A man claims that he lost his first class seat after Delta Air Lines said it was needed for an oversized “service” dog…
First Class Outrage: Man Downgraded For “Service” Dog On Delta Air Lines
A passenger shared on reddit–with the photo evidence above–about an incident on his recent Delta flight:
“I got upgraded to first [class] this morning, only to 15 mins later get downgraded (to a worse 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.”
He called Delta to complain but was told “you may be relocated for service animals.” He wonders, “What’s the point of being loyal to this airline anymore?” and I cannot blame him. Delta has since said it is looking into the incident:
“Delta teams are aware of the customer complaint and are researching the details of what may have occurred. Service animals are routinely accommodated on Delta without impacting customer seat assignments.”
You can’t make this stuff up, can you? I am of the opinion that if you need more than one seat, you buy it, and before that man was upgraded, the dog and its owner should have been downgraded to economy class. Oh, it’s a cute dog…but we’ve reached a certain level of insanity when SkyMiles Medallion flyers can get bounced from first class because the dog needs extra space…
Here’s a thought: keep the dog at home or stay home with your dog…and keep your filthy shoes off the bulkhead wall!
I may not have much hope for the next administration, but maybe it can do a few good things like reigning in the abuse of service animals by empowering airlines to restrict access to and penalize abusers, especially the prima-donnas who accessorize their Lululemon outfits and designer handbags with a little “support” doggy using “service animal” vests purchased on Amazon.
As one redditor noted, “Notice how nowhere else in life do you see this quantity of service animals? Go to the airport and all of a sudden, they appear…”
Okay, regular readers know how cranky I get with topics like this…I’ll stop. But if the man really was downgraded for a dog, what do you think about this incident?
image: ben_bob / reddit
Thin is a very premium downgrade, so the gentleman should be happy – sorry, I just could not resist.
If I had really been upgraded and had the boarding pass to prove it, I’d have claimed IDB and requested significant compensation, and to be put in F on the next flight. Don’t forget to offload my bag so as to make the flight late. Many people believe that service animals (whether actually needed or just so that the animal can be taken on the flight inexpensively – you can’t tell) are important enough to downgrade someone. Clearly, the airline thought so here. But if so, it is also critical enough to do all that for the person downgraded. And that is all within the gate agent’s power to do so.
Baggage allowance permits passengers to bring a reasonable amount of food for on board consumption but the dog is way too much meat to be allowed. Furthermore, cooking is banned. The excuse of bringing a dog aboard to be potentially eaten is bogus.
Dogs should be considered pets unless the dog is a seeing eye dog and the person is legally blind.
I’m sorry but I just think that airlines should require the proper documentation for a service animal. The past couple months, I moved to the midwest as I am only in the office once every two weeks, and flying out of DTW and ORD, these days, I’ve seen many people buy a service animal leash and vest and bring their pet onboard when they’re not a service animal.
The other thing is that you’ll hear these people who fake service animals talk about how “they got away with it” and it upsets everyone else who follows the rules or gets inconvenienced for them. Also makes those with real service animals get slighted by others because they might get assumed as a “faker.” It’s disgusting.
Next time try to get Augustine on a flight for free. Put a leash around his chest (not neck because of safety reasons). Say he is your service animal . It is true because if he is put in the baggage hold, you will become hysterical and psychiatrically unstable.
The “ service” animal nonsense has gotten out of control again. Hate to be an apologist for the airlines but their hands are tied due to the law….
Correct.
If you know Delta’s hands are tied because the person claimed this dog was a service animal what is the whole purpose of this article? Until the law changes airlines hands are tied and they must follow the law. Delta can’t simply downgrade the passenger with the fake service animal without facing a a costly DOT investigation. The only way to resolve this was to downgrade the passenger whom they upgraded.
The public has realize the legal loophole in the current law and they are registering their pets as service animals since emotional support animals are no longer allowed. Remember how much things had gotten out of control with emotional support animals that forced the feds to take action, I think we are getting to the point with these fake service animals. It is far to easy for people to register there pets as service animals and that isn’t on Delta that is on the feds which has failed to address this problem but also because of the law have tied airlines hands.
If the classy dude in F (feet on the wall), has a “service animal of size” , and cannot fit under his legs or in his lap, then I agree and he should have to buy an extra seat for the dog, just like a “person of size” has to.
I am personally o.k. with a truly certified “service dog”…. if can stay in the owner’s lap or under their legs. I fully agree, too many people are abusing the system and it has gotten out of hand.
Old news my friend. You must be particularly agitated by this to bring it up now.
How old? I just saw this on Xmas Eve in my newsfeed. Posted on reddit five days ago.
“You can’t make this stuff up, can you?”
I think he did, in fact, make it up. But even though I’m an emotional, illogical, dog-supporter, even I would agree nobody should be downgraded so my animal can sit up front.
Typo in “downgraded”
I don’t see why he wasn’t downgraded to coach with his dog. If the dog needs a seat he should have to pay for it in advance.
Airlines should install rubber flooring in the rear most seats and assign service animals to those rubber floor covered seats.
The dog isn’t even using the seat.
It’s “rein” in, not “reign.”
Gotta make faking a service animal a crime… just like it would be if I faked a handicapped parking placard. You’d think the woke/PC crowd would be up in arms with some disability appropriation-type claims and publicly shaming these people on Reddit. But no; they’re the ones most likely to be using fake service dogs for their anxiety.
While I agree that the service animal abuse needs to be curtailed, I don’t actually have much sympathy for the guy who was “downgraded”. He wasn’t downgraded – he received what he paid for.