[nagdu] Incident with Southwest Airlines

Julie J julielj at windstream.net
Sat Jul 10 19:11:37 UTC 2010


Wayne,

I think what you have written in your email is very good.  I think if it 
were me, I'd base my letter to Southwest on that.  It covers all the facts, 
illustrates your concerns and feelings about the situation very well.

JMO
Julie

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Wayne Merritt" <wcmerritt at gmail.com>
To: "NAGDU Mailing List,the National Association of Guide Dog Users" 
<nagdu at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Friday, July 09, 2010 2:34 PM
Subject: [nagdu] Incident with Southwest Airlines


> 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
>
> -- 
> Follow me on Twitter at:
> www.twitter.com/wcmerritt
> My websites:
> www.wayneism.com
> www.whitecaneday.org
>
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