[nagdu] airport adventure

[Sam Hogle]

Hello all. I thought this would be interesting since we've been on this 
topic lately. Mason and I spent the last week in NC, and had an 
interesting experiense today that I haven't had before and hope to not 
have again. Normally, I've noticed that airport staff are generally 
nervous around Mason. However, the guy working security was the exact 
opposite. In fact, when the harness set off the alarm, he wanted me to 
remove it along with the leash and collar. I thought this was odd, but 
since the guy was cooperating with me in helping me keep control of him, 
something that was not an issue since he was behaving, and it sped up 
the process, I wasn't sure what good complaining would do. Also, I'd 
never heard of this happening before. So, that resolved itself and we 
continued on our way. At that point, I was thinking that things would go 
smoothly when the gate agent walked over and said that I "Had to sit in 
the bulk head." I patiently informed her that I did not have to do this, 
to which she responded that it was their policy. I followed up with the 
fact that the ADA keeps this from happening, to which she replied, "It 
doesn't say anything like that in the MDA." You got it people, she 
couldn't even get the name right. Anyway, she went to talk to her 
supervisor, and came back with the same answer. I told her that he 
physically wouldn't fit there since they couldn't block off the seat 
next to me and there was nothing for him to go under. She responded 
with, "not a problem. We can put you in the aisle." I then said that he 
would be in danger of getting run over by the drink carts or stepped on 
by other pasengers, and that this still wouldn't solve the fact that he 
would be in the leg room of the person next to me. At this point, a man 
sitting a few feet away said he didn't mind sitting there, which made me 
realize that we were having this discussion in earshot of everyone, 
something I thought was extremely unprofessional on her part. Anyway, 
after that man said that, she said that they would also let me know when 
the cart was coming, and that Mason would be in no danger. I told her 
that this was still unsafe, and that I couldn't ride there, to which she 
responded, "You have too or you won't go on this flight." At this point 
I was at a loss. Since she was being unreasonable and didn't even want 
to listen to what I had to say, reasoning with her was out. I also knew 
that I couldn't talk with her supervisor since I heard them talking at 
the counter, and knew they were on the same side. I'd thought about 
leaving and trying to rebook my flight since I had no obligations at 
home, but had no way to get the hour long distanse from the airport to 
my aunt's since she was at work at that point and couldn't leave. So, I 
had decided that I would wait untill we were boarding and talk with the 
flight attendent. I figured they would see that Mason wouldn't fit, and 
we could easily straighten this out. However, I guess karma decided to 
step in first. It turns out that the plane we were supposed to ride on 
had maintinanse issues, and the flight was canseled. There were some 
vacant seats on a flight leaving an hour and a half later, and one of 
those seats was given to me. Luckily, that gate agent was more than 
accomidating and the original agent saw the whole transaction. So, I 
guess that showed her what she could do with her "policies." lol Anyway, 
Mason and I made it home safely, and I'm definitely considering writting 
to Delta about this one. I don't mind educating people about rules and 
regulations, but I won't have people completely brush me off and treat 
me or my dog like second class citizens.
Sam and Seeing Eye Dog Mason