Peacock denied boarding by United

[Mark in CA]

"Service animals" are all the rage these days, it seems, but this one was just too much for United airlines. United gets dinged for a lot of things, but it hard not to agree with this decision.

Woman denied emotional support peacock on United flight | Fox News (http://www.foxnews.com/travel/2018/01/30/woman-denied-emotional-support-peacock-on-united-flight.html)

[act700]

If you need a Peacock for company you shouldn't be out in public unsupervised!

Good on you, United. This nonsense has to stop somewhere.

[ExXB]

If you want emotional support buy First or Business class. If not, try Greyhound. Assistance for the blind/dead is one thing, but this is just an invitation to get a free flight for your pet.

[Basil]

Hmm, wonder if my wife would count as an emotional support companion?
Nah, they'd never buy that . . . . well, not the married guys anyway :E

[clareprop]

Quite nice with a Velouté sauce. Apparently, tastes like chicken...

[baselb]

Assistance for the ... dead
:eek:

To be hoped they're not making their own way on...

;)

[ExXB]

Oops deaf, not dead.

[tdracer]

In Washington state, they are considering a law that would distinguish between 'service animals' (e.g. seeing eye dogs, which are highly trained) and 'emotional support' animals (usually untrained or poorly trained). Businesses would be free to prohibit 'emotional support' animals Misrepresenting an emotional support animals as a service animal would be unlawful and included a $500 fine.
I hope it passes...

[act700]

Hmm, wonder if my wife would count as an emotional support companion?
Nah, they'd never buy that . . . . well, not the married guys anyway :E


Hahaha, lmfao!!!! We should all try and share our experiences...that is if you get as far as the terminal without your "support" beating the crap out of you.

[Tech Guy]

I see an ideal opportunity for unemployed F1 "grid girls" to get free travel as emotional support companions. :)

[PAXboy]

Tech Guy You have found the solution. Lets us know when booking opens. Just as soon as I win the lottery ... :{

[Load Toad]

It's all getting a bit silly, isn't it?

My emotional support includes gin, vodka and wine; they work very well.

[Alsacienne]

And fortunately they are loaded as a matter of course ....

[alserire]

If you need any kind of an animal to keep you company on a plane (bar a guide dog) then you shouldn't be on the plane

[FakePilot]

Is there an informal contest to see who can have the most exotic support animal?
A cockatiel would be a good choice because you wouldn't have to listen to those around you. If they complain, you can just inform them (loudly, sorry) that its a support animal. It might inform them itself. "SUPPORT ANIMAL SOD OFF"

[b1lanc]

My brother-in-law had a parrot that could look you straight in the eye and spit out every four letter word known. Wonder if a parrot could be charged with on-board indecency?

And, Delta is getting media shamed for their tightened policy on support animals.

[Cazalet33]

Woman says she flushed emotional support hamster down toilet after airline refused to let it fly



A woman in Florida says an airline told her to flush her hamster down an airport toilet because the emotional support rodent wasn't allowed to fly with her.


The Miami Herald reports Belen Aldecosea flew home from college to South Florida, having twice called Spirit Airlines to ensure she could bring Pebbles, her pet dwarf hamster with her on the flight.


But when Aldecosea arrived at Baltimore airport, Spirit refused to allow the animal onboard.


The 21-year-old told the paper she flushed Pebbles at an airline employee's suggestion, after running out of other options.


Panicked and needing to return home promptly to deal with a medical issue, Aldecosea was unable to rent a car and agonised for hours.


"She was scared. I was scared. It was horrifying trying to put her in the toilet," Aldecosea said. "I was emotional. I was crying. I sat there for a good 10 minutes crying in the stall."


A spokesman for Spirit acknowledged the airline mistakenly told Aldecosea that Pebbles was allowed. But he denied that a Spirit employee recommended flushing her pet in an airport restroom.


"To be clear, at no point did any of our agents suggest this guest (or any other for that matter) should flush or otherwise injure an animal," spokesman Derek Dombrowski said.



But Aldecosea said she's considering suing Spirit over the conflicting instructions that pressured her into making the decision.


The U.S. Transportation Safety Administration has no problem with carry-on hamsters. "Hamsters are welcome in our checkpoint. Their container would typically go through the X-ray while the owner would hold the hamster as the passenger walks through the metal detector so the creature is not subjected to radiation," according to TSA spokeswoman Sari Koshetz.


She twice called Spirit in advance, to verify the hamster could fly. The rep told her it was fine - an assurance that Spirit agrees was given to Aldecosea. "Our reservation representative, unfortunately, did misinform the guest that a hamster was permitted to fly as an emotional support animal on Spirit Airlines," spokesman Dombrowski wrote in an email.


When Aldecosea showed up that day, she said, the first Spirit agent checked her emotional support pet in with no problem. Pebbles was in a small cage that fit regulations for carry-on luggage.


But as she approached the security checkpoint, a second Spirit employee chased her down, hollering that rodents weren't allowed. Aldecosea said Spirit agents told her she couldn't put the hamster in the cargo hold either.
After hectic discussions, an outraged Aldecosea accepted a flight later that day. She said she had no friends or family in town to pick up Pebbles. It was then, Aldecosea insists, that an employee suggested letting Pebbles go free outside or flushing her down the toilet.


With her flight boarding soon, she pondered whether to let Pebbles free outside. She said she considered it more humane to end her life right away, and not let her run around scared in the cold, only to die getting hit by a car.


"I didn't have any other options," she said.


An "emotional support hamster"? That's a new one for me.

What psychiatric condition requires this? If she thinks that flushing her friend down the toilet is appropriate behaviour, is she fit to fly?

[jack11111]

I would have given it to my emotional support cat to take care of.

[crewmeal]

Never mind a peacock now it's a hamster. What is the matter with people. You can't bring animals (apart from guide dogs) on to aircraft. Mice and rats that manage to board usually result in the aircraft having to be fumiagated.

Woman says she flushed emotional support hamster down toilet after airline refused to let it fly (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/02/09/woman-says-flushed-emotional-support-hamster-toilet-airline/)

[DaveReidUK]

She should have told the crew it was her onboard snack.

[Jn14:6]

Which course was he on?

[roving]

The litigation could run into $millions ;)

As for Spirit — the airline admits that a "reservation representative, unfortunately, did misinform the guest that a hamster was permitted to fly as an emotional support animal."

https://www.buzzfeed.com/juliareinstein/spirit-airlines-hamster?utm_term=.kd9JpMEY1#.iwb5O8QaY

[Heathrow Harry]

I find it amazing they can stop people with peacocks, hamsters and god knows what but can't stop drunks.

[farci]

I recently was on a flight where a 20-something millenial sitting in my row had the most appropriate emotional support animal possible -- a teddy bear that she held clutched to her chest for the entire 2.5 hour flight. As a result, she kept very calm and the bear was a perfectly polite traveling companion -- giving offense to none.

[Mr Mac]

Seenitall
In have lost count of the number of Bears I have seen on board planes over the years, with both children, and as you experienced even some adults, and as you say they are never any trouble ! I have even seem a number of Teddies floating round with the opposite sex but that is another story !

[PAXboy]

Here's one who needed a 'sedation' animal. A teddy bear with chloroform ...

“He was climbing all over the chairs, he was just screaming, would not let up, he was running up and down the aisles, there was nothing [the mother] could do.”Child screams and clambers over seats during eight-hour ?flight from hell? | The Independent (http://www.independent.co.uk/travel/child-screams-transatlantic-flight-eight-hours-video-lufthansa-germany-new-york-a8213516.html)

[Basil]

Little :mad: needed to be spoken to by one of our captains who looked like Bluto :E
(Years ago, invited to flight deck, I let our 4yo enter first and was promptly almost knocked over by terrified child fleeing from our large, black-bearded captain.)

[Piltdown Man]

You do wonder what level emotional support the hamster provided if Belen Aldecosea was mentally able to flush the poor little thing down a toilet. I couldn’t do that to a fish let alone a hamster. Has anybody told her that it probably survived the flush and drowned some time later on or maybe even got squished in a sewerage pump? Just as well she didn’t have a larger animal like a peacock. Imagine the commotion trying to flush one of those buggers down an airport toilet.

[Piltdown Man]

Why on Earth was that nasty, unpleasant little kid allowed to fly? Flying is not a right and it is unfair, unjust and selfish in the extreme to allow that kid to inflict misery on those who have the misfortune to share a (long haul) flight with it. I would have offloaded “Little Precious” and mother without any problem whatsoever. If they want to travel, they sedate the kid or make alternative travel arrangements.