[nagdu] Incident with Southwest Airlines

Sat Jul 10 20:24:09 UTC 2010

Wayne, I think that sending this letter to SouthWest, but with an 
explanation that you don't want the attendant reprimanded, but rather, 
educated would be a good thing to do.
Sherri
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Julie J" <julielj at windstream.net>
To: "NAGDU Mailing List,the National Association of Guide Dog Users" 
<nagdu at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Saturday, July 10, 2010 3:11 PM
Subject: Re: [nagdu] Incident with Southwest Airlines


> 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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