Anybody know how to work around it? So that the cats are calm?

If considerably overweight people want to fly, fine, airlines should provide seating options that accommodate their larger size. If someone wants to bring their child on a plane, the airlines should provide kiddy seating. I suggest a sound proof area with toys.

Maybe it was, indeed, someone’s full, or even leaking, colostomy bag .. or super smelly farts. I know sometimes my bombs smell like something cooked up on an alien planet.

So how does she know it was the cat?

I’m serious.

Just wondering… if a person’s booked a ticket to fly with an animal in advance, can they reschedule (with a note from the vet) if the animal gets sick, the way human passengers can? I assume the answer is no, which makes the owner’s decision more understandable.

Chances are they can, but there’ll be fees. It depends on the rules of the ticket as none of them have to be consistent among one another.

There are lot of whiners lately, huh? Is that cause the travel industry has decided to handle all the legitimate complaints and leave the crazies to their own blogfest?

Looks that way, Joe. Mind you, Ms. Dehn’s email supposedly said this:

I also believe that laws should be changed to protect people from severe and common allergens such as cats.

I’m no doctor, but I’ve learned from some that severity of allergens vary. I really wonder (or should I?) how one can come up with such a law, and that’s not even considering possibly competing interests like the pet owners themselves.

Next thing you know, someone’s gonna say, “can we come up with a law protecting US from people with allergies who abuse their situation?” Heh, no end to such things.

But…that’s what some people believe. And I gather one of life’s challenges is finding out what beliefs we can pretty much agree on. :)

Going off-topic, Chris, try this plugin.

I’ve also been on a completely full, 3-hour flight seated next to a stand-by passenger who weighed at least 650-700 lbs, and I was completely engulfed and squeezed into the window by all this fat. I was so firmly wedged and covered by all this weight that I could not move my arms or legs, and could not even see past this person. By the end of the flight, I was so numb that it took a while for me to be able to get feeling back into my body. The next day, my entire body ached as if I’d been in an accident. Again I paid full fare, and this huge gentleman was on “stand-by”. When I complained to the ground supervisor in Charlotte after this flight and suggested that he should not have been put onto a full flight, I was told simply that “we cannot discriminate against anyone”.

On another completely full flight, I was seated next to a gentleman with the most horrible breath I have ever smelled. He kept falling asleep, his head falling onto me with his mouth wide open for the entire cross country trip. I repeatedly tried to shove him off of me, but he simply fell back asleep on me during the entire flight. I was feeling sick to my stomach for the whole flight and the rest of that day.

On yet another full cross country flight, I was seated in front of a woman who was loudly regaling a man seated next to her with her incredible intelligence, education and many accomplishments. This genius never stopped talking (loudly) and the only quiet time on that flight was when she went to the rest room for 2 or 3 minutes. Unfortunately, I didn’t have earplugs, which I now carry on every flight.

These are just some of my worst flight experiences. Obviously, I couldn’t move because these flights were all completely full. I’d gladly contend with a whole airplane full of cats and dogs! It would be far more pleasant than what I’ve been subjected to, and I’ve never been offered anything by the airlines for my pain and suffering. She should be thankful for the 4,000 miles both she and her husband got and stop complaining.

Also, when you are three months pregnant, your sense of smell changes drastically. Things that you never noticed before become unbearable for a few months. It is very possible that Ms. Dehn was extra-sensitive to the smells that the cat was emitting, even though they apparently weren’t that noticeable to the other passengers.

I still think that it was unnecessary for Northwest to give Ms. Dehn any miles. Why was her husband given any? Was he allergic too? It was a very nice customer service gesture on the part of the airline and Ms. Dehn just comes across as petty for writing to Chris and attempting to get more out of Northwest/Delta.

Secondly, the woman sat next to the cat who had diarrhea and didn’t ask the FA for assistance? What is Northwest supposed to do after the fact? Oh, right, give her compensation. Based on her word and nothing else. Given the fact that the customer covered the carrier with a sweatshirt, the passenger may have smuggled the cat on to avoid the exortionist fees. I guess I’m too honest. I got stuck to an entire family of 5 “Customers of Size” for a 5 hour flight who also changed the 2 year old “lap child’s” diaper in the seat and got absolutely nothing for my misery except a head full of air freshener sprayed by the FA every 5 minutes. I, too, should have complained and expected to get rich.

I am thoroughly sick of people traveling on planes with their stinking children, self-important people and drunks. Leave little icky-poo kids and attitudes at home or take a road trip. I’ll take sitting next to a pet all day, every day than any little kid or someone like this letter writer. I can generalize like Louise, too.