[nagdu] Incident with Southwest Airlines

[Susan Jones]

Wayne,
I doubt Southwest is going to fire the first flight attendant; but they will
likely instruct her.
I would simply write to them, letting them know you understand she is new,
and you don't want anything bad to happen to her, but that you are not happy
with the incident, and the way you were treated.
JMHO,
Susan 
 

-----Original Message-----
From: nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf
Of Wayne Merritt
Sent: Friday, July 09, 2010 3:35 PM
To: NAGDU Mailing List,the National Association of Guide Dog Users
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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