[nagdu] Incident with Southwest Airlines

[Wayne Merritt]

Greetings all. You're the first that I've told about this incident, so
pardon any rambling. I've just gotten hoem from the convention, which
was awesome by the way, but had an incident on my flight on Southwest
today. This was the ffirst time something like this has happened to me
in the 18 or so years I've been flying on Southwest. When I got on the
plane I was told by a flight attendant that I had to sit in the front
row in order to give more room to my dog guide. When I attempted to
argue the point, she said that I had to sit there. I had asked someone
before boarding what the capacity of the fligh twas and they said that
there was 100 out of 137 total seats. When I attempted to ask for
another seat, I was told by this flight attendant that I had to sit in
the front row, again to allow more room for my dog. This wasn't the
first time that this type of thing has happened to me. I tried to
explain that the regular seats actually worked out better for us since
I could slide the dog under the seat in front of me and there was room
for my long legs, but it didn't make any difference. There were
several back and forth discussions but in the interest of time,
nothing changed. At one point she said that she had to seat me there
according to their policies, to which I asked what policies. She never
really said which policies these were other than airline policies for
large animals. I should point out that my guide is 65 pounds. My
roommate's guide this week was over 100 pounds, if she wants to know
about large animals, but anyway. I asked her if she was familiar with
the Air Carrier Access Act, and she said that she was not, and then
paused and said that she was following her policies. She then told me
that her husband was unemployed and she didn't want to lose her job. I
tried several times to point out that there were plenty of seats if
only 100 of them were taken up, and the attendant said that she
couldn't switch me. She then said that people liked to spread out, I
suppose offering this as an excuse. I said that I didn't need that
much space, only a seat since the dog would be under the seat in front
of me. This didn't make any difference. I even offerd to demonstrate
to her, if she would show me to a free seat, how the dog fit under the
seat in front, but this didn't change anything either. Finally, a
second attendant came over to offer his assistance, In short order, he
asked me where I'd like to sit, and found me a seat near the back of
the plane. There happen to be an open seat next to me, but true to my
word, I didn't spread out. When I was getting settled, the second
attendant commented that my dog knew what to do and fit right under
the seat in front of me, as I was guiding her into that position. I
asked if he would explain this to the first attendant so that she
might understand better how easy this was. He said that he would, but
also that the first attendant I was talking with was new and had not
been working for Southwest very long, and thus was not aware of all of
the issues, which I assume he meant accommodating and that it was
against the law to require that i be seated in the front row. Had the
flight been longer than 45 minutes, like several hours, I very well
might have taken that front seat, but based on past experience I knew
that there would not be enough room, and that in fact my dog would
take up less room if I could slide her under the seat in front of me,
verses lying across the foot area of several seats.

I don't want to cause the first fligh tattendant to lose her job,
however, I feel I must at least call Southwest and make the incident
known. AS an interesting side note, when exiting the plane, when I
asked for the first flight attendant's last name, she refused to tell
me, at least not until after I told her what my last name was. She
tried to shoe me on out the door and on my way. She finally told me
her last name, to which I thanked her and was on my way. I heard her
rmark to someone else that I was going to have her written up, since
she told me her last name. When I asked the secodn attendant that was
nice and cordial to me what his last name was, he not only told me but
also spelled it for me.

As I say, this was the first time that something like this has
happened, where I was given no choice but to sit in the bulk head
area, and where I was not allowed to switch seats even though plenty
of seats were open. I'm concerned and a little conflicted as to how to
resolve this. Any ideas? I learned during this process that someone in
operations had called ahead to tell the flight attendants that I was
coming with a dog guide. However, as I say, if there is ever any
discussion, I calmly point out that there's not enough room between my
long legs and my dog's long legs, and this usually resolves the issue.
I've never had this sort of thing happen to me. All input welcome.

Sincerely,
Wayne Merritt

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