[nagdu] Charlotte and Philadelphia airport relief areas

Dailyah Patt dailyahpatt at yahoo.com
Mon May 28 20:48:33 UTC 2012


Greg's right.  I think the layover in question is 2 hours, IIRC.  The rule says that all major airports must have service animal relief areas that are designated...nothing says those areas have to be inside the TSA clean zone or whatever it's called.  As a result, most of the areas at airports are outside TSA and basically to hell and gone...not to mention frequently pretty "hidden".  I don't know about ya'll, but there's no way I'd be able to get to (possibly) the other side of the airport and then back through security in time to check in at my next flight if I only had two hours.

I've had a lot of success sweet talking flight attendants into convincing one of the pilots to take my dog right down onto the tarmac below the plane to potty.   Since I make sure that my dogs all will happily go on concrete, this is a MUCH easier solution that finding and getting to the designated "relief area".  All you need to do is ask around for someone who is badged to go onto the tarmac (the luggage folks who put my wheelchair underneath have also been lifesavers!) and then it's usually an easy sell.  I've had them joke that they thought about keeping my dog, but I've always figured handing the leash over to an airline employee at an airport with cameras everywhere should be pretty safe. 

I used to have a photo of my first partner (that I'd managed to snap from one of the overlook windows) doing his business under the wing of a huge plane with all sorts of chaos and I'm sure noise all around him...not a care in the world.  He'd been told he could go by a very nice pilot, so he did!  Funny the things we handlers can be so proud of our dogs for.  Crazy distractions and yet he did just what he was told like a good lad!  lol

Dailyah



>________________________________
> From: NCBootman <ncbootman at gmail.com>
>To: "NAGDU Mailing List, the National Association of Guide Dog Users" <nagdu at nfbnet.org> 
>Sent: Sunday, May 27, 2012 6:18 PM
>Subject: Re: [nagdu] Charlotte and Philadelphia airport relief areas
> 
>Have you considered calling the airport directly and inquiring from them or the TSA's Disability Services or your specific airline? It would seem to me that if they know you have a need to relieve your dog, it may be easier for them to accommodate that need This is a situation where you may need assistance from a sighted person to go some place not usually available to the public and you may need someone with you for safety reasons or guidelines. They could have this person standing by if they know you have the need.if they can think about it or they can simply tell you what they have. I think most airlines had rather try and accommodate a small request like that than have your dog potentially have an accident that is not the dog's fault. Also, if you never ask an airport or airline about this, they will never know it is important. Sighted people don't think like we do (big smile).
>
>Greg
>
>


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