A Delta Air Lines elite passenger received a rare first class upgrade – but 15 minutes later was sent back to coach in order to give their seat up front to a dog instead. The airline told the customer that the dog was a service animal, and there’s “nothing they can do.”
I got upgraded to first this morning, only to 15 mins later get downgraded (to a worst seat than I previously had). I asked the desk agent what was going on and she said “something changed”.
Okay, fine, I am disgruntled but whatever, I then board only to see this dog in my first class seat … And now I’m livid.
I immediately chat Delta support and they say “you may be relocated for service animals” and there is nothing they can do.
I genuinely don’t see Delta’s logic in bumping a passenger from first class to accommodate a dog in the bulkhead. To be sure, airlines are generally required to provide reasonable accommodations under the Air Carrier Access Act, and one way they do that can be with bulkhead seats. However a last minute seat switch certainly wouldn’t be required.
- Airlines must provide seating accommodations for passengers with disabilities if needed (e.g. for legroom, mobility, or being near a service animal). Bulkhead seats are often used for this purpose.
- However, they are not required to displace other passengers from their assigned seats unless the airline has not implemented policies to reserve specific seating for passengers with disabilities (e.g. Southwest, but they pre-board such passengers who can then choose their own seat adventure).
- Airlines must prioritize disabled passengers for bulkhead seats only if those seats are necessary as an accommodation for the passenger and only if that accommodation has been requested in advance. (They should make reasonable efforts to accommodate at the airport, but don’t have the same obligation, and again wouldn’t have to displace another passenger to do it).
It’s only if an accommodation had been requested and approved in advance but Delta failed to execute on it, or mistakenly upgraded the passenger in a seat that should have been set aside for the dog already, that the airline’s downgrade makes any sense.
And upgrading a passenger and then downgrading them should be treated much more gingerly by an airline that fancies itself premium (as much as Delta executives despise doing upgrades at all). Proactive compensation would have been appropriate here, since this only could have arisen do to an airline error.
Delta does seem to have gone to the dogs, and not just because only about 13% of passengers in first class are sitting there with upgrades these days. In late summer I wrote about a first class passenger booted to accommodate a plus-sized woman with an emotional support dog and 4 carry-ons.
And here’s a dog recently eating at a table in the new Delta One lounge at New York JFK before flying business class. It was hardly the only dog making themselves at home in a Delta lounge.
@oliverbelles My review of the new @Delta One lounge @jfk✈️ But seriously…what do you guys call this dessert?! #fypage #maltipoo #dogsoftiktok #dogvoiceover @delta @Les Belles NYC ♬ original sound – oliverbelles
Last month I was actually on a Delta flight that the pilot turned around due to an unauthorized dog on board, they offloaded the passenger – and then let her and the dog back on. This led to a couple hours’ delay due to a shift change for refueling. The woman spent the flight petting the dog in her lap (hint: it wasn’t really a service animal).
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