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.
The comments are amazing; first assuming the woman was disabled or folks were racists in their response. First, typically services dogs are marked Service and if she did not do the paperwork, she should not have been allowed to board. Laziness by the agents. Also, if not a service dog, then their should be a carrier and is 1 carry one. The nonsense about medical equipment is just that; someone with that many additional items, isn’t every traveling alone or is assisted by airlines so if that is not happening, they are not in that disposition. Common sense or courteously doesn’t prevail and selecting 1C happens when they are no other seats so to assume it was a free upgrade is conjecture.