A United Airlines passenger was booted from her pre-assigned economy class seat after finding a massive “service dog” occupying her seat.
United Airlines Passenger Booted From Pre-Assigned Seat Next To Husband To Accommodate Massive Service Dog Who Needs Its Own Seat
The passenger was flying from San Diego (SAN) to Denver (DEN) and boarded her flight with her husband, only to find a massive dog with a service animal vest on her seat:
I boarded a flight from SAN to DEN and an enormous “service” dog was sitting on my seat. He was way too big to fit on the floor. The flight attendant was a few rows away and when asked if she saw the dog, she just shrugged. My husband and I tried to resolve it with the passenger but there was no way that dog could fit under his legs in his window seat.
Since we were told that it was a completely full flight, and the dog was taking my seat, I thought I was going to get bumped off the flight by this dog. A United staff member came onboard and spoke to the passenger but the dog remained. Finally, somehow they located another seat for me. The dog stayed on my seat for the whole flight.
…It is nasty to have a dog outside of a carrier sitting on passengers’ seats with his butt on the armrests. The gate agents carefully check the size my carry-on, but apparently they don’t monitor the size of people’s “service” dogs!
As you can see in the picture above, the dog not only remained in the seat, but placed its butt on the armrest between seats.
If your dog is so big that it requires another seat, then you should have to buy it, regardless of handicap.
The better option, and legislation or regulation I would support, would allow airlines to ban dogs altogether on flights.
Enough is enough…more and more, we see people slap on “service dog” vests on dogs and act inappropriately onboard. They are ruining it for everyone.
Sadly, this would come at the expense of some travelers who appear to genuinely suffer from ailments that a dog helps to address. But there’s something to a “bright line” rule (like mandatory retirement at age 65 for pilots even though many remain incredibly sharp and could probably safely pilot a plane for another 10+ years) in order to reduce the administrative costs of verification and deal with outliers.
Need to travel with a dog? Take your car. This issue is reaching a breaking point and I’m so sick of the proliferation of dogs in airports and onboard I see every time I fly, a problem unique to the United States of America.
On the one hand, treating your problems with a dog is better than with drugs…but simply saying, “Toto makes me feel calm” should not be enough to inconvenience your seatmate with a dog onboard.
I’ll continue to highlight this problem until changes are made. It’s time to give airlines the power to ask more questions, require more verification, and ultimately ban in-cabin animals altogether.
image: @Sparkling_Spritzer / hat tip: View From The Wing
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