The airlines won’t take some dogs in the cargo hold because it’s not safe for them. Snub-nosed dogs such as boxers and bulldogs have a high death rate in the heat.
Havent read the fine print, but am thinking if the dog fits in a sherpa bag or crate under the seat, the passenget can still pay the fee to bring them on board. Dog would have to stay crated, I believe.
My D is living in the grad student dorm (in a PhD program) and she’s amazed how many animals live there as well, even tho its a pet-free campus. (so they are all ESA’s.)
@Sue22 - if the dog is small, you can always pay to transport your dog in the cabin. We paid to transport my avatars in cabin - all the way from Central Asia on two different carriers. ESA fakers either don’t want to pay or their pets are too big for the cabin transport. In either case, they don’t pay.
Jym, yes, I took the course in such letters. That is why I became such a pr…k. Little did I realize how awful it is to be near such a smelly dog. I have no allergies to,dogs, but this one was intolerable. Anyone who cared for their pet would never go so long without a bath. The airline personnel are put in a bind too.
@bookworm- ewww.
Reminds me of my SWA flight from h*ll with a dirty, smelly very large guy in the center seat with disgustingly dirty, greasy, smelly waist-long hair that fell all over me when he pulled down the tray table, folded his overly large arms, sticking his elbows into the tray space of both the person on the waisted and me at the window, and went to sleep. Longest 4 hours of my life.
Jym, this could be the topic for a new thread. My worst human was a tall man in middle seat, on a red eye from SF to FLI. He was up and out every half hour. His eyes were bloodshot, he was jittery, and I doubt he could have passed any drug test.
Can you imagine us in charge of the check in station? No smelly people or animals, no humans on amphetamine type drugs, nor alcohol excess, etc.
ACK- autocorrect! How does aisle become wasted??? The person sitting on the AISLE.
Yes, we segued from smelly dogs to smelly, dirty humans. But all seem to qualify as dirty dogs.
My parents bought a kitten in England and had her in a crate to put in the plane’s hold. The pilot saw the kitty and kept her in the cockpit all the way across the Atlantic. ?
I was on a flight for business, wearing my suit because I was going straight to a meeting at my destination, and the lady sitting next to me spilled her coffee onto my pants! Mostly my leg, and it didn’t burn me physically, but it sure burned me mentally!
And back to animals:
A lady walks into a bar with a lizard on her shoulder.
The bartender says, “Hey, normally I don’t let pets in here, but it’s pretty small, so just keep it in your pocket or something.”
The lady sits down and orders a drink, and as the bartender puts it down in front of her, he asks, “So what’s your lizard’s name?”
“Oh, I call him ‘Tiny’.”
“Yeah? He doesn’t look that small, how come?”
She says, “It’s because he’s my newt.”
My nephew-in-law confided that their friend wanted a dog but lived in a no-pet place so he got a ESA document in the mail do he could have a dog. 
My experience has been on voting to charge full fees to those who choose to bring their “status” pets onboard.
These persons that are so “emotionally scarred” (and can’t seem to fly without a support animal) don’t seem to have issues with hassling passengers as their animal barks all night long throughout a flight. They get uppity and brash with the flight attendants. Have no problems becoming intoxicated and rude.
You bet the DOT is getting my input.
@BunsenBurner, I was able to get my son’s French bulldog puppy in a carrier on a flight when he was 12 weeks. A year later the same dog was over 20 lbs, the airline limit. If my son wanted to transport him by plane at this point the only way to do so would be as a fake ESA. I just spent a week dogsitting when my son went on a trip.
I know two thirtysomethings who got ESA designation because they didn’t want to board dogs or pay for them to fly. Lied their way through all the paperwork, etc. and didn’t see problem with doing so. My opinion of them has dropped.
Happy to see DOT at least thinking about doing something. The airlines need to speak up too.
I agree that all pets should be charged…it may cut down on some of the nonsense (sadly, will affect those that truly need Service animals). I’d also advocate that all ESA pets and owners be relegated to the back two rows of the plane for safety --so I don’t have to stumble over them.
Somewhat related, a friend has a few rental properties. Clearly states No Pets. Applicants must check box that they do not have pets. Not once, but TWICE now, tenants move in and within two weeks, inform her they now have a need for ES pet. Legally, not a darn thing she can do about it. Beyond irritated…
I’ve flown with a dog a couple of times. You need a soft carrier, and it needs to fit underneath the seat in front of you. There is no standard dimension for that little space, so it really needs to be a small dog and a squishable carrier. Weight doesn’t really matter - you wouldn’t want a light and leggy greyhound in there!
We pay and it’s about $90-100 each way. SW makes you pay at the gate because they don’t offer refunds for animal cancellations. I do call and reserve as soon as I can, because airlines limit the number of checked pets they will take per flight. As it is now, they can’t legally limit the # of service and ESAs that board.
I haven’t had any nightmare experiences with ESAs but I did move my seat to avoid 2 cats on a SW flight. Pretty easy to move around without an assigned seat (I’m allergic to cats. I’m also allergic to dogs but mine is a poodle)
I wouldn’t check a dog into cargo but that’s one reason why I wanted a small dog. {also the small poop, lol). I met a neighbor who travels to Ireland for 6 months each year and brings her tiny dog. Ireland requires that it travel in the cargo hold, which just seems cruel. They don’t allow it to be drugged either.
It is not the animal who is certified, but the person is certified to have a condition and needs an animal to accompany him on a plane, to live in the apartment, etc. I do not think a particular animal is even named in the letter. The only paperwork for the animal is the vaccination records and health certificate that some airlines now require (some still don’t).
Delta has not allowed dogs as checked baggage since 2016.
Some airlines do allow larger support and service animals, and they can fly in the cabin. They need to remain on the floor, but they don’t have to fit under the seat which is a Southwest requirement.
In some cases, if there is an empty plane seat, they will try and seat you and your animal there. Or you can purchase a seat which is really the floor space in front of the seat.
The key to flying an animal in a crate is the animal needs to be trained to love the crate.
Of course, flying in a crate wouldn’t help those who actually need their animal with them…well documented, of course.
I was recently on a southwest flight and a service dog (I think) preboarded with its owner and they were seated in the bulkhead seats. That would have been fine…except the dog kept moving into the aisle which made boarding a very full plane even more time consuming. Finally the flight attendant intervened. It made me wonder whether this was a service dog or a ESA…because in my experience, trained service dogs know where to be.
In any event. This all could have been avoided if the dog and human boarded last, keeping the dog out of the way. And this was a HUGE dog.
100% agreed that trained service dogs absolutely know how to behave on an airplane. I’ve watched seeing eye dogs not move a muscle on long flights. This whole ESA thing makes it so much more difficult for people who actually need a real service dog
As an aside, we watched an “ESA” dog go ballistic at the airport when two german shepherds walked by with their custom agent handlers. The german shepherds were momentarily distractors but they went right back to business while the “ESA” dog continued to go crazy. If your dog is reactive to other dogs it should be crated!
I was at a dog-friendly hotel and there was a man with a dog in the outside area. I started to approach then realized the dog had a service animal vest and stopped. The man encouraged me to say hi so I figured it was the dog’s play time…then the dog jumped on me, making it obvious the whole service dog thing was a sham. Even when it’s not strictly working a trained service dog will not jump on a stranger. I wish I’d has the presence of mind to ask what agency trained his service dog.