[NAGDU] Spirit Airlines incident

[motleyglo at aol.com]

Heather, you make good points and I loved the story! 
Safe travels.
Gloria


-----Original Message-----
From: Heather Bird via NAGDU <nagdu at nfbnet.org>
To: nagdu at nfbnet.org
Cc: Heather Bird <heather.l.bird at gmail.com>
Sent: Wed, Sep 7, 2022 12:37 pm
Subject: Re: [NAGDU] Spirit Airlines incident

This has a bit of an urban legend sound to it, so I’m thinking this is not true. Rather, I am thinking this is a story where something happened, but it wasn’t a guide dog, maybe a pet dog, or, maybe a guide dog was made to fly under the plane, but did not die. Likely there were two or more stories involving dogs, and in the public mind, some of these sort of melded together, to form the version that your friends conveyed to you. I did a little bit of initial research, and I don’t see a story like this, I see some that have some similar elements, but none where a guide dog was placed under the plane and died. If your friends could let you know where they heard or read this story, it might be helpful in trying to track it down or figure out what happened.

I am actually very glad that we do not have to use the bulkhead seats. First of all, different planes, from different manufacturers, are configured in different ways, and in some cases, the bulkhead seat actually has less space, because you can’t put the dog under your seat because there is a bar that blocks it off, so they have your foot space, and the space under the seat in front of you, but if there’s a bulkhead wall nearby, then they can’t have the space under your seat, and they can’t have the space under the seat in front of you, because there is no seat in front of you, just a wall, and could be limited to a space that is the same size as your foot space otherwise would’ve been, except, without the space in front of you available. I’m not saying the bulkhead is never a good option, because sometimes it is, especially if you’re traveling with one or two other people, who don’t mind the dog being in their foot space, but under the new regulations you’re not allowed to have your dog encroach on anyone else’s foot space, and a bulkhead row, that’s actually more likely to happen than in a standard row of seats. Dogs like to be in a den, and when you get them under the seat in front of you, especially if you can get them turned around so that their body is under there, and their head and torso are in your actual foot space, so they can see you, and still feel secure, you have a lot more control of where they are, and keeping them out of other peoples space. So, I don’t mind if a particular handler likes the bulkhead or doesn’t like the bulkhead, but I would never support any policy that urges airlines to see people in the bulkhead row, since we’ve actually been fighting to have them not stick us in a particular row that we haven’t requested to be in.Also, I would never say anything as extreme as “there are no Guide Dogs you cannot legitimately fit under a Seat, ever. “Because there are some, but they are fairly rare. I think often people, sometimes handlers, sometimes airport staff, assume that a dog won’t fit, when it can. Also, I have learned that the size of the dog is sometimes not as important as the sheep of the dog. For instance, a small dog was elderly and has arthritis, could have a very hard time curling up small enough to fit under a seat. A young supple dog that is actually quite a bit larger might fit just fine. A dog who is very tall, but not very long from hips to shoulders, might fit quite well, where another dog weighs the same, or even weighs a little bit less, but it’s very long, might not fit quite as well. I think it’s also important to remember that dogs aren’t people, and they don’t always feel the same way about things as we do. If you put a person in a space, sized to scale, to be equivalent to the dog under the seat scenario, most people would not be happy, somebody even have a panic attack. But dogs are often comforted by being in crates, or in an even smaller spaces, even having something on top of them, hence the trend of dog beds that have a blanket layer on top that they can go under, that actively puts the weight of a blanket on them. I know that my seat preference, is the window seat of a standard row of seats, not the bulkhead, not the middle seat of a standard row, and never the aisle seat, that is no fun. When my dog is under the seat in front of me, I can put my leg in between my dog and the person sitting next to me, so they can’t claim the dog is touching them, bothering them, or encroaching on their foot space, which is especially important under the new regulations with their new wording. I find it really interesting that in Australia they’ll give you an extra seat, and on the surface I think that’s really nice of them. However, I really hope that if people used to traveling on those airlines with that policy, travel to another country, they are aware that that’s not going to be the case on a lot of other airlines, which could cause them difficulty if their dog is not used to, and they are not used to putting their dog into, a smaller space. On a more cheerful note, I’ll share a quick story. I was once on a flight with two other service dog handlers. We had a 70 pound German Shepherd, a 60 pound German Shepherd, and an 80 pound black lab. We all put our dogs under the seats with their butt under the seat in front of us, and their heads facing us. The black lab was in the middle, and at one point he had two German Shepherd‘s heads on his shoulders because they were using him like a pillow. We were all settled, when I heard some flight attendants talking, and I eavesdropped, they were distressed that they saw three Guide Dogs listed on the manifest, and they were concerned that they wouldn’t all fit, they were talking about moving someone to a different flight, or how the dogs were going to bother people on this flight. Then, one of the flight attendant said, “I don’t see them in the boarding area, maybe they’re not coming. “So someone went to go and check with the gate agent, and another flight attendant said let me look and see if they’re already on board. She walked up and down a couple of times sort of looking around, and came back and said “I don’t see them on here, I have no idea where they are. “ I was in the aisle seat, and wearing a skirt, which did somewhat obscure my dogs head. When they started turning the tone of the conversation towards how “this isn’t acceptable, we just can’t have that many dogs on a plane, they should really limited to one per flight. “ and other similar BS, I finally spoke up and said “you don’t think three dogs will fit on the flight? “ The lady said no, so I asked “you don’t think they would fit in the same section of the cabin ? “Again she said no and then I said what if they all fit in the same row, and she laughed and said that was impossible, I said come over here and take a look then. Then all the flight attendants had to come and take a look, and I told them “take a picture, and next time why don’t you worry about a problem when it happens, and let people disabilities manage their own needs, especially when they know what they’re doing. “They agreed that they would in future, and I wouldn’t be surprised if that picture wound up on someone’s Facebook page or somewhere else.

I am in transit right now, and using dictation on my phone, so please chalk any errors up to that. I already noticed that it put the word cheap instead of shape like the woolly things with white coats, as opposed to the configuration of some thing, although I have to say that’s a cute dictation error.

Sent from my iPhone

> On Sep 7, 2022, at 10:01 AM, gloria profusek via NAGDU <nagdu at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> 

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