[nagdu] Air Charters and the extra seat

[Peter Donahue]

Hello Dar and listers,

    Thanks to our meeting location and the lateness of our paratransit 
service I decided to stay home so can answer your question. I'd like to 
believe that my being asked to buy the second seat was due to my not being 
able to fit in the standard coach seat with both arms down.

    What really makes me feel uncomfortable about this business is that it's 
a convenient way for an airline to mask discrimination against a guide dog 
user. I wonder if the same thing would have happened had I not had Johnny 
with me? For all I know there may have been a passenger or crew member that 
may have objected to there being a dog on the plane. To refuse us due to the 
dog out right would be a direct violation of the Air Carrier Access Act. 
However it was observed that I was large and could be classified as a 
passenger of size and subject to Southwest's rules regarding carriage of 
such passengers. If indeed someone took issue with there being a dog on the 
flight and noticing that I was a large passenger they found an easy and 
convenient way to dodge the ACAA, "If he can't pay for an extra seat we'll 
be rid of him and that dog" the thinking would probably go. Be where that 
using an airline's passenger of size policy to attempt to cover up 
discrimination against a guide dog user would most likely be a bear to prove 
in court. For all I know I could take another Southwest flight and no one 
would say anything about it. They'd figure that although I was a large 
passenger and the flight wasn't sold out they could give me the extra room 
for myself and Johnny so why make a big deal about it. It's just a matter of 
time before some airline makes the wrong judgment call and gives us the 
conclusive evidence needed to win a guide dog discrimination complaint 
against them resulting from the abuse of their passenger of size policy to 
put such policies out of commission and hasten the day when wider seats are 
installed in all classes of service making such policies unnecessary and 
giving us additional room for our dogs.

    Oh yes! Printing out my boarding pass in Detroit for my return flight 
was quite amusing. Before my boarding pass with the extra seat was printed 
all of Southwest's computers in Detroit went down for about a half hour. It 
took 2 CROS,6 ticket agents, and calls to Southwest's Corporate Headquarters 
to get the computers in Detroit back up and print my boarding pass. I 
thought to myself in the words of Paul Watson of Whale wars fame, "They 
picked a fight with the wrong passenger!"

    This story has one more scary chapter. We changed planes in Nashville. 
Before our flight to San Antonio left the ground we heard an awful grinding 
sound coming from the lower part of the aircraft. That shook up a few 
passengers. One of them began crying. I have reason to believe that Johnny 
must have smelled something unusual as he became wrestless but settled down 
once we began climbing and the plane leveled off. I can't help but wonder if 
he sensed a possible danger and was alerting me to it. The grouchy head 
flight attendant wasn't making things much better. She was rude and nasty to 
everyone on board. Upon landing in San Antonio we told the pilot what we 
heard. He was surprised to learn that we heard the noise before the plane 
left the runway and not after we became airborne. Such sounds are heard when 
the wheels are retracted in to the belly of the plane during ascent but we 
heard that horrible sound before the plane left the ground. To our shock the 
captain seen unconcerned. Safety you say? To my way of thinking no one 
should have been allowed to set foot on that plane until it was inspected to 
be sure it was fit to remain in service.

    I'm sure many of you heard the news a few days later about the Southwest 
jet that lost a part of its fuselage. The question that haunts us is whether 
or not we may have been on that same plane. If the captain took our concerns 
seriously and the aircraft undergone a thorough inspection and the problems 
with the plane's fuselage discovered and repaired. that air mishap could 
have been prevented.

    It's this kind of stuff that has us and many others seeking airtravel 
alternatives such as the use of chartered flights. As for guide dogs on air 
charters I've heard that many charter companies allow pets to fly in the 
cabin with their owners so flying with a guide dog in the cabin shouldn't be 
an issue. I'm sure we'll have more to say about this in the coming months. 
All the best for a great weekend.

Peter Donahue


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "d m gina" <dmgina at samobile.net>
To: <nagdu at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Saturday, August 15, 2009 12:23 PM
Subject: Re: [nagdu] Air Charters and the extra seat


I am pleased you got your money back.
Now they embarrassed you because of size not how large the dog was?
Is this the concern?
Or because the dog would go in front of the second seat?
I just need to understand.
this is where I question the balk head, because no matter the size of
the dog, they have to go across the feet, they can't go under the seat
in front of you.
or they stick out in the isle in balk head.
thanks for replying so quickly.
I would be willing to ask my chapter or on the MAB list, if you would
like me to.
Asking how folks would feel about a charter plane.
As long as I understood how folks in Montana would get to the charter.
I sure would hate to see the plane go down with so many blind persons
on it though.
just my thoughts.

-- 
--Dar
skype
 dmgina23
 every saint has a past
every sinner has a future

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