A United Airlines passenger flying from San Diego to Denver boarded their flight to discover a large dog in their seat. Usually it’s a passenger who just sits down where they don’t belong, hoping to squat on the seat. Here it’s a dog.
The animal was too large to fit underneath the seat in front of its owner. It was too large to fit on the floor. So the dog’s owner just had it sit beside them, notwithstanding the seat was assigned to someone else. And the dog bumped the passenger out of the seat.
A United staff member came onboard and spoke to the passenger but the dog remained. Finally, somehow they located another seat for me. The dog stayed on my seat for the whole flight. Totally absurd that an oversized dog can displace a paying passenger from their seat.
The dog was registered as a ‘service animal.’ While the rules for what’s acceptable have been tightened, all that’s required is for a passenger to ‘self-certify’ that their dog qualifies by filling out some paperwork.
Even then, the passenger isn’t entitled to an extra seat for free, let alone someone else’s seat. But that’s what they got here. There was one seat left on the plane, and the other passenger got bumped into it. So much for United’s service animal policy.
Your dog should sit in the floor space in front of your seat. They can’t be in the aisle or the floor space of the travelers next to you.
The passenger who lost their seat was none too amused: “[I]t is nasty to have a dog outside of a carrier sitting on passengers’ seats with his butt on the armrests. The gate agents carefully check the size my carry-on, but apparently they don’t monitor the size of people’s “service” dogs!”
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Here’s a Delta passenger who was just booted from first class for a dog. And in late summer I wrote about a first class passenger booted to accommodate a plus-sized woman with an emotional support dog and 4 carry-ons.
And here’s a dog recently eating at a table in the new Delta One lounge at New York JFK before flying business class. It was hardly the only dog making themselves at home in a Delta lounge.
Last month I was actually on a Delta flight that the pilot turned around due to an unauthorized dog on board, they offloaded the passenger – and then let her and the dog back on. This led to a couple hours’ delay due to a shift change for refueling. The woman spent the flight petting the dog in her lap (hint: it wasn’t really a service animal). Here are 5 easy ways to instantly spot fake service animals.
Gary
People with special needs have rights too. The emotional support animal scams have ended. Now you claim to see “fake” service animals everywhere you look. You have zero knowledge of what the owners special needs are and even less knowledge of what services the dog is trained to provide. Service dogs are allowed to be in laps. Your biases on this point devolve into bigotry. Somehow you feel entitled to suites in hotels but look down on those who by law are entitled to the support of a service animal. Stop. It’s shameful.
Why should someone’s “rights” to have a service animal infringe on the “rights” of someone to sit in the seat they purchased? Flying is a privilege. Either get a smaller “service” dog or drive to the next destination. It’s like the covidiots who demanded everyone wear masks on the plane. If they were so worried about catching covid, they shouldn’t have been flying.
Maybe that passenger should have been required to purchase two seats, one for the passenger and one for the dog. Other passengers shouldn’t be inconvenienced. The other passenger paid for their seat and not to share it with a dog.
As far as Service Animals go, put the doggone things on the flight deck. There’s plenty of room up there and with a good autopilot well . . .
If “service animals” are going to be permitted to fly outside of a carrier, they should be relegated to the back of the plane, where there would be least interaction with many passengers who are not comfortable to be next or near an animal outside its carrier. I believe it is an unwarranted and unnecessary intrusion for a passenger to have to sit next to an animal outside its carrier. If there are any statisticians reading this perhaps an analysis regarding the increased numbers of service dogs now aboard aircraft since the emotional animal rules were tightened could be made. Airlines need to give more attention to all passenger’s care and comfort.
It’s time for Amazon, Chewy and other vendors to stop selling service dog harnesses that enable people to scam the system. It’s despicable that people get away with this on the airlines.
Gary,
An article that is devoted to defining and differentiating (a) service animals, (b) “emotional support” animals, and (c) pets, and how each is addressed (1) by federal law and (2) by airline official policy would be extremely informative. Seriously. For example, do the Feds view seeing eye dogs differently from dogs trained to detect seizures from dogs that help one relax enough to fly? What, if any, requirement/training/documentation is needed for each type of dog?
Thanks!
The way to solve the problem is to allow a charge for bringing a service dog or pet on board. Of I need more leg room, I have to pay for premium economy.
People who need hearing aids don’t automatically get them for free. If you want a handicapped parking placard, you have to see a doctor or at least a nurse practitioner.
I guess it’s a day that ends in “y”, because Gary’s posted yet another ‘dog on an airplane’ story, and inevitably the village idiots are already chanting to ‘burn the witch!!’ like usual. Some folks simply hate dogs. It’s sad. You people with no empathy for animals and your fellow man alike… we should thank you in advance for the incoming totally preventable ‘mass deportations’ genocide. We truly learn nothing from history or each other. Maybe we deserve to suffer. Shame on us.
If you get moved from your assigned seat to a less desirable seat to accomodate a dog or another passenger, or if an oversize passenger spills over into your seat, you should be refunded triple the cost of your ticket. It ought to be a law! Only by losing money on refunds will airlines be motivated to enforce their own rules and make oversize passengers and people who bring large service dogs pay for a second seat. (I would be thrilled to be able to buy a seat for my little dog, for whom I function as her emotional support service animal. It is a hardship on my dog to be left at home ).
Time to stop indulging these adult toddlers that can’t stand to be away from Fido or Tabby. Just stay home if you can’t function as an adult.
There are many legitimate service animals that it is not readily apparent what service that is performed. The airline can ask what service but yes has to take a credible verbal assurance.
The laws are not a complete free for all as written. Airlines as a whole seem to do a very poor job of educating their employees as to the nuances. It is just that for one, too often a CRO (complaint resolution official) is not called – and that’s a course/training thats DOT regulated and an airline must have someone on duty (or depending on carrier available by phone in small locations) for every departure. Two, where are scared of getting a “disability” complaint because when the DOT gets those and sends to the airline, they must have a response within 10 days and whether agent did right or wrong it’s usually an immediate call into the office. Unfortunately for locations and airlines that outsource agents to third party contractors, the easiest “corrective action” is to remove the agent from the contract which frequently means termination especially if there aren’t other contracts to work (the airline can’t get involved in discipline for fear of coemployment confusion – basically the recourse airline has is “Bob is off my contract”). All that said, agents and supervisors are often not forceful enough in correctly applying the rules regarding service animals. Everyone on the plane has rights. I was never shy of informing someone exactly under DOT Part 382, the ACAA, and the contract of carriage why their animal had to fit on the floor and not displace someone else or they needed to pay for the next seat to use its floor space. That’s legal.
If someone refuses to sit next to a legally located and positioned service animal, like for reasons of allergy, the person who refuses the seat gets moved even if to another flight if they can’t be okay with any other seat on the plane (within class of service). That is an animal that is occupying the space paid by the owner and sitting in it properly. I have had people who stood their ground saying dog needs to get bumped and no way I can be in same plane. For one if allergies are that bad to not even be 10 rows away then I may need medical authorization for you to fly because can’t guarantee there isn’t pet dander already on the plane. I’ve always found the “we aren’t leaving until this is resolved” as a last ditch effort usually gets plenty of volunteers to move around.
Now the passenger complaint I got from someone claiming to have gotten ringworm from a service animal next to them…. Not sure what exactly that person was up to.
This is only a United States problem. Are the policies on TATL or Pacific travel the same on US carriers? Or even domestically say EWR-HNL? Can that dog occupy that seat for 11 hours?
If I paid for my seat I should have the right to occupy it.
Move the person with the service animal unless they paid for two seats.
A disability lawyer chimed in that Reddit thread:
“As a disability lawyer, you need to start making mass complaints to the airline. They know that an SD has to be either: in the floor space and or under the seat in front of its handler, or the handler has to purchase a second seat. If the dog encroaches on another passenger’s foot space (or seat), the handler has to buy a second seat, and the dog can be IN the FOOT space of the their seat, and the 2nd seat. A non-lap dog can NOT be in the seat for takeoff & landing.
If the dog can not fit in the space the passenger has purchased, FAs may, with discretion, attempt to accommodate the handler & service dog in bulkhead seats- where the dog may still only be in the foot space of the seat or seats purchased by the passenger.
If the handler did not purchase 2 seats (if required) the FA may move the handler and dog – not the seated passenger (unless moving them to bulkhead seating which is discretionary for use by FAs for disability needs – such as those in lag casts which can not bend, Service dogs, or baby bassinets).
If there are not two seats (foot space) available for the dog and handler to be moved to, the handler can either de-plane with the dog and take the next available flight where they can purchase 2 seats as necessitated, or they may choose to travel with out the dog.”
I’d appreciate a link to some law text or other that the airline crew is required to relocate the dog owner, not the other passenger. Except when the other passenger is seated in a bulkhead seat.
I found the rule text from the DOT – part 382.77.
The passenger in this story should file a DOT complaint against the airline. The service animal owner should be moved, not the passenger whose space was taken.
—
https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-14/chapter-II/subchapter-D/part-382
(a) You must permit a service animal to accompany a passenger with a disability on the passenger’s lap or in the passenger’s foot space, unless this location and placement would:
(1) Be inconsistent with safety requirements set by the FAA or the foreign carrier’s government; or
(2) Encroach into another passenger’s space.
(b) Before refusing to transport a large service animal that cannot be accommodated on the passenger’s lap or in the passenger’s foot space without encroaching into another passenger’s space, you must offer the passenger the opportunity to move with the animal to another seat location within the same class of service, if available on the aircraft, where the animal can be accommodated. You are not required to reseat other passengers to accommodate a service animal except as required for designated priority seats in Subpart F.
(c) If there are no alternatives available to enable the passenger to travel with the service animal in the cabin of the scheduled flight, you must offer the passenger the opportunity to transport the service animal in the cargo hold free of charge or travel on a later flight to the extent there is space available on a later flight and the transport is consistent with the safety requirements set by the FAA or a foreign carrier’s government.
The argument is not whether or not it’s a true service animal. It’s that a person lost their PAID seat. That should never happen. Move the dude with too big of a dog
I have a 60lb poodle full medical alert service dog who flys with me. She is considered a large dog. I always try to fly on less busy days of the week and avoid holidays. My dog carries essential medication for me in her vest and lays at my feet usually in the bulkhead area of the plane. I have seen countless PETS who are not service trained, which by the way costs thousands of dollars on planes claiming to be service dogs taking up space and taking up one the number of service animals allowed on each flight. I have never encountered an issue with my service dog encroaching on anyone’s space but would myself volunteer to move if a passenger were uncomfortable with my service dog being in close proximity. It is called manners!
michael lissack is an idiot. I hope everytime he flies, a great dane is under his feet. Not his great dane, mind you, but some self centered ahole passanger’s great dane. This entitledf crap must end somewhere.
1990 is a bigger idiot.
I guess from reading the comments above most people don’t know that you must present a letter from a doctor stating that you have a medical condition that requires the need for a service dog. The letter is very specific and must be presented at check in. Normally the person is given a tag for their dog. They don’t just ho to the gate and board.
I used to be a fearless flyer during the Golden Age of Air Travel. Now, I am nervous flyer because of all these dogs. Which of the dogs I see wandering the airport and sometimes relieving themselves on a concourse walkway (I have seen this) will end up at my gate and on my aircraft? As a simple passenger with a boarding pass and assigned seat on AA, DL, or UA, will a dog be in my cabin or in on my seat? I mentally and emotionally am ill-prepared to do battle with the all-powerful DOGS ARE BETTER THAN PEOPLE political lobby and entitlement class. I hope to find my assigned seat early, and I squat in my seat with all of the willpower and techniques of an illegal squatter. I have had the misfortune of losing to an illegal squatter on an eight-hour flight, and I have been compelled to listen to sad stories on twelve hour flights to whch luckily I have not given in. and I have been forced to put arms and legs at the perimeter of my seating space to prevent aggressive encroachment by neighboring passengers and sometimes cats or dogs.
Ok, I have stated my disgust at dogs in the airport and on aircraft.. Now cue the DOGS ARE BETTER THAN PEOPLE comments.
Question: If one finds oneself in a similar situation, before being forced to move, do they have a legal right to actually see proof that the passenger actually bought a second ticket next to them for the animal, as opposed to just being “told” that is the case? Seems that this knowledge would help in this scenario. Thanks.
Gary, do you realise that you’re more “plus-size” than the woman with four carryons in the photo you referenced?
@Jon – not relevant, also false
This has been such a hot topic, and it’s really two, so here you go.
“Service animai” had a meaning but never a formal certificating procedure nor a licensing program. Don’t get me wrong – I’m not a fan of government over-reach but see point two below. Then someone came up with ESA which like an SA only much more annoying. Again, don’t get me wrong, my sweatshirt today says “Pet all dogs” because I love dogs, but not enough to torture them on an air flight nor to annoy my fellow pax. I don’t even fly with my favorite pillow anymore because now it counts as oversize carryon. SOLUTION: have the appropriate governments provide a mechanism for certificating real SAs, whether regular (think “seeing-eye dogs”), emotional (think “fluffy poodles that feel good to pet”) and preventing the next made-up term (“LGBTQ+ Supportive Animal” — and for the pre-empt, I am not a wing nut, either right or left wing, or elevator, aileron, rudder or flap nut. Everyone deserves to live their lives so long as they don’t impinge or hurt others.)
The secondary aspect of the lack of certification (that includes a “certificate” issued by a valid authority to do so, and no amazon.com is not that) is that the carriers (air, cruise, etc.) all try to ensure they abide by laws like the ADA so they a)don’t ask about disabilities, b)don’t ask about the SA/ESA,whatever, and c)don’t want to “inconvenience” their handlers so they inconvenience everyone else. This needs to stop, and if there WERE real certificates it would be easier for the carriers to say “Sorry, your furry friend here has no certificate. Get out of this seat as per DOT rules [quoted above] or [new laws].”
Stupid Analogy Time:
Imagine you go to your bank and want to withdraw some money for this week’s groceries, etc., but the bank says “Sorry, there was another gentleman here first and he had a support animal and NEEDED the money so we gave it to him. You’ll have to wait until the next deposit. Also you get 0% on the free loan, and he paid 0% on the free loan to him, but the ADA and stuff.”
Absurd.
1. Government intervention is required when corporate fear of the law prevents action. Whenever a government creates a legal obligation it should create a fairness clause. For example if the government says “YOU MUST GET LIABILITY INSURANCE” it should also regulate the price of that insurance. If I’m not required to buy it, the market will determine the rate.
2. Carriers should not accept animals without a paid seat. People who hold a certificate for said animal can apply for a 100% refund (less $5.60 TSA fee and airport taxes). This prepay-and-get-refund works in many industries to prevent this kind of behavior.
The ADA has been abused in so many ways, and it ends up hurting people with disabilities. The service animal thing is beyond a joke. “Hi, we’re a restaurant, and you can’t bring your pet here because health codes, but Karen over there can bring her two support animals.”
See #1 and #2 for solutions.
Yes, Mr.1990, everything is now a “genocide”, including the future deportations under Trump.
Obama deported millions of illegal immigrants in his term? Was that, too, a genocide?
So much nonsense.
Ban animals on planes, or allow gorillas, pigs, and dolphins, all of which are smarter than dogs and cats and could be trained as service animals.
I’m thinking a $500 travel credit for having to move.
“The emotional support animal scams have ended.” LOL
They are in full swing. There are real rules, regulations, and laws for what is allowed and what is not. This article is all about what is not. I’d love to travel with my docile golden retriever, and I’m a service disabled veteran. But he’s too big, I’m not a liar about my needs, and airlines aren’t Petco stores. Pay a ton and follow the rules or drive.
@ TerryVA. Yes the the abuse of the Service Animal is in full swing. I am also a Service Connected Disabled Veteran and I am on my second Golden Retriever and she is VERY aware and helpful of my disability.
I agree with all your points and would like to add THANK YOU for your service and your honesty.
Two more comments on this . . . Ehud Gavron, Gary, Mike s and a few of the others understand that one can love a pet but regardless of how much you love your pet, it will never be a human. Stop trying to pretend it is.
To many of the others, STOP pretending that your pet is a human. Mine isn’t and neither is yours.
@ Gary. Jon needs to keep up. Congratulations. As one who has to monitor caloric intake and output . . . it ain’t easy, especially when our society seems to now function around food events.
People are saying so many unreal things here. If the service dog were real, and the person disabled, you aren’t going to be relegating them to the “back row”. Disabled people can’t be discriminated against because of a medical device the law protects: their service dog or service animal.
That being said, under zero circumstances does a service animal get to take another person’s seat.
As someone who relied in a service dog for 14 years due to an accident (now after many surgeries, I can walk again), I highly doubt the choke collar wearing dog is a service animal.
Adding to my comment, I love the “charge for service dogs”. People, legitimate service dogs are like a wheel chair or oxygen tank The are medically necessary and protected under the law. You can’t charge people for their disability.
Wake up.
Oh, Norma. You are sooooo wrong. It is actually illegal to ask for any certifications or documents at all, as the dogs can legally be trained at home or by the disabled person.
It’s time many here read the laws.
https://www.ada.gov/resources/service-animals-2010-requirements/