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Blind Maine woman describes getting kicked off plane with service dog

Blind Maine woman describes getting kicked off plane with service dog

Old Mar 23, 2017, 6:37 pm
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Blind Maine woman describes getting kicked off plane with service dog

Blind Maine woman describes getting kicked off plane with service dog

Several investigations are underway into what prompted American Airlines to remove a blind Maine woman from a plane in Washington, D.C., and leave her in the terminal with her seeing eye dog.

Sue Martin, 61, said she has yet to receive any explanation from American Airlines, but some guide dog advocacy groups suspect that the airline may have wrongly concluded that her service dog was only a pet.
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Old Mar 23, 2017, 9:30 pm
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The service animal exception has gone wild.

Fake service animals get on. Real service animals don't.

Kids should be allowed to be service animals and fly free. After all, if they are left behind, the parents naturally get hysterical. Therefore, the parents NEED to have their service animal child. I hope this scenario never happens.
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Old Mar 23, 2017, 9:49 pm
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Originally Posted by Toshbaf
The service animal exception has gone wild.

Fake service animals get on. Real service animals don't.

Kids should be allowed to be service animals and fly free. After all, if they are left behind, the parents naturally get hysterical. Therefore, the parents NEED to have their service animal child. I hope this scenario never happens.
I'm going to make an assumption that you didn't read the article.
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Old Mar 23, 2017, 11:36 pm
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Originally Posted by Toshbaf
The service animal exception has gone wild.
What do you mean by "exception"? You mean the law that allows disabled people the ability to travel with their service animal? The fact that others abuse the law does not in any way make it okay to just go kicking blind people off planes. At the end of the day, dogs are allowed on planes, so if an extra dog here and there catches a free ride, whats the big deal? Better that all disabled people are accommodated along with a few people abusing the rule than nobody get away with breaking the rule but drag a few disabled people under the bus with them. These service animals are incredibly important to the independence of the humans, they should be afforded every single benefit of the doubt.
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Old Mar 24, 2017, 12:36 am
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The article just seems very premature and incomplete since it lacks any response/comment from AA (or any other perspective), isn't time critical, and could have been reported once the situation was resolved. As is the most it can do is drive uninformed speculation or be used to generate public outcry, neither of which seems an appropriate agenda for reporting "news" (but sadly is these days).
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Old Mar 24, 2017, 1:59 am
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I know there's a thread somewhere else about this. From what had been learned the dog didn't fit, and then she asked to be moved to FC. They said no. Then there's some question of if she either begged or didn't FC passengers to switch seats. Basically woman got kicked off plane due to not following crew instructions, not because she had a dog. Also I believe they put her on a later flight.
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Old Mar 24, 2017, 7:50 am
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According to the reports she was not allowed into FC because the AA agents said dogs weren't allowed in first class. Is this true? I have never heard of that.
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Old Mar 24, 2017, 8:02 am
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Originally Posted by nutwpinut
According to the reports she was not allowed into FC because the AA agents said dogs weren't allowed in first class. Is this true? I have never heard of that.
If that is true, i have witnessed multiple violations of that rule
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Old Mar 24, 2017, 8:04 am
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Originally Posted by nutwpinut
According to the reports she was not allowed into FC because the AA agents said dogs weren't allowed in first class. Is this true?
Originally Posted by Uzzar
If that is true, i have witnessed multiple violations of that rule
Of course this isn't true for service animals.
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Old Mar 24, 2017, 8:46 am
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Originally Posted by nutwpinut
According to the reports she was not allowed into FC because the AA agents said dogs weren't allowed in first class. Is this true? I have never heard of that.
She wasn't a FC passenger. She tried to get agent to put her there so dog would have more room.
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Old Mar 24, 2017, 8:57 am
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Originally Posted by WIRunner
I'm going to make an assumption that you didn't read the article.
Who needs facts when you have emotion?
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Old Mar 24, 2017, 9:13 am
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redacted

Last edited by SpinOn2; Mar 24, 2017 at 9:33 am Reason: bc I read the article and realized my comments were unrelated.
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Old Mar 24, 2017, 9:20 am
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SpinOn2: According to the article she asked to be moved to F by offering to pay for an F seat: "She said she then asked whether she could purchase a first-class ticket, where there would be more floor room, but was again denied."
Of course (service) animals are allowed in First Class on AA. The alleged statement that they are not is definitely incorrect.

AA does not fly mainline aircraft between DCA and BGR. She must have been on a Republic E175. On these, a German shepherd will indeed not fit (comfortably) anywhere in the economy cabin. The only place the dog would be able to lie down in relative comfort on one of these would be in front of 2A on versions without a bulkhead wall, and that may or may not be possible depending on how the crew determined the animal hinders access to the exit in front. I travel a lot on AA with a dog who's only slightly smaller than hers and flew on a Republic RJ-175 once between ORD and OMA (paid F, seated in 2A), where the crew convened after I boarded and after a brief discussion it was determined that access to the exit was not obstructed by her lying down there. That may have been different with her dog who looks larger than mine (and maybe, just maybe, the root cause of why crew told her she could not move to F even if she paid for a seat)

The crew member certainly is to blame here. Especially not working with her after a passenger offered to give up their F seat because of a made-up "no animals in F" is inexcusable.

Last edited by bhomburg; Mar 24, 2017 at 9:28 am
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Old Mar 24, 2017, 9:41 am
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Originally Posted by bhomburg
AA does not fly mainline aircraft between DCA and BGR.
Which is relevant because???

Martin and her husband flew from Bangor with Quan, and on the first leg of their trip, landed at Reagan National Airport in Washington, D.C. But Martin said as they attempted to board for the second leg,
You think they were on a quick-turn MR, heading back to where they started?

In reality:
American Airlines removed Martin and her dog from a flight to California.
Pretty sure they have more than RJs and E75's on that route.

Way too much conflicting info, one-sided, to conclude anything at this point

Martin, 61, asked a flight attendant if she could be moved to a seat in another row that would allow Quan to lie in the floor space in front of the seat. The flight attendant refused, Martin said. When she asked again, the attendant told Martin to return to the terminal and talk to a ticketing agent.

The ticketing agent told Martin that she couldn’t change her seat assignment and refused when Martin asked if she could upgrade to a first-class seat with more room, saying it was against airline rules for guide dogs to be in the first-class cabin.
She asked a FA? She asked a ticketing agent? On the plane? In the terminal?
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Old Mar 24, 2017, 10:07 am
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Originally Posted by CPRich
She asked a FA? She asked a ticketing agent? On the plane? In the terminal?
Seems like both of those things happened. More probably a gate agent than a ticket agent, but that's not a meaningful distinction for the purposes of this discussion.
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