Jon_R

I struggle to understand the draw to this.

I have a dog. He is a dog and does dog stuff. i have never thought how great it would be for him, me, the traveling public to drag him on a metal tube at 35k feet and 500 mph for hours at a time. Thunder spooks him not sure how turbulence would go.

One of the draws for me traveling is I get a break from having to deal with the dog. But to me a pet is not family and I only have one because it came with the wife so I am probably in the minority.

jdrtravel

My understanding is that, unlike with revenue pax, crew are permitted to upgrade nonrev pax after takeoff. I presume the reason for this would be to prevent the upgrade process from taking more of the GA's time.

jamesteroh

If someone has cat allergies they should next to me in first class when I'm flying with my cat. The two times I had a seat mate that complained about allergies so bad they wanted me reseated their allergies would suddenly be ok when they found out they would be moved to the back of the bus.

Both times the seatmates were comp upgrades and FC of course was full . The one time I was on a paid first fare the seatmate was told that since I was on a paid FC ticket and they were on an upgrade they would be happy to reseat them in an empty coach seat and all of a sudden they went from being deadly allergic to cats to being able to tolerate the cat for a 4 1/2 hour flight Other time were both upgraded and I was a diamond and the other passenger wasn't (IIRC they were gold) and the flight was full and when the FA or GA offered to see if person one on the upgrade list would like to switch seats with them they complained they shouldn't be downgraded and I should since they had the allergy but when they found out they would be the one downgraded all of a sudden they were fine

I joke with people that it reminds me of the people that have to preboard with wheelchairs at DTW but are the first ones out of their seats grabbing their bags rushing to the door to get to the quarter slot machines when we land at vegas

jdrtravel

For what its worth, in my experience, dogs tend to really understand that babies are babies. Of course you can't be sure of it, and an airplane is not a great place to test that theory, but this has been my experience.

JW6130

So what you're saying is that your seat mates chose to be miserable with allergies instead of miserably cramped in the back of the plane? And you took joy in making them choose between an allergic reaction and leg room?

I'm very allergic to cats, but I'd rather be stuffed up and sneezing and miserable than stuck in a middle seat in back. Why is it okay to make fun of people with cat allergies, but not kids with peanut allergies?

Big difference between this scenario and the wheelchair miracle people. Or the fake injury I need a bulkhead seat people.

jamesteroh

The point is I don't think they were allergic and just didn't want to sit by a pet. Both cases were comp. upgrades so they obviously ok with being in coach when they bought the tickets. I found it odd that they wanted me reseated because their allergies were so severe yet they were fine when they found out they would lose the upgrade. In the one case where they offered to see if #1 on the upgrade list wanted to swap I seriously doubt it was a middle seat in the back row unless that ticket was purchased at the last minute.

JW6130

I wouldn't ask to have you re-seated, since the allergy is my problem, but I'd be miserable for the entire flight.

I'd rather deal with the allergic reaction than sit in the back on a long flight. I suspect many others with cat/dog allergies would make the same choice, but that doesn't mean that they don't have severe allergies.

Kids with peanut allergies aren't going to get sick from my Peanut M&Ms 20 rows away, but I keep them stored away for the flight anyway if asked.

JohnnyRockets

I think it depends on your allergic reaction vs back of the plane (for those with real problem). Next time if you think someone is faking, try let the cat loose.

Unfortunately, like the wheelchair case, there is nothing you can do. The benefit abuse is out of control. Or at least let those people with placards still pay for parking and respect the hour limit.

MSPeconomist

If someone isn't allergic, I don't understand why, except if they're extremely afraid of dogs/cats/etc., they would object to sitting next to a pet if the pet owner is obeying all the rules, namely keeping the pet entirely within the closed container and the container fits under the seat in front of the pet owner. If there's no allergy, it only makes a different when the pet is taken out of the carrier.

MSPeconomist

I understand that, but crew aren't supposed to upgrade nonrevs that are ineligible for premium cabin seats, for example if they're with a nonrev four year old.

If the GA didn't give the nonrevs available D1 seats, that confirms that the nonrevs weren't supposed to be sitting in D1. This wasn't a case of a last minute FC misconnect where the nonrev moves into the FC seat that suddenly became available.

jdrtravel

how do you know this? Also, it's stupid that they would not allow a nonrev with a 4 year old or a pet up front.

MSPeconomist

I know it because I had been watching the seat map for my flight.

The rules say no pets in premium cabins in aircraft with flat beds that have no underseat storage for the pet carrier. It's not stupid. The person can't hold the carrier during takeoff and landing and you can't put the pet in an overhead bin. It's a rule for everyone, not just nonrevs.

DL also has a rule that a small child cannot fly nonrev in a premium cabin, although a few years ago the cutoff age was lowered, IIRC from 8 to 6. If some employee or his/her friends and family wants to fly nonrev, they should follow the nonrev rules. Otherwise, they can purchase a revenue ticket. It's DL's right to have such rules, just like nonrevs aren't supposed to ask revenue passengers to switch seats.

PTravel

For what it's worth, "your experience" is not a substitute for actual facts:

http://wjla.com/news/local/8-month-o...og-in-maryland

https://www.aol.com/article/news/201...utes/22117669/

http://blog.dogsbite.org/2017/05/dog...las-vegas.html

This was from a 30-second Google search for "dog kills baby."

I love dogs, and they're very intelligent, empathetic, and, in my view, almost certainly sentient. However, they are still animals, albeit domesticated ones, and do not always respond to various stimuli rationally or logically.

Zorak

While I have no doubt *some* people would fake such a thing, others actually will do a calculation depending on just *how* allergic they are and what they value more. Not everyone sees the world in terms of absolutes.

If your choice was D1 with a crying baby behind you or moving back to Y and you chose to remain in D1 I doubt you would claim you magically no longer found the sound of crying babies to be annoying

A friend of mine is fairly allergic to cats, but actually likes them a lot on account of having grown up with one or two (he's the middle child, and as he tells the story, the family basically said "sorry, the cats were here before you were" -- he also has a weird sense of humor so I'm not sure it was stated that bluntly )

Despite it making him sneezy for a while, he is friendly with the neighbors' cats and even lets them into his apartment.

ryan182

I can't help at laugh at how oblivious you are to the irony of your post. You call out someone for faking an allergy to a PET on a thread about people who bring their PETS on planes because they fraudulently call their PETS service animals and do so with an amazing amount of hubris and entitlement.


On the macro topic of ESAs the only time I've seen an ESA go wrong was on a flight from JFK-SEA on AA about 2 years ago, I'm in F and see some guy walk on the plane with a parrot in a little cage which I thought was odd but didn't think much of it. Fast forward we are about to close the doors and FAs are running down the aisle due to multiple call buttons, I didn't hear the interaction back there but the dude comes up by the door with said parrot and is exceptionally augmentative with the pilot who was calm and trying to sort things out. Turns out the guy had taken his ESA bird () out of the cage and someone complained, the crew called an CRO (Conflict Resolution Officer, which I think airlines are mandated to have per ACA) who as I watch is looking up in his book and it turns out...yes parrots and more broadly birds are acceptable ESAs (FFS!) but they must be caged and/or leached at all times and apparently parrot guy let the bird out w/o a leash. The PIC and CRO attempt to explain this to the guy multiple times, who interrupts them continuously blathering about federal law, finally after about 5 minutes of the PIC trying to reason with idiot he pulls a:

(Ok he didn't throw him off mid-flight but he did yell GET OFF MY PLANE to the applause of the cabin.)
The best part about this situation was when parrot guy goes back to grab his carry on, he comes back with his travel companion who had CREW tags on his carry on. I couldn't help but feel sorry for the crew guy (who was not parrot dude but traveling with him apparently) since I have to think there was some follow on troubles for him due to his friend.