Dog dies after United flight attendant forces it into overhead bin

[Applewood]

Updated story -- the owners speak out.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/owners-of-dog-that-died-mid-flight-in-overhead-bin-speak-out/ar-BBKc8Wa?li=BBmkt5R&ocid=spartandhp

The flight attendant claims she didn't know there was a dog in the carrier.  Really?

[Restored]

What is with people flying with dogs all of a sudden?

[Applewood]

What is with people flying with dogs all of a sudden?

I don't know that it's been "all of a sudden."  Up until recently, pets were stored with the checked baggage.  A number of pets died that way.  So now if they can fit in an approved carrier, they can fly with the passengers.  But under the seat, not in the overheads.

[Restored]

I haven't flown since 1994 and I don't recall ever seeing a dog in a flight. I can't imagine being allergic to a cat or dog and being trapped on an airplane with one.

[LilLamb]

@LilLamb

And I've been threatened with arrest for exactly what you recommend.  I've seen security called on a guy when he asked to speak to a supervisor.   The agent said it was a threat.

Aww I’m sorry I forgot that all those airline employees are the same, just like all them dang cops. I can’t adjust myself into living in this new victim’s society.

[Polly Ticks]

I would guess that it was about air flow. No flowing air in the bins, build up of CO2, and lights out.
Don't really understand how the owner could resist checking on the dog every hour or so to see how it is doing. Or at least once to give it some water or something. Speaking for myself, I would not have been able to resist taking a peek now and then.

Sounds like the owner put the dog up there, shut the door, and from then on it was 'out of sight, out of mind'.

The mother was traveling with a 2-month-old baby and they were stuck in their seats due to turbulence, per this article:

https://www.today.com/pets/dog-dies-united-airlines-after-being-put-overhead-bin-t125024

[EasyAce]

What is with people flying with dogs all of a sudden?

It's not exactly unheard of, particularly with a) very small dogs, or b) service dogs. But a) you don't normally see more than
one or at the most two passengers flying with a dog; and, b) the doggies don't normally die in flight, either.

[AllThatJazzZ]

Someone would have to pay with their life if such a thing happened to my dog. But it wouldn't happen to my dog because I would NEVER allow them to do that to my dog. I'm sure my hissy fit would end up on the evening news and get me kicked off the flight, but hell would freeze over before anyone could successfully remove my dog from me to put it in the overhead compartment.

This story makes me want to throw up. 

[AllThatJazzZ]

I haven't flown since 1994 and I don't recall ever seeing a dog in a flight. I can't imagine being allergic to a cat or dog and being trapped on an airplane with one.

It can't be any worse than it is for those of us who are allergic to fragrances and are trapped on airplanes with several people wearing perfume, cologne and/or lotions.

[driftdiver]

Aww I’m sorry I forgot that all those airline employees are the same, just like all them dang cops. I can’t adjust myself into living in this new victim’s society.

@LilLamb
What a stupid thing to say.

 

[Fishrrman]

I've posted it before and I'll post it again:
The last time I was on a big jet was... 1984.
I have no intention of setting foot on any airplane again.
Ever.

[Applewood]

United, it seems, can't do anything right:

United sends family's dog to Japan instead of Kansas by mistake

A family moving from Oregon to Kansas claims a mix-up with United Airlines resulted in their dog being sent to Japan by mistake.

Kara Swindle was traveling to Wichita with her two small children on a United flight Tuesday. The family’s 10-year-old German shepherd, Irgo, was being flown on a separate flight the same day, KCTV reports.

...

More at:

www.foxnews.com/travel/2018/03/14/united-sends-familys-dog-to-japan-instead-kansas-by-mistake.html

[anubias]

I haven't flown since 1994 and I don't recall ever seeing a dog in a flight. I can't imagine being allergic to a cat or dog and being trapped on an airplane with one.

I fly with my dogs often.  They both fit in the same carrier and fit nicely under the seat.  Rarely does anyone realize my dogs are with me as the carrier has wheels and handle that looks much like any other carry-on piece of luggage.  I don’t broadcast that I have the dogs with me to avoid problems.  My dogs are “hypo-allergenic”.

Years ago, I had not learned how to fly with dogs the smart way.  I had a three-legged flight.  The first leg went off without a hitch.  The next leg, a woman threw a hissy fit about the dogs as she saw them under the seat in front of me as I had the screen where the dogs can see out pointed toward me.  She claimed two dogs were not allowed in a single carrier and demanded I be removed from the flight.  The flight attendant had to call the airline to see what was to be done.  Thankfully, the airline ruled in my favor and the flight attendant told the woman she had to change seats.  The woman refused and got her ass taken off the plane for it.

On the last leg of the flight, a Muslim man sat beside me.  The moment he saw the dog, he jumped out of his seat and opened his mouth widely to yell.  He looked like a fish out of water with his mouth opening and closing with no sound coming out of it.  He thought better of it as he finally shut his mouth and sat his ass back down.  He was obviously stressed and kept glaring at the dogs, but kept his mouth shut.  Being a bitch and unwise, I removed one of the dogs from the carrier and put her on my lap just to irk the dog-hating Muzzie wishing it was a pig and hoping he got his ass thrown off the flight like the previous woman.  Stupid move, but I had had about enough from dog-haters by that point and was not thrilled to be flying next to a Muzzie anyway.  He didn’t object as I expected and I soon fell asleep as he didn’t give me the reaction I expected. 

When the flight attendant woke me up for the descent, I was shocked to see my dog’s head and front paws on the Muzzie’s leg.  The Muzzie was smiling and petting her.  I apologized to the man, but he told me to leave her as she was,  they had a great time on the flight, and he plans to get himself a puppy as he had no idea that they were so clean, pleasant and nice.  The last thing he said to me when we left the plane was that he loved my dog.  I was ashamed that I had removed her from the carrier solely to aggravate the man.  One is not supposed to remove the animals from their carrier and I knew better.

From that flight on, I decided to try to never let anyone know the dogs were with me to avoid such situations and it has worked well.  Although my dog was able to convert a dog-hater, it is much better to travel discreetly so that the dog-haters don’t realize they are there.

[AllThatJazzZ]

I fly with my dogs often.  They both fit in the same carrier and fit nicely under the seat.  Rarely does anyone realize my dogs are with me as the carrier has wheels and handle that looks much like any other carry-on piece of luggage.  I don’t broadcast that I have the dogs with me to avoid problems.  My dogs are “hypo-allergenic”.

Years ago, I had not learned how to fly with dogs the smart way.  I had a three-legged flight.  The first leg went off without a hitch.  The next leg, a woman threw a hissy fit about the dogs as she saw them under the seat in front of me as I had the screen where the dogs can see out pointed toward me.  She claimed two dogs were not allowed in a single carrier and demanded I be removed from the flight.  The flight attendant had to call the airline to see what was to be done.  Thankfully, the airline ruled in my favor and the flight attendant told the woman she had to change seats.  The woman refused and got her ass taken off the plane for it.

On the last leg of the flight, a Muslim man sat beside me.  The moment he saw the dog, he jumped out of his seat and opened his mouth widely to yell.  He looked like a fish out of water with his mouth opening and closing with no sound coming out of it.  He thought better of it as he finally shut his mouth and sat his ass back down.  He was obviously stressed and kept glaring at the dogs, but kept his mouth shut.  Being a bitch and unwise, I removed one of the dogs from the carrier and put her on my lap just to irk the dog-hating Muzzie wishing it was a pig and hoping he got his ass thrown off the flight like the previous woman.  Stupid move, but I had had about enough from dog-haters by that point and was not thrilled to be flying next to a Muzzie anyway.  He didn’t object as I expected and I soon fell asleep as he didn’t give me the reaction I expected. 

When the flight attendant woke me up for the descent, I was shocked to see my dog’s head and front paws on the Muzzie’s leg.  The Muzzie was smiling and petting her.  I apologized to the man, but he told me to leave her as she was,  they had a great time on the flight, and he plans to get himself a puppy as he had no idea that they were so clean, pleasant and nice.  The last thing he said to me when we left the plane was that he loved my dog.  I was ashamed that I had removed her from the carrier solely to aggravate the man.  One is not supposed to remove the animals from their carrier and I knew better.

From that flight on, I decided to try to never let anyone know the dogs were with me to avoid such situations and it has worked well.  Although my dog was able to convert a dog-hater, it is much better to travel discreetly so that the dog-haters don’t realize they are there.

Interesting story. I was delighted to learn that the control-freak woman got removed from the plane. And my jaw literally dropped as I read that your little dog's head and paws were on the Muslim man's leg! I expected the worst and was surprised at how it turned out. Congrats to you for making a convert.

I also have tiny, hypoallergenic dogs that fit in the same carrier. Even if I turned their carrier away from me, they'd still make noises that would alert someone to the fact that there were dogs in that bag. Yours must be better behaved than mine.  ^-^

Good information for those who travel with dogs. Thanks for taking the time to pass it along.

[Suppressed]

My dig was left in a crate on the tarmac in a snowstorm as a puppy.  Fortunately, this was decades before 9/11, and my dad pushed past and out ran security to get to her.  The airport personnel then got her inside once they saw they'd screwed up.

Nowdays, my puppy would be dead.

[Suppressed]

United has/had worst record on pet deaths
http://www.latimes.com/opinion/opinion-la/la-ol-united-pet-deaths-20170413-story.html

[Victoria33]

@Freya
@Suppressed
@mystery-ak
@txradioguy 

I have flown to a number of countries.  My husband's company sent us overseas for two weeks every two years, all expenses paid, even food.  In a year we didn't go overseas, it was a location in the states, all expenses paid for two weeks. 

One time I took my son, living in London, a CONCRETE ARMADILLO to put in his yard to remind him of Texas.  A large concrete Armadillo weighs many pounds - I had it in a bag with wheels to take it on plane with me as they would have never allowed it to go in the luggage hold because they would have weighed it and dumped it. 

When I had to pick it up to put it on the conveyor belt with airline people there, a heavy duty man in our group and I had a plan; he picked it up as though it weighed nothing so no one knew it was heavy; it was so heavy I could not pick it up.  It would have been taken from me if they knew how much it weighed.

I rolled it right into the London hotel room and son came and was happy to get an Armadillo into his sooo English garden.

My husband died in 1989, so no more trips to foreign countries but I had already been to those I wanted to visit.  After that time, I flew by myself to London several times until 2000.   

Here is the point (besides the Armadillo story)- the last time I flew to London was in the year "2000". September, 2001, was when the towers fell and flying was changed forever.  I have not flown anywhere since 2000.  I don't know the rules now, what I could pack and not pack, what I could carry on and not carry on.  I guess they would take the knife out of my purse?  But, I have a second knife that looks like a key (knife is inside the key) - could I fake them out with that?

I couldn't get my concrete Armadillo on there now -  i would likely end up in jail for carrying a lethal Armadillo.

A travel tip:  The worst bathroom I was ever in was at the Greece airport - there were flies on the toilet seat.  I did not sit down.  If you go to Greece, expect that at their airport potty room.

Another tip:  How to determine the economic status of a country:  The softer the toilet paper is in a public restroom or hotel, the higher the country's economic status.

I had a collection of toilet paper from every country to prove my economic evaluation of each country.  TAKE A ROLL OF YOUR TOILET PAPER WITH YOU WHEN YOU FLY TO ANOTHER COUNTRY.

[austingirl]

Someone would have to pay with their life if such a thing happened to my dog. But it wouldn't happen to my dog because I would NEVER allow them to do that to my dog. I'm sure my hissy fit would end up on the evening news and get me kicked off the flight, but hell would freeze over before anyone could successfully remove my dog from me to put it in the overhead compartment.

This story makes me want to throw up.

Exactly how I feel.

[LilLamb]

@LilLamb
What a stupid thing to say.

Why is it stupid to expect a person to take responsibility for protecting their family dog? Why is it stupid to not lump all airline employees in your neat little all of them are impossible to deal with so do nothing that is reasonable to protect your dog and then blame them when your dog dies logic?

[AllThatJazzZ]

One time I took my son, living in London, a CONCRETE ARMADILLO to put in his yard to remind him of Texas. 

@Victoria33

I got this far and had the hankering to hear from Gary P. Nunn.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EhN2E4hRDKk Cranked it up and sang it through twice. It's the Texan in me.

Great story about the concrete armadillo. Very cagey of y'all.

[AllThatJazzZ]

Exactly how I feel.

@austingirl

Another chick with her head on straight. Thumbs up.

[anubias]

Interesting story. I was delighted to learn that the control-freak woman got removed from the plane. And my jaw literally dropped as I read that your little dog's head and paws were on the Muslim man's leg! I expected the worst and was surprised at how it turned out. Congrats to you for making a convert.

I also have tiny, hypoallergenic dogs that fit in the same carrier. Even if I turned their carrier away from me, they'd still make noises that would alert someone to the fact that there were dogs in that bag. Yours must be better behaved than mine.  ^-^

Good information for those who travel with dogs. Thanks for taking the time to pass it along.

I’m not sure why mine behave, but I am grateful that they do.  I guess they just know to be quiet and glad to not be left behind.  I did train them a bit when I first got the carrier to get them used to it, but nothing more than dragging them around in the carrier.

A hard-sided, sturdy pet carrier that won’t wiggle works best at being covert if you have wiggles.  Mine is a backpack that I wear until I extend the handle and wheels to roll it onto the plane as I don’t want the people boarding the plane behind me to be at eye level with the dogs.  The backpack works well while in line at the ticket counter if I have to check in luggage (and Hotels.)  I try to avoid all people seeing them with the exception of security that has to see them as they have to be removed from the carrier and walked through the metal detector.  I also put my feet beside the carrier, shielding it as much as I can.

I take them with me most everywhere I go when out of town.  Nobody ever notices until I take them out to go do their business.

[anubias]

Exactly how I feel.

Me too.  I would have been charged with a felony as my dog would not have gone in the overhead compartment.  With that said, I am self-employed and do not have to worry about jobs that a felony would bar my employment; although I doubt I would think about that when some stupid fool is trying to take my dog from me.  There would have been an emergency landing to arrest me, I have no doubt.