My concern is that SWA’s inability to be consistent in there enforcement of rules. This is what gets them in trouble and looking stupid for things like someone’s skirt being too short or someone’s kid being too loud. My concern is if there is that much interpretation available to the employees, then are we running the risk of the pilots having too much room to interpret the rules.

Since it is such a short flight I would have put him in cargo, but apparently southwest no longer allows pets in cargo…so how is anyone supposed to fly with a dog?? My dog comes everywhere with me!! Everywhere! And I want to take him on vacation…we booked everything pet friendly, now Im worried that I will get stuck at the airport with the dog. Grr…so frustrating…

I dont think southwest should even allow pets at all it is very misleading to say we accept small pets, but they need to be 8 inches tall…I mean really…8 inches!! Get out a measuring tape and look at 8 inches and show me a dog or cat that stands at 8 inches. Very misleading, either accommodate the small pets or dont offer them flights, I would have bought an extra ticket and put him on the seat next to me or flown him in the cargo hold.

In this case, however, I’d say the separation anxiety is on the part of the pet owners. They need to learn to leave the puppy at home when the travel or stop traveling so much. Pets do not belong on airplanes.

IF you ever hear from the passengers again, please let us know how the puppy got home. The not so little pooch is the inoocent, but very inconvenienced, one in this whole story.

Lianne, sorry people are mistaking you for me, or me for you, or some such confusion…at this point I’m not sure. Perhaps I shouldn’t have mentioned that I liked your “snowflake” line…somehow this seems to have blurred the lines between us. Spelling does seem to be a big topic on this site lately…if it’s not somebody harassing ME for MY misspellings, or accusing YOU of harassing somebody ELSE for THEIR misspellings, it’s somebody not paying attention to how we spell our names and thinking we’re the same person! Yeesh, now my head is spinning. ;-)

In any case, I do hope your grammer is doing better. Mine used to drink warm milk when she wasn’t feeling well. Helped her sleep.

@RegularJane…wow! Maybe you should drink some warm milk? It always helped my grammer when she was feeling grumpy…my gramper too.

As for the snowflakes and their kid…I mean dog…now that I’ve read more of the comments in here, I realize that my earlier suggestion that they just buy a larger carrier wouldn’t work. I now agree with the folks who think they were just pushing the envelope by bringing a borderline too-big pooch, and should have just left him home. Kennels work great. Or dog sitters.

When you read their online policy, it couldn’t be clearer. Southwest has thought of (and explained) everything. They don’t have a weight limit for pets; they have a height limit. The statement that the animal must be able to stand up is in bold face type on the web site, f’ Pete’s sake! There’s no way a 15-pound dog could stand up in a carrier less than 8.25″ high. Most cats are too tall for that. (And you’ll notice that the policy repeatedly refers to SMALL cats and dogs.) And the fact that the complainants apparently had already had an issue with the same dog definitely suggests that they are, indeed, “special little snowflakes” who were basically flouting the rules on purpose because they weren’t told to sit down and shut up the first two times. John has it right that just because they got away with it once (or twice) doesn’t mean they have a right to expect to continue to do so. You don’t get caught every time you run a red light, but I don’t think you’re likely to get out of a ticket by saying, “But Your Honor, I ran that light on the way TO the store and nobody said anything! How dare the officer stop me on my way home?”

These are people who think they’re special, the rules don’t apply to them, and anyone who tries to enforce the rules is just a hater. Kudos to Southwest for informing them otherwise.

The sad part is that, as is typical, these special snowflakes have probably ruined it for everyone else. From the website, it appears as if the pet fares were a trial program. Now that poor Gatsby’s people have proven that some pet owners cannot necessarily be trusted to put their pet’s welfare ahead of their own convenience and will (repeatedly) scam the rules intended to protect their animals, how long do you suppose it will be before Southwest “regretfully informs Customers that the PAWS trial program has been discontinued”?

I’ve got news for you, Snowflakes. Your dog is NOT a child, and you are NOT in France. The pooch stays home.

It is also interesting to see that they apparently do not have a 25lb rule. Perhaps another airline does and there was some confusion? I know if I had a special need and had to look at the contract of carriage for every carrier, they would all morph together after a while. Still, the dog hey had should have been able to fit into the space listed for dimensions. It seems as though all artied overreacted here.