A blind woman and her husband were ordered off an American Airlines flight and deemed a “safety” threat after an incident involving seat changes.
Sue Martin travels with her service dog, Quan. He’s a big fella. 75lb to be exact. Asking him to sit at her feet is rather difficult on a full flight in economy class.
The story goes like this—Martin boards her flight from Washington to Dallas and sees that her seat assignment will not accommodate her plus Quan. She asks to move, stating—
There was not enough room for a 75-pound dog and three adult humans
“Several requests” were made to change seats. No one would. Then she was asked to step off the flight, advised she was a safety threat, and forced to rebook a “flight with a completely different airline at a different airport”. She maintains that there was no “altercation” between her and any of the flight attendants.
My Take
I wish I had done the interview. I have several questions—
- Did you consult the gate agents or FAs first? What did they say?
- Which seats were you assigned? What were you looking to get?
- What did you say to the passengers next to you?
My hunch is that she and her husband had an aisle and middle seat. I’m assuming the flight was not totally full, but only middles were left. She asked the window passenger to move to another seat, but the passenger refused. Why? There were only middle seats. So perhaps she started asking loudly around her if someone could help, maybe even raising her voice. Let’s face it – two economy seats on American Airlines are not enough for two adults and a large dog.
Perhaps someone with expertise on the ADA or service animal regulations will chime in, but it strikes me as a fine line between reasonable accommodation and a free seat on every flight.
American Airlines is investigating—
We take all disability complaints very seriously, and are thoroughly investigating these allegations.
Disability complaints should be taken seriously and every passenger should be afforded dignity. I do wonder how large is too large for service animals.
“I do wonder how large is too large for service animals.”
Keep in mind, especially for the blind, you NEED a larger dog to help guide you. That is why dogs for the blind are almost always larger dogs.
Sad that no one would move under these circumstances. For Delta, they warn you if you choose many seats you may be FORCED to move when things like this happen.
“I do wonder how large is too large for service animals.”
It is a seeing eye dog…they are of pretty good size. You can’t have a Shih Tzu leading people around.
I want to know at what point the airlines start mandating service animals occupy a seat that has been purchased. 75 pounds is a significantly large animal and expecting him to lie on the floor in a cramped economy cabin is both torturous for Quad and ridiculously inconvenient for other pax. Not to mention rude of Ms. Martin to presume others should accommodate Quan.
Airlines are all about charging us for EVERYTHING these days, so why are they being so slow to implement something in cases just like this?
Agree – there needs to be a limit. Safety of all passengers needs to be taken into account also. Very obese people may need to purchase 2 seats, people with young children (over 2) pay for that child. Even if you have a disability, you may need to pay additional. Did she want a “free” first class upgrade? If you need 2 seats, more leg room or extra room – these days, pay up.
I am a blind person. I do not know the whole story but what I do know is that there are likely two sides to it.
First, what happened to her was wrong, no matter what. It is and absolutely should be up to the airline to reaccommodate her on a different flight after being kicked off the plane for “safety reasons.” A service animal, if a blind person chooses to use one, takes the place of a cane and is therefore needed for safe travel. To not accommodate the passenger is not the fault of Sue and she should at the very least receive an apology. It should also be noted that we do not have the right to use exit rows because we cannot assist the crew in the event of an emergency. Therefore, the best seats for a guide dog are off the market. It is not fair to charge her for an additional seat for a service dog that is essential for her independent travel, and it should be no debate whether or not the dog is too big or not.
However, Sue likely did not act responsibly. For one, if you are using a service dog the right thing to do is to inform the airline ahead of time (preferably at booking and then again 24 hours before departure). This would ensure that she has a bulkhead or that the dog is safely secure in the proper location. Another thing to consider was how polite was Sue acting? She may have felt entitled, and therefore felt that she can just ask a passenger to move. That is very rude behavior and the flight crew may not have been willing to work with Sue to accommodate the dog should this have happened.
If Sue acted appropriately and contacted the airline in advance, she deserves a full refund+compensation for her pain. However, I have my doubts as to whether or not this happened and while I do not support the way that the airline handled this case, I cannot hold Sue faultless unless I have more information. What I can say, however, is that guide dogs are not “companions,” they are guides and therefore should not require an additional charge no matter the case.
I just retired last month as a 29 year Flight Attendant. No matter what took place (other than threatening behavior) AA messed up. The ACAA requires airlines to accommodate disabled pax even if it requires having to move another pax. From what I’ve read on other posts (yes there are two sides to every story and truth lays somewhere in the middle) a pax in first class offered her his seat and after that an agent came onboard told her to deplane. Supposedly the Capt was there as well and when she asked him why they were kicking her off and he said “because I can”. If that is indeed the case they all need some serious re-training on ACAA regulations. Also if this is all true, they can easily have a lawsuit on their hands by the ACAA and Americans with Disabilities Act. Take Care all & fly safe
Why didn’t the husband just move to a middle seat a few rows behind. Then Sue and Quan would have had an aisle and a middle. Others shouldn’t have to suffer because she was pining for the upgrade to business class and didn’t get it like she probably had numerous times in the past.
The safety risk was likely the 75 pound dog in the aisle beside the blind person as she did not have the vacant middle seat to accomodate the dog.
So the DMN had more information on the story today. She claims she spoke to a counter agent and asked to switch to a row with “more floor space”, but was refused. The agent allegedly told her that it was “against airline regulations” to place a service animal in First Class; I’m interpreting that to mean that at some point, she asked to be upgraded. A First Class passenger onboard eventually offered to switch with her and downgrade, but she was kicked off the plane after sitting down in the new seat. At least on its face, the facts don’t look good for AA.
Of course, we still don’t know the full story. Maybe she or her husband were rude to either the agents or other passengers. That being said, I do have personal experience with AA employees making up rules to hassle disabled passengers. A very rude agent in SEA claimed that my dad had to pay $200 to transport a medical device because it was overweight, then threatened to not allow them to check-in when my mom tried to argue the point with her. He did eventually get his money back after filing a DOT complaint, though the agent lied in the response, claiming she was never informed it was a medical device (she was, several times). So I’d say it’s entirely plausible that a rogue employee is at work here.