So the other day, I watched this happen to a companion who was traveling on the same flight as I was:
My friend was seated in 1a on a CRJ 200.
A visually impaired lady with a seeing eye dog was on the flight with us.
She boarded early, at the "need extra time" window.
She took 1a and had the dog on the floor at the front of the bulkhead. The dog occupied most of the leg area in front of 1a and 1b. (large-ish golden retriever)
When my friend got on the plane, she was rather rude and told him "I need this seat, my dog doesn't fit anywhere else, You'll have to sit in my seat instead."
Now, before anyone gets spun up, I'm not trying to make this a DYKWIA moment. There was extra space on the flight and my friend was able to move to another seat. No Big Deal. Having her in the first row is reasonable in my mind, as row 1 is really the only reasonable place to have a dog that size on the CRJ200.
The issue I have is that the disabled pax appears to have booked a ticket in a row other than 1 and then just took the seat on her own initiative. Delta appeared to have no advance knowledge she was bringing a dog on the plane or needed special accommodation.
If the flight was full, that behavior would seem to create a problem, as the dog and a pax in 1b would not fit together. And this is indeed what happened when she was on our return flight several days later. The pax in 1b had to squeeze into the space with the dog and I'm not sure it was really 'safe' for them to both be there.. The FA didn't seem to know what to do and was no help.
Shouldn't both 1a and 1b have been booked for the disabled passenger ahead of time, so there was no surprise at the gate? Anyone know the proper policy when someone disabled shows up at the gate with no warning? Does someone get IDB-ed to make room?
Along the same lines, I assume the disabled pax would get priority seating.. Why allow them to book a seat other than the bulkhead and create a situation where another passenger is in the awkward place of needing a seat to get home when Delta needs the seat to serve the disabled passenger?
All in all it worked out, but it could have put my friend or some other pax in the unfortunate position of suddenly having to give up their seat (back home) for a disabled pax, when delta could have managed the seating assignments ahead of time and avoided the whole situation.
My friend was seated in 1a on a CRJ 200.
A visually impaired lady with a seeing eye dog was on the flight with us.
She boarded early, at the "need extra time" window.
She took 1a and had the dog on the floor at the front of the bulkhead. The dog occupied most of the leg area in front of 1a and 1b. (large-ish golden retriever)
When my friend got on the plane, she was rather rude and told him "I need this seat, my dog doesn't fit anywhere else, You'll have to sit in my seat instead."
Now, before anyone gets spun up, I'm not trying to make this a DYKWIA moment. There was extra space on the flight and my friend was able to move to another seat. No Big Deal. Having her in the first row is reasonable in my mind, as row 1 is really the only reasonable place to have a dog that size on the CRJ200.
The issue I have is that the disabled pax appears to have booked a ticket in a row other than 1 and then just took the seat on her own initiative. Delta appeared to have no advance knowledge she was bringing a dog on the plane or needed special accommodation.
If the flight was full, that behavior would seem to create a problem, as the dog and a pax in 1b would not fit together. And this is indeed what happened when she was on our return flight several days later. The pax in 1b had to squeeze into the space with the dog and I'm not sure it was really 'safe' for them to both be there.. The FA didn't seem to know what to do and was no help.
Shouldn't both 1a and 1b have been booked for the disabled passenger ahead of time, so there was no surprise at the gate? Anyone know the proper policy when someone disabled shows up at the gate with no warning? Does someone get IDB-ed to make room?
Along the same lines, I assume the disabled pax would get priority seating.. Why allow them to book a seat other than the bulkhead and create a situation where another passenger is in the awkward place of needing a seat to get home when Delta needs the seat to serve the disabled passenger?
All in all it worked out, but it could have put my friend or some other pax in the unfortunate position of suddenly having to give up their seat (back home) for a disabled pax, when delta could have managed the seating assignments ahead of time and avoided the whole situation.