Seasons greetings and good morning, everyone! We welcome you to another of CertaPet’s action-packed newsletters. This week, we’re highlighting a viral report about a disgruntled Delta Airlines passenger losing his complimentary upgrade to a Service Dog.
Online Debate Begins After Passenger Claims Airline Prioritized Service Animal Over A Seat Upgrade
Air travel can be highly stressful, particularly when an airline makes random changes to your seating arrangement for no apparent reason. That’s partly what traveler @ben_bob on Reddit was so upset about recently.
Redditor @ben_bob took to the r/delta forum on the social media platform to recount his painful flying experience with Delta Airlines. He claims he was forced to give up his first-class seat for a Service Animal.
“I got upgraded to first this morning, only to be downgraded 15 minutes later to a worse seat than I originally had,” he wrote in his post. He states that when he asked a desk agent for an explanation, he was told, “Something changed.”
Upon boarding, he saw the Service Dog occupying the relevant bulkhead seat. The passenger claims he was disgruntled with the news of being downgraded, but when he saw the Service Animal, he felt livid. Unfortunately, Delta’s customer support informed him that passengers could be relocated to accommodate Service Animals after the incident took place.
Nonetheless, the passenger furiously questioned Delta’s loyalty program in his post, writing, “There’s no way that dog has spent as much with this airline as I have. What’s the point of being loyal anymore?”
Generally, Delta Airlines doesn’t guarantee complimentary upgrades and reserves the right to change seating at its discretion. It’s also among the airline’s policies to revoke such upgrades for various reasons, including accommodating Service Animals.
The Reddit post sparked a mixture of reactions. One commenter noted, “To lose an upgrade isn’t the issue, but being downgraded to a worse seat is an absolute failure of customer service.” This seems to be the crux of the matter. Delta has taken to selling a larger portion of its premium cabin seats and reducing the number of complimentary upgrades to prioritize revenue generation. And while that makes economic sense, it’s led to frequent flyer members losing out.
An argument could be made that Delta Airlines could have avoided a displeased passenger had their staff been more transparent about the terms and conditions of complimentary upgrades.
Travel expert Gary Leff sided with the passenger, questioning Delta’s decision. “I don’t see Delta’s logic in bumping a passenger from first class to accommodate a dog in the bulkhead,” he wrote on View From The Wing. While the Air Carrier Access Act requires airlines to make reasonable accommodations for Service Animals, he noted, “A last-minute seat switch certainly wouldn’t be required.”
Source: DailyMail
CertaPet’s Thoughts on This Week’s News
It’s unfortunate when Service Animals get blamed over something that’s not their fault. After all, the airline makes the upgrades and downgrades decisions, and Service Animals, like all other passengers, must comply with them. In this case, it looks like Delta Airlines is solely responsible for poor customer service, lack of communication, and insufficient transparency with its client.
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