dukeman

I was seated in 2A. The woman in 1A had a "service animal." I along with several other F and C pax question the validity of the "service animal." The dog did not have a harness like most service animals. The woman kept yelling at the dog to sit and stay. The dog did not listen. The dog crapped on the floor and near the exit door throughout the flight. At one point in the flight I was napping and the dog literally jumped over 1A and into my lap. The purser and FAs were very apologetic but did nothing to remedy the situation. I chatted with several pax and they all say they will write UA. I have written a letter, but quite honestly don't know exactly what to say. The smells in the F cabin were horrible. The FAs were putting coffee grounds on the floor to mask the odors. The woman in 1A was completely oblivious. Any suggestions from some fellow FTers? I don't want this to become a "what compensation am I entitled to" thread but I did pay quite a bit for this ticket albeit it a C ticket upgraded to F. The 6+ hour flight NRT-BKK paled in comparison to the wonderful service I received from Kurt (the purser) and the entire crew on UA #883 ORD-NRT before the NRT-BKK flight.

Edited to add the woman was not blind, deaf, or mobility challenged. She claimed many illnesses that she was coming to BKK for treatment, but that does not excuse the behavior of her or the dog in my opinion.

Liz

PLEASE WRITE!! This kind of pax is abusing the service animal program. I've never seen a service animal misbehave. to her, her record needs to be notated and future trips with that dog cancelled.

ctkw

Wow, this is disgusting. I would definitely complain! There is no excuse to allow this at all in an airplane, regardless of cabin!

lucky9876coins

I hate to laugh, but that's a really funny visual!

In all seriousness, that's pathetic and you need to write to UA about it. The dog should have never been allowed on as a "service animal."

i'mlovin'it

WOW! Sorry to hear about that experience, Dukeman.

aisleorwindow

Dispicable

If anyone ever wants to see me go absolutely berserk, put me on an airplane with someone with a poorly behaved animal like this. How infuriating.

This woman should be removed from the plane, flogged publicly, and then made to pay for the cleaning of the plane.

Service animal my a$$

Polar Bear

I think you should write the letter to UA. I think UA should look into that lady's claims and why her dog was a service animal.

I met a girl with her service dog two years ago at NRT RCC. The girl was going to BKK for Xmas and her service dog will sense her seizure before it occurs.
The dog was well identified by special cloak. He was well behaved and trained. The girl told me that her dog only had three ice cubes on LAX-NRT flights to prevent pee-pee and poo-poo on the plane. She fed him at airports and let him did his business at airport's restroom. I was so impressed by that well trained service dog.

treyrox

Wirelessly posted (xx: BlackBerry8100/4.2.1 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/100 UP.Browser/5.0.3.3)

True service dogs are remarkable creatures. Clearly the OP did not encounter one of these. I would strongly concur with the idea that any letter should address the issue of UA notating the woman's record. It's not UA's fault that the dog crapped in the plane, but they should not let it happen again.

anc-ord772

It is if they continually let it happen and without informing the passenger that she needed to control her dog.

It is also their fault if they did not properly confirm it was in fact a service dog.

cielodome

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry8800/4.2.1 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/102)

Why is it that someone with a nut allergy will cause the warm nuts not to be served, perhaps even more extreme than that as i have read here on FT. What if someone had a pet allergy, and that dog was on the plane (even in FC) and UA did nothing about it, but allowed the dog to jump on other passengers?

In the case of the OP, had it been me, i would have been seriously upset and have let the FA's know.

Please write as this is simply deplorable behavior. No FC passenger, no matter how much they may have paid for their ticket, entitles them to abusive behavior.

Ari

This incident gives service animals a bad name.

A service animal that misbehaves like that may in fact be a service animal-- but that doesn't mean the animal is suitable for use in public.

Service animals as a rule are well behaved and don't need to be told to sit/stay etc-- they do that on their own because that is part of their training.

to 1A for having a misbehaving service animal or faking a service animal.

Ari

F, C or Y, no one is entitled to disturb other passengers in that manner.

KeeperPattaya

I was on the same flight and also the SFO-NRT leg with this woman and her BIG dog. I like dogs, but close to 17 hours in the air with one is a bit much. As I told you, dukeman, I contacted United through their survey form. I'd like to make sure something like this doesn't happen again.
Here is what I wrote for the survey for both legs of the trip SFO-NRT-BKK.

As a 1st class cabin passenger, I was somewhat upset that United had allowed a woman to board the plane with a very large dog. She appears to have convinced someone that the dog was a "service dog" or "seeing eye dog", but as soon as we got under way, it was clear she could see quite well, was using a computer, and speaking to the dog, not as a service dog, but as a pet. She was initially in 2J, the seat in front of me, but moved to the seat to my left (I was in 3J). Her behavior and the demands on the cabin staff made the whole trip less than 1st class. See my comments for the NRT-BKK leg of the trip where it turned into a nightmare.
My problem is that UA should have stringent criteria for allowing a dog on in the cabin, and this woman appears to have bullied her way into getting someone to okay it, because she appears to be a sue-happy disabled persons' rights advocate. It was an inconvenience for the other passengers and the cabin crew, and whoever okayed her doing that should be reviewed and counselled.


As I said in the SFO-NRT leg of this trip, someone at UA allowed a woman to bring a large dog into the 1st class cabin, supposedly as a "service dog". It was a PET. It took up to 4 cabin personnel to try to get the dog to relieve itself by the galley between the 1st and business sections. This was disgusting, but apparently necessary because the dog didn't "go" from SFO, or at NRT, and the woman was complaining that the dog needed to relieve itself. God. Anyway, on final approach, while I was in 2J and she was seated with her dog in 1A, the dog finally let loose a load of extremely stinky poo on the carpets. The first 3 rows of 1st had the passengers holding blankets and pillows over their noses as we descended into BKK. It was horrible, and certainly not in keeping with what I would expect from a 1st class flight on a first class airline.
If anyone would like to contact me, my email is [email protected]. I have photos of this dog while the cabin staff are trying to get it to relieve itself.
Whoever approved this woman bringing her dog on this flight (I had to suffer the damned thing from SFO-NRT, and then NRT-BKK), should be reprimanded.
She explained on the NRT-BKK flight to a fellow passenger that she didn't want to put the dog in a kennel in the cargo because "some dogs die". Well, some dogs ought not to fly 1st class either.

restlessinRNO

KeeperPattaya - Welcome to FT. Thank you for this informative post. I am sorry your first post on the UA forum had to be this unpleasant flight. You are right to contact UA. Although I cannot agree with all the requests for compensation one reads on this board (my reading light was broken,...), you deserve a flight voucher. It is disgusting that this woman would try to get her pet into the front cabin, pretending it is a service dog. Clearly this is a new low.

Nosmo King

If this dog was not a "service animal", would it have been allowed in the cabin? Let alone first class?

What are the criteria for allowing an uncaged animal on board?

IME size plays a large part. I've seen numerous little foo-foo "dogs" on board, but the only uncaged/unpackaged animals I've seen were extremely well behaved dogs that I didn't even know were there until I saw them.

Interesting enough, military working dogs always seem to be crated and in cargo. Perhaps justified for security dogs, but bomb dogs (typically beagles or labs) would be fine, IMHO, in the cabin.