Quote:
Originally Posted by PHXFlyer
Which was my point. Be the better person and don't stoop to their level. No matter how poorly you are or think you are being treated to tell someone that they don't belong in the job they are doing is insulting, demeaning and rude. Even though they may have been insulting, demeaning and rude to you returning it in kind will never improve a situation. Tell a supervisor, manager, or write a letter. It's not your job to discipline the employee. Let their own chain of command handle that.
Ding, score one for The_Judge and I.
Wrong. And this is was probably the catalyst for everything that happened. Unless a service animal is being trained then it should be traveling with the person for whom it is providing "assistance." If the dog wasn't going to sit with your mother then it wasn't being utilized as a service animal on the flight and therefore should have been classified as a pet traveling in the cabin for which you should have paid the pet fee.
My mother's dog is a therapy animal and she takes her to the local hospital and nursing home to perform that function. She does not, however, expect special status when traveling with her dog since while on the plane the dog is not "in service."
Most dogs will alert their owner, hearing impaired or not, of unusual noises. Nothing special there. You were on the same plane. After reaching cruise altitude you could have periodically checked on your mom and the dog. Even if that wasn't possible the flight from Richmond to Charlotte is just over an hour long. I'm sure she would have been fine for that amount of time and the FA sounded friendly and would have kept an eye out for her.
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The animal was being used for my mother on the plane, but as I stated the dog stays with the handler and works as a team and this is stated on his tags and documents. I agree with you that stooping to her level may have been wrong, but I had just about had enough. If the gate attendant would have listened to my concern (mind you the ticketing agent assured me that the gate agent would be able to seat us together) and not have been rude and cut me off in the first the place it never would have escalated to this level. I'm a reasonable person and if she would have listened and had been nice and sincere and said something along the lines of I'm sorry you're in this situation but at this time we just can't help you, I would have thanked her for trying and made the best of it. Side note: The arrangements were made way of ahead of time when I booked but our original flight was cancelled and they rebooked us on an earlier flight and I was told by the booking agent that we were sitting together. I'm on sometimes 6 different planes a week for work and never had these problems and always plan accordingly so that I don't run into problems at the airport. Bottom line is, I was not treated properly and the FA agreed and apologized for GA actions. I even had other travelers offer their help. One even gave me her contact info to use as a witness if I needed it for documentation when filing a complaint.
Looking back, I'm sure all could have been handled in a better manner but sometimes you need someone from the outside looking in to point this out. Happy New Year.