In early December 2020, the US Department of Transportation issued a final ruling regarding emotional support animals (ESAs), allowing airlines to no longer accommodate ESAs if they don’t want to.
Continue reading: Southwest Airlines Bans Emotional Support Animals
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
As long there's loopholes, people will continue on abusing them and we all know what will happen, more bans in the near future.
So I have to leave my "service cat" home on business trips? Darn! My cat was in awe of the Peacocks on board but did not not care much for the snakes or pigs.
You mean we got to pay kennel fees again? It was a good ride though. Kids got to take fluffy and we-we to Grandma’s house every summer while us adults went to play. It was a win-win situation for the whole family.
This whole issue of emotional/psychiatric supports animals is a USA only thing. Of course Americans will continue to loophole this. I saw a couple bring two standard poodles on a Southwest flight which of course took up the entire floor three across in the bulkhead. The same floor where you cannot have a handbag or backpack due to "safety".
Lucky, how come you keep calling out this “loophole” in every article you post? Wouldn’t it be better to just stay silent on the matter rather than spoon feed the scammers a loophole on a silver platter?
We worked on this issue for 2 years with DOT, the airline industry and advocates for the disability community. Let me know if you want to learn more.
Sheri Soltes
Assistance Dogs International, North America
Vice President
Chair, ADI NA Legislative and Advocacy Committee
[email protected]
It does not take Lucky spoon feeding anything to the scammers. For years, these people have been taking advantage of a very narrow system meant to accomodate the blind, etc. They don't need Lucky, or anyone else, for them to continue to seek---and find---ways to circumvent things. Ever heard "just Google it"?
When the intent is to bring either a very large dog onto the airplane against pet rules, or to avoid paying the pet fee, the practice is clearly UNETHICAL.
I do not believe that OMAT should be instructing people in how to unethically bypass the DOT SAFETY rules.
If there is ever a crash with survivors these pets will get in the way of people trying to escape. That's why they were banned in the first place. All those who actively support bypassing the intent of the DOT ruling will be directly responsible for any increase in injury or death of passengers caused by the difficulty in exiting a distressed airliner.
All airliners must pass a DOT test for exiting the airplane within a short period of time. With these new rules the test should be conducted with 10% 'psychiatric animals' in the cabin. With all airliners failing the test with animals onboard then perhaps sense will return to this discussion.
As someone who suffers from a dog and cat allergy, flying has become increasingly stressful in recent years. I love pets, but they make me sick. And unfortunately, their dander stays behind even once they are gone.
This is a step in the right direction, but even better would be to have some kind of registry for those with pet allergies so that we don't get seated next to pets. For all airlines I've flown with, when there is a pet on the plane, it's the allergy sufferer who needs to be re-seated - not the pet.
This won't change much at all. People will continue using the loopholes to annoy others with their terrible animals.
People who need emotional support animals in order to fly are awful people. That's right, I said it! These people should fly Spirit airlines and have fist fights with other passengers! LOL! Actually, I'm kidding - but the whole emotional support animal things was such bull@#$& to begin with and the animals smell on the planes too.