Jay K

Color me surprised that you are allowed to:

1) Walk your dog onto the airplane on a leash.

2) Sit bulkhead row 6 and allow the dog to remain "free" in the aisle or amongst various seatmate's legroom along the entire row.

3) Give it free reign to defecate and urinate at will multiple times on the floor.

4) Not have a carrier.

Flight attendants remained very professional in handling the incidents, scrubbing and air freshening (with the lavatory sprayers), but I still find this situation odd.

So, this is allowed? Thank goodness I didn't book our seats in 6, but the smell in F was intermittently horrific. I also don't understand why the FA had to wipe down the overhead bin handles and cover at one point, but I don't think I want to know.

CDKing

Likely an emotional support animal. No cage or training needed

Doc Savage

There oughta be a law.

It really is time for regulatory bodies to do something about this nonsense.

mikexner

I'm so glad someone else started this as I've been massively annoyed by similar things lately. I just wrote customer care, but they haven't responded to my last two notes which is disappointing.

I looked into training service dogs at one point. For them to graduate training, they can't bark, cry, whine (over generalizing).

I can't believe "comfort" animals are protected on a plane. Am I wrong?

I thought Alaska's policy was that on board pets MUST remain in carriers the entire flight. Yep. Just looked at policies on website.

On my flight yesterday the second we took off, the lady across the aisle in First put her dog ON THE MEAL TRAY! Where the dog ate food, right off the tray with his or her tongue. He or she sat on it with its behind that it poops from.

When done, tray just put away.

Should I start traveling with wipees? I've never seen those sanitized and I'm a bit grossed out.

Don't get me wrong. I have a dog and I love her. But I don't let her lick food off of or sit on my dining room table.

mikexner

Clarification -- not the tray brought by the FA, but on the tray table we take out of arm wrests.

JumboJet

I blame the parents @:-)

Tizzette

There isn't even a fee for bringing on a service animal, which is fine for a physically handicapped person's guide dog, but it is getting out of hand as more people learn they can fly with "emotional support" pets without any official certification. People are using it to transport dogs for free, not only to save money but because it is way more comfortable for the pet. The service pet doesn't have be in a cage in the hold or under the seat per the usual rules. It is abuse of an ADA law with unintended consequences.

People need to pay for these uncertified emotional support animals the same as airlines have always done for pets. If it is too big to go under the seat, then buy it a ticket. Even if the animal doesn't sit in the seat, it has the floor space to lie down, instead of crowding somebody else's foot space.

macfadsj

I recently flew LAX ANC on the nonstop. Sat in 1AC. Each member of the couple in 1DF had their own identical lap dog. Everyone behaved themselves for the entire flight.

flytoeat

Please send a complaint to Customer Care. That's outrageous.

dave1013

Agree with flytoeat. In addition to that, someone should develop a template email or letter that can be used and sent in by the masses to somehow get this nonsense changes. I would but I don't know all the legal and regulatory nuances. What the OP described is grossly unacceptable. Ditto for some of the other posts. Thank you for listening.

seekinghelp

I'm not going to defend dogs running wild on planes, but the $100 each way for a pet under your Seat is too high. It's not taking anyone's space, it's taking your space in the seat in front of you.

Alaska needs to-

1. ENFORCE the existing rules- including no roaming pets.
2. Reduce the fee, so that people don't spend $150 going to a therepist just to get bogus paperwork and then feel justified doing whatever they want.
3. Crack down on people who don't have legitimate emotional support animals.
4. Force people to keep animals in carrier.

Doc Savage

There should be a $5000 fine for bringing a bogus "emotional support animal" on board, and some way of enforcing it.

Leave the damn dog at home where it is happy and comfortable.

ANC

Tough thing for airlines to police. Theyre darned if they do darned if they dont. They dont want to get in trouble for denying a legitimate person from bringing on a service dog or being scrutinized as a handicapped person hater but on the other hand dont want to make everybody else mad either. Its not just airlines, its now happening everywhere. Whats out of control is the term "emotional support" animals. But if you want an emotional support animal on the plane you should still pay a fee. The reason being is whats next? An emotional support person? They get to fly for free with the so called distressed person because they are there for moral support? But the main moral of the OPs topic proves that I couldnt probably last very long as an FA. I wouldnt be cleaning up anything from this dog. Id hand the passenger some towels and a bottle of cleaner and tell them to ring the call button after they have it cleaned up so I can bring a trash bag

Kieron

The airlines are in a no-win situation here; a DOT ruling from 2003 (PDF, starts near the end of the first page) gives passengers almost carte blanche if they have documentation that they need a support animal... and getting that documentation is easy and cheap if you're so inclined. There's nothing stopping anyone that wants to lie about it.

Could be worse, though:

Putzy

That's pretty tame compared with the stories of parents changing their poop machines diapers on the tray tables.

As for sanitizing them, the only way to guaranty its clean is to do it yourself. Alaska's cleaning program includes sanitizing the tray tables with Byotrol if the the aircraft is on the ground for over an hour and as part of the nightly cleaning process.