruptions to everyday life and allow the world to continue making progress instead of being held up by utter nonsense.
If your can’t bring yourself comply with the already very loose rules of airline seating and basic decorum on flights, YOU CAN’T FLY. Either charter your own plane, take the bus or learn how to live in polite society like the rest of us. If you’re in need of an emotional support animal, then you also need a parental/legal guardian when in public. Simply having an ESA is enough evidence that you are not stable/strong enough to be in public unescorted.
No one said being a responsible adult is easy. Though, it does come with certain perks. Such being able to take a trip somewhere with a top tier airline and not getting booted out of your very expensive first class seat for a text-book-definition idiot!
So much misinformation about service dogs here! THEREVIS NO CENTRALIZED LICENSING OR CERTIFICATION FOR SERVICE DOGS. For every one company that legitimately trains service dogs, that are 10 that will sell you some type of paperwork saying so. The only thing that can be legally asked is whether or not they are service and what service they provide. ANY dog can be trained to be a service animal depending on the need of the owner. To think about Labradoodle can’t be one is ignorant.
The day I get downgraded to accommodate an animal is the day I switch brand loyalty. What did people do before the term ESA was coined? Anericans are big, whiny brats.
I’d never heard of ESAs until I moved to the US from Europe. I’ve never seen any animal in cabin until I flew here. I’ve still never seen one flying in Europe and Asia. Why? Just curious
Hey Dack,
We choose 1A-F all the time because my wife prefers the bulkhead. Why don’t you go park your ass in 36B?
Grow up Mel. Some of us people of color no longer carry the “whitey” chip on our shoulder. The GA should never have let this happen.
Regional Jets and Delta’s 717 seats are not comfortable to anyone over the age of 4, and most people who are over the age of 8 don’t fit.
That is the reality of the sardine cans they call commercial airliners.
Baggage fees have driven people to put their whole household into suitcases and backpacks and try to carry them on.
Combine those with animals that are not trained as service animals and you get a cramped, uncomfortable cabin with flight attendants who are poorly trained and paid in the regional jets.
They are ripe for issues like this.
Many people do not even consider, including many very selfish people who have emotional support pets or even “service dogs” that are really not, the implications for allergic people. Many people are allergic to dogs. It is not commonly known that the dogs can leave hair and dander behind that can affect allergic people for weeks after that flight. It is a balancing act, but if you are blind, it is more than understood. If you do not need the service animal every second for the flight it should be checked. What is amazing is how many people need their service animals when flying domestically, but when flying internationally, where it is very hard to travel with pets, the pet is not with them. Further, no service animal should ever be on a seat. Anyone who does so should be fined.
As a retired airline pilot (ATP), my guess is the cabin crew had to attempt to make decisions that would help avoid an escalation of an already difficult situation. They broke some rules, yes, but if it helped to make an on time departure, then the crew did the responsible thing. The stated aircraft named here would mean that the flight is operated by a Delta contractor. Though Delta requires that the contractor adhere to its policies, there are often times when these short flights, usually regional, are given a certain amount of leeway. On a common (Delta piloted flight) domestic flight or an international flight, I feel quite sure that a Delta corporate operated flight crew would have handled this situation differently. But as a regional base flight, this flight crew probably handled this situation to obtain the best outcome for this flight.
As a service dog handler (service dog for the blind), I know and follow the rules and regulations. Though it’s not the most comfortable firm we’ve sat in regular coach and fit in one seat and my dog tucks neatly under the seat even in harness. And nobody is allowed 4 carryon items. How she got through tsa with all that is beyond me. But how she was allowed to board with all that extra is beyond me.
Here in EU, a service dog have a special sign saying it’s a service dog. You need an ID for the dog written by a Vet that include photo of the dog and its chip number, the vaccines etc. All this Will be checked before the service dog can go onboard the plane. Or cat. They are doing a job for a person who need it.
Non service dog/cat:
You can bring your dog(s) and cat(s) with you as checked luggage and smaller dogs and cats in the cabin if they can fit in a bag where it can eat and have water. If you come with more animals than the passenger paid for (or larger), the passenger need to pay a fee and check in the animals.
All these Americans wanking off about first class this first class that wouldn’t have a clue what a first class seat actually looks like. I hate to break it to you folks but you’re so-called first class is nothing more than a business class seat anywhere else in the world if that. Secondly who would care what this woman does and how it’s handled it’s no one else’s business. If the person downgraded has an issue they can handle it themselves. Wanking off publicly on something so irrelevant in life makes no sense whatsoever. We got to find better things to do that b**** about this crap but it doesn’t concern us.
Shame on Delta
Time to leave the animals at home, i cant believe the amount of people that can bring their animals anywhere and not expect a reaction from others. Ive seen the same type of behavior in grocery stores and restaurants to.
I completely agree with Phx Flyer. Apart from the topic of carry on’s and questionable service dog, the appropriate thing to do was to upgrade someone in coach to first & give the lady two (or even three) seats to accommodate everyone.
Don’t forget, the passenger clearly could have elected to purchase two 1st class tickets…problem solved!
When the airline makes the seats smaller we blame the airline.
When the person is fat, has outlandish “needs” and someone complains or points it out, we put them on a pedestal and call it stunning and brave. RIP in piss
The question is, “What skills has the dog been trained to do?”
If I encountered this woman with 4 bags and a big dog, I’d rebook my flight. If I were the gate agent, I’d call security and management … let THEM figure out WTH to do with her. She obviously knows just how to game the system and is probably more than ready for a nasty confrontation. You can’t win with these kinds of self-absorbed jerks.