Holiday Flights that became ugly - Consider the pets!
Many read about the problems that American Airlines passengers experienced at the end of the Christmas Holiday season this year at Dallas Fort Worth airport. With airlines booked over capacity and extreme weather conditions, the delays and cancellations on the entire American Airlines systems were horrendous. No food remaining on board, aircrafts sitting on run ways for hours, over flowing toilets, diversions to alternate airports and very angry and frustrated travel stories were very upsetting for all travelers who read or heard them. I have to wonder but have not heard what the airline did about any pets that may have been on those flights. It’s one thing for your luggage to misconnect or not arrive until a day later-but what about your dog? If the aircraft sits on the runway for several hours before they decide whether to cancel a flight or finally get clearance for take-off, what about the pets? I happened to have had a client stranded at DFW airport that same weekend. She was returning to Albuquerque from a Canadian Dog Show with her 2 prize basenjis. She phoned me before she had departed Toronto and told me that it appeared that if she did get out of Toronto that evening she would surely misconnect at DFW and would need me to get some ‘pet friendly’ hotel options with a shuttle service for her & the dogs. That was the easy part! I left her options on her cell phone voice mail and did not hear from her for several hours. She finally called me when she got on the ground at DFW to advise me that she indeed had misconnected and would need to stay the night. Actually she said that they told her they could not confirm her on a flight to Albuquerque for several DAYS. She was exhausted and very concerned about her dogs. She said that if she had not tagged them herself at the ticket counter in Toronto, they NEVER would have made it. Luckily my client is extremely savvy really knows what she’s doing when traveling with pets. She had no food for her dogs because U.S. Customs would not allow any food attached to the dog’s crates coming out of Canada and she was feeding them ‘cheese and crackers’. Long story short, she ended up staying 2 nights at the Holiday Inn Airport in Dallas where they actually ‘cooked to order’ eggs for her dogs and treated her and the dogs well. She told me that there was no way she was going to go to the airport until some of the confusion had gone or she was afraid she may never see her dogs again! That is frightening!
So, what do the airlines do about pets on long delays? I think I need to find out.
There were some kind stories in the Wall Street Journal about passengers who flew low cost carriers Southwest Airlines and Jet Blue Airlines during this same period when American was having their problems. Southwest has a complete ‘no pets’ at all policy and Jet Blue will allow 1 pet per cabin on board only. If there is too much pressure on the airlines that allow pets to cater better to them and with the never ending ‘cost cutting’ they may just throw up their hands and ban them completely like the ‘low cost carriers’ do. You think you heard complaining and frustration during the 3 day holiday debacle with American Airlines, imagine what will happen if NO AIRLINES ALLOWED PETS to travel in the United States? What a scary thought. Let’s hope the pet friendly airlines continue to improve and consider the pets in all type of travel situations and that the pet traveling public appreciates their efforts.
“When you feel dog tired at night, it may be because you’ve growled all day long.” - Unknown
