24left

Passenger Kicked Off American Airlines Flight After Asking Not to Be Seated Next to Large Dog

by Gary Leff on May 19, 2017

http://viewfromthewing.boardingarea....ext-large-dog/


IMHO

If this is what happened, then AA has a serious problem.
You can all feel free to disagree, but if the crew did indeed applaud when she left the aircraft, then no one has learned a thing in the past month.

The emotional support animal free-for-all is also out of control. Not only are large animals and farm animals now flying, not only are many people using fake vests and certificates, but I'm sorry, animals cannot be jumping on pax. A proper service animal does not do that.

Thankfully, other airlines I fly do not allow animals in the Business class cabins partly due to pod seating. In the main cabins, they must fit in their carriers and under the seat if they are small cats or dogs.


Mods- if there is already a thread, please merge/move. Thanks

bchandler02

This. Something has to be done about the surge in people that are abusing this. If it's a legitimate service animal (such as for the blind), that's fine - those are well trained and providing a very specific service. But "Emotional support animals" are mostly frauds.

I've often wondered what would happen where this situation came up where someone was allergic to an onboard animal. Surely the person with the allergy has some kind of rights too, or we wouldn't have all the peanut allergy warnings everywhere.

Between the airlines and the government, something has to be done to ensure that fraudulent animals do not continue to fly.

aisleorwindow

I'm SOOOOOOOOOO tired of these fake service animals.

Pets* do not belong on planes. Period.

* I don't consider legitimate service animals to be pets, in this context.

Always Flyin

Not true if they are service animals or emotional support animals.

Only true if they are "pets."

24left

Yes. Thanks.

24left

To bring this back to Gary's column, he wrote:

"Here’s a story from my Facebook feed this morning. It comes from a woman who flies American Airlines regularly (she’s a top tier Executive Platinum member). And she’s the kind of customer American likes.

1. She regularly buys first class tickets.

2. If she buys an economy ticket, and it looks like her upgrade won’t clear, she buys up to first.

I think it’s fair to say she’s allergic to coach. In fact she may even qualify for an accommodation under the Air Carrier Access Act: she needs an emotional support seat up front!"


AND (bolding mine)

"I wasn’t there and we have only the passenger’s version of the story. However applause from crew over this passenger’s removal is mortifying. It’s clear that she is sincere in her telling, she believes this is exactly what happened. Yet American advised her that she is “due no compensation” but that they “hope to see [her] on another AA flight.”

She’s clearly a good, valuable, frequent customer. She’s not a novice traveler who doesn’t understand the rules (I can separately attest to this). She let American know that she was mortified and embarrassed by a situation on their flight, not just inconvenienced. American should be bending over backwards to make this right to her because she’s made it clear that this incident is highly significant to her, an inflection point for her as a customer of the airline. Their response to her was tone deaf and has her questioning her loyalty to American."


If you haven't you should read the whole article. This can happen to any one of us.

Forget the animal farm nonsense, American clearly has other issues and apparently, valuable or perceived valuable customers are just not as important.

djibouti

I'd say this will cause me to fly AA less, but I don't fly them anymore, at all... so...

JonNYC

I really don't think so.

As I posted on Gary's FB on this:

I don't buy the "applause from crew" thing at all (OR there is missing, important, intervening dialog that is not reported.) I think she knew she made a big mistake making the "unplanned stop" comment* (at which point she sealed her own fate as far as being removed) and added the applause thing to try and win sympathy back.

*_especially_ since she works for the FAA!

3Cforme

The Feds let it be that way when they demanded that documented emotional support animals be accommodated as service animals. See the CFR. There's nothing AA (or DL, or UA...) can do.

AA must allow documented service animals to travel - by law. High-maintenance EXPs? Not so much.

https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/14/382.117

rickg523

Has American gained enough ex-United business, they feel they can shrug off customer service for frequent flyers?
Let's wait a week. If this story goes mainstream, let's see if their response gets more real. Because that response was Munoz-class.

JonNYC

It won't. She sealed her own fate by suggesting the "unplanned stop" -- at that point she was basically putting them on notice and she had to come off.

24left

I understand your point.

Still, Gary doesn't strike me as someone who posts for no good reason.

pinniped

Mostly?

The entire concept of "emotional support animals" (as a special category) is a fraud. These are pets. I would hope most pet owners would say they give and receive emotional support from their pets, but that should be irrelevant in terms of what's allowed on an airplane.

This is, of course, a completely different topic from highly-trained animals who provide legitimate services to disabled people.

JonNYC

Agree 100%-- but ya gotta read-between-the-lines a bit about his posture on this incident.

The member this happened to participates in some on-line forums and, well... there's certain factors here that influence.

24left

Thanks.