A First Class Seat For A Poodle? The Strange Loophole American Airlines Let Slide – View from the Wing

What appears to be an emotional support poodle flew American AIrlines out of Dallas in its own first class seat on Sunday.. The dog named “happy” in Chinese was reported “well behaved” but still shouldn’t have been there. Despite blatantly violating published airline rules, the carrier simply called it a “classy pup.”

Flying in style ✈️ this standard poodle has his own seat today in first class on @AmericanAir – His name is kuài lè – Chinese for happy. And even though he has @steelers collar he was quite well behaved Maybe I can convert him to @chiefs fan by the end of the flight?! pic.twitter.com/QcsbUXLDQz

— Leigh Ann Cleaver (@lacleaver) November 10, 2024

According to the American Airlines pet policy, even a service animal “may not..[o]ccupy a seat.”

You can, however, buy yourself an extra seat and – as long as you fill out the paperwork attesting to service animal status – place your pet in that seat beside you.

However, since this arrangement clearly violates American Airlines rules, this response from their social media team strikes me as inopposite.

Kuài lè sure seems like one classy pup! Knowing what we do about a dog’s loyalty, we don’t know how much luck you’ll have with the team conversion, but we still hope you have a great trip together!

— americanair (@AmericanAir) November 10, 2024

Passengers can bring service animals on a plane, and don’t have to pay extra to do so. If they bring a pet in cabin legitimately, they pay a fee that can sometimes be as much as a ticket but without getting an extra seat. To bring a service animal you just have to fill out paperwork, which largely amounts to attesting that it’s a service animal.

Emotional support animals aren’t supposed to be a thing on planes anymore, but it’s really an ‘honor system’ sort of thing. It would genuinely surprise me if this dog were an actual service animal (even though it still shouldn’t have its own seat). If it’s not a service animal it’s required to remain inside a carrier, underneath the seat in front of the passenger.

There are still plenty of animals on planes, even if it’s not the Noah’s Ark two of each animal situation that it used to be six years ago, before the federal government let airlines tighten their rules. The average passenger wanting to bring an emotional support animal also happens not to be very good at handling the paperwork in advance.