Travel with Pets - Dogs on a plane

Well, technically just one dog.

There was a rather large un-kenneled dog in first on on my Saturday flight between DCA and MSP. It seemed to belong to the women in 3C (flight 1663).

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7145/6490700985_64ae40f586.jpg

I was pretty surprised to see this as I thought only dogs small enough to be kenneled were allowed in the main cabin. Has anyone ever seen anything like this before? Maybe they make some sort of exception for service dogs, or it's some sort of high-profile dog that Delta allows in first per http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/07/nyregion/banned-by-many-airlines-these-bulldogs-fly-private.html?pagewanted=all

Thought it was strange and wanted to see if any FTers knew what the exception would be. For what it's worth, the dog was pretty well behaved and didn't bark at all on the flight: the only sign of mischief was the dog occasionally trying to take a few steps into the aisle.

Please follow this thread in the FT Travel With Pets Forum.
BTW, that is a very cute pooch.:)
Obscure2k
Delta Moderator

Well, technically just one dog.

There was a rather large un-kenneled dog in first on on my Saturday flight between DCA and MSP. It seemed to belong to the women in 3C (flight 1663).

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7145/6490700985_64ae40f586.jpg

I was pretty surprised to see this as I thought only dogs small enough to be kenneled were allowed in the main cabin. Has anyone ever seen anything like this before? Maybe they make some sort of exception for service dogs, or it's some sort of high-profile dog that Delta allows in first per http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/07/nyregion/banned-by-many-airlines-these-bulldogs-fly-private.html?pagewanted=all

Thought it was strange and wanted to see if any FTers knew what the exception would be. For what it's worth, the dog was pretty well behaved and didn't bark at all on the flight: the only signs of mischief were the dog occasionally trying to take a few steps into the aisle.

An "emotional support" animal would be my best guess. They don't require kennels and really don't even require documentation. There are passengers that try and abuse the system with this because there is no fee for an "emotional support" animal but there is for a pet in cabin.

I fly the Atl to Sav route once a week usually on the last flight of the day and it is a common practice for these dogs to be on the flight as the Army has two major installations which use Sav.
They are always in cargo and extremley quiet and well mannered when they come into the terminal.