Delta Boots Elite First Class Passengers – Dog Takes Seat As Airline Cites ‘Politics,’ ‘Nothing We Can Do’

Delta Boots Elite First Class Passengers – Dog Takes Seat As Airline Cites ‘Politics,’ ‘Nothing We Can Do’

by Gary Leff on 21 December 2024

A Delta Air Lines elite passenger received a rare first-class upgrade — but 15 minutes later was sent back to the coach to give their front seat to a dog instead. The airline told the customer the dog was a service animal and there was “nothing they could do.”

I was upgraded to first thing this morning, only to be downgraded 15 minutes later (to a worse seat than I previously had). I asked the front desk agent what was going on and she said “something changed”.

Okay, fine, I’m unhappy, but whatever, I’m only getting on board to see this dog in my first class seat… And now I’m mad.

I immediately chat with Delta support and they say “you may be reassigned to service animal” and there is nothing they can do.

Just downgraded to a dog
byu/ben_bob inparticipate

I really don’t see Delta’s logic in bumping a first class passenger for accommodating a dog in the bulkhead. To be sure, airlines are generally required to provide reasonable accommodations under the Air Carrier Access Act, and one way they do that may be with bulkhead seats. But a last minute seat switch would certainly not be required.

• Airlines must provide seating for passengers with disabilities if necessary (eg for legroom, mobility or being near a service animal). Bulkhead seats are often used for this purpose.
• However, they are not required to displace other passengers from their assigned seats unless the airline has not implemented policies to reserve specific seats for passengers with disabilities (eg, Southwest, but they board such passengers, who can then choose their own seat adventure).
• Airlines must give priority to disabled passengers for bulkhead seats only if those seats are necessary as an accommodation for the passenger and only if this accommodation has been requested in advance. (They should make a reasonable effort to accommodate at the airport, but do not have the same obligation, and again would not have to displace another passenger to do so).

It’s only if an overnight stay had been requested and approved in advance, but Delta failed to honor it, or mistakenly upgraded the passenger in a seat that should have been reserved for the dog already, that the airline’s downgrade makes any sense.

And upgrading a passenger and then downgrading them should be treated much more cautiously by an airline that thinks of itself as premium (as much as Delta executives despise doing upgrades at all). Proactive compensation would have been appropriate here as this could only have arisen from an airline error.

Delta seems to have gone to the dogs, and not just because only about 13% of first class passengers are sitting there with upgrades these days. In late summer, I wrote about a first class passenger that had been upgraded to accommodate a large woman with an emotional support dog and 4 pieces of carry-on luggage.

And here’s a dog recently eating at a table in the new Delta One lounge at New York JFK before flying business class. It was hardly the only dog ​​to make itself at home in a Delta lounge.

@oliverbelles My review of the new @Delta One lounge @jfk But seriously…what do you guys call this dessert?! #fypage #maltipoo #dogsoftikt #dogvoiceover @delta @Les Belles NYC ♬ original sound – olive belles

Last month I was actually on a Delta flight that the pilot turned around because of an unauthorized dog on board, they unloaded the passenger – and let her and the dog back in. This led to a delay of a few hours due to a refueling shift. The woman spent the flight petting the dog in her lap (hint: it wasn’t really a service animal).

More seen from the wing