[farmerjohn911]

I flew my last commercial flight last night. I loath Continental airlines.

Here is the new pet scam. If you go to a doctor they can write a note that allows you to claim your pet as a "comfort animal." This cannot be questioned by the airlines. It is as de facto as it gets.

If you do this there are a ton of benefits (each airline will vary) - much of this covered under various ADA and DoTrans regulations:

1) You do not need to keep you pet in the carrier. You can play with it and even take it on parade around the plane.

2) You do not need to pay the $100 "pet" fee.

3) Since it is technically a "service" animal you can use this scam to avoid arbitrary limit on the number of pets on the plane.

If you want to be even more clever there are places online that sell service dog vests.

I hate traveling with dogs. They just give me the creeps. It could have been the result of some childhood trauma - I do not know. I find it easy in most cases to avoid places with dogs.

I suppose I understand how people get attached to pets. I am also extremely appreciative of real honest work dogs working. But unless they are urban rescue dogs, I really do not think they belong in the confined spaces of a packed commercial airliner.

There are not other animals that bother me. I am quite comfortable around all sorts of reptiles, birds, wild and farm animals.

I am putting this out in HOPE that more and more pet users will abuse the system to show how stupid it is - a variation on the Cloward-Piven Strategy.

Maybe one day there will be one airline that offers no pet flights.

I was also thinking about getting a big boa as a "service animal". I wonder if that would fly. Nah, I think I will just drive from now on.