Is there an option for someone who is afraid of dogs to change seats if he/she ends up next to someone who has a dog in his/her lap? I know its unAmerican to be afraid of dogs, but I am and I would have a very difficult time sitting next to someone who had a dog that was on that person’s lap. In a cage, I’d be fine.
For this new rule, it will be less likely that a dog will be on the lap of a person. Most service dogs are large enough to walk beside the person they are assisting. If the passenger pays a fee to have the animal in the cabin, it must stay in the carrier under the seat (not that they do, but that is the rule)
However, if you are seated next to one, you can ask to be moved. You may get a less desirable seat (center).
There is a whole process for cat allergies. A friend had a cat (paid for, not ESA) and was bumped from a flight because someone had a allergy and had preregistered it and was assured a flight without cats. Friend had to stay overnight and get a flight in the morning.
If it is a service animal/ESA, you will be asked to move seats. If there are no seats available, you would have to sit where you are at or take the next plane. Generally the person with service animal/ESA has priority over your fear or your allergies.
I have a friend who used to be a flight attendant back in the 1980’s and she says the ESA thing really seems to be a recent phenomenon. Back then most people just had their pets put in cargo. You only rarely saw animals in the cabin and it was almost always a guide dog for the blind or the disabled. I assume this has become an issue because more people are flying this days? When I was growing up I don’t ever remember hearing stuff like this, but then again, people probably traveled by plane much less often and I feel like there wasn’t this culture of bringing your pets everywhere with you…
People are selfish these days. And abusing the system to save money is wrong. Pet ownership comes with a cost, maybe people should think about that before buying a pet. Lying and abusing the system to save some money and not have to pay is very wrong. If you don’t want to pay for your pet to fly, maybe you should’ve planned for that before traveling and before getting a pet. That kind of dishonesty shows a lack of respect and a lack of good character.
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Seriously? What is wrong with people? Instead of helicopter parents, it helicopter pet owners!
I think some people just want the attention
That is so selfish! I would loose a lot of respect for people who do that sort of thing. I do think they need to be much stricter about it and it will stop a lot of the abuse. Seriously, what is wrong with people these days?
I love my pets, but I don’t need to take them everywhere with me and I certainly don’t need them on a plane…
When I was a kid we never took our dogs on trips, unless it was a camping trip. We just paid my dad’s co worker’s kid (who lived around the block), to take care of the dogs while we were on vacation…we weren’t wealthy, yet my parents still budgeted for that
Taking an emotional support animal along for free was a recent law (last 10 years?). The rules for ESA only applied to housing and air travel - I don’t think it even applied to local buses or taxis (SERVICE animals are different and they can travel on public transportation).
An old roommate had little dogs and she would not travel with them in cargo, but several airlines allowed her to have them in the cabin in a carrier, and for a fee. She was fine with that and would even fly with connections or to out of the way airports in order to have them in the cabin.
People definitely did it to get a free ride for their pets but also to keep them out of cargo. Also, there are times of the year when pets can’t be in cargo (too hot or too cold) and the only way to get a 40 pound dog in the cabin is as an ESA or service dog. My niece has a great dog, great traveler (curls up at her feet) but it is NOT a service dog and niece doesn’t need an ESA. She was abusing the system.
@natty1988 some people have more than one home…think snowbirds. They aren’t taking their animals on a vacation when they are traveling in a plane. They are taking them from home to home.
I think the issue was that folks were taking advantage of the ESA designation. I know a 20 something who didn’t want her Bernese to be left in a kennel or pay for him to fly. She found someone to designate him as an ESA…he wasn’t. That’s the type of thing that unfortunately was happening. This was a 120 pound dog!
That is true about snowbirds and I don’t have a problem with that as long as people aren’t abusing the system
I’m pleased the rules are getting stricter.
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The ESA phenomenon is more to help the owner save money more than anything. You don’t have to pay for the hefty airline pet fee. You don’t have to pay for an expensive kennel.
The animal is not designated as an ESA - the PERSON is certified as needing emotional support. Any pet can fulfill that need. The airlines did start restricting the size and number of animals, and what type of animals, but many did allow rabbits and birds and other things.
Now the dog, as a service dog, will have to be certified that it has been trained to provide a service and be with the person who has the disability. That is IF the airlines choose to enforce this change to the rules. An airline may choose to continue the current ESA policy (but I doubt it).
DD always played by the rules even as the airlines got greedier. It got to where the pet fee for her dog to travel in his carrier under the seat in front of her was sometimes more than her ticket - and she had to give up a carry on bag for him. The airline did nothing for that fee. She definitely saw a correlation between ESA on planes and the increasing fees. She was tempted but never gave in.
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I would be fine with a service animal–they are well behaved and do what the owner tells them. I was attacked by a dog when I was 10 and needed to get stitches.
I’m such a skeptic. I wouldn’t write letters for ESAs u less the person was a patient for a year, and I met the animal. People would buy a letter on-line. So I suspect there will be training schools that take short cuts, for the $$
Get your letter here:
Yuck! Hope those grifters get shut down!
The ESA letters have been available for $100 bucks for years. These letters will no longer work for airlines (those that choose to allow only SERVICE dogs)
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