Never in this lifetime would I let anybody tell me, or anybody else to put their dog in an overhead bin.
Based on the responses to yesterday’s WWYDW I can see that we’re all thinking a lot of the same things, primarily that there is no way in hell anybody, anywhere, no matter what their thought process, or position was could get us to put one of our four legged kids into an overhead bin.
We flew yesterday and the very first thing I had Yanny Bissony do was check the overhead bins on our airplane to see if they were fully sealed, and if there was any ventilation at all for a living critter to be inside it without risk. He assured me of a few things: 1) the overhead bins are NOT completely sealed, they have the ability to have air flow 2) even though they’re not entirely sealed he’s confident that a squeeshy face dog, like the Frenchie that was in the bin, was not a good candidate for such limited air flow and 3) (this may surprise you) he doesn’t think that a dog with a proper snout would have died in the bin. In fact, he seems to think that not even the Frenchie should have died from a lack of oxygen. He feels the dog might have worked himself up from the fear of being in a dark confined place, his people nowhere in sight, loud sounds and shaking and gave itself a heart attack. I can assure you our Kohl would. In fact there are days I’m shocked when Kohl doesn’t just drop dead he gets soooooo anxious.
I don’t agree with him, I think it would take a lot for a healthy dog with no heart condition, like our Kohl has, to give itself a heart attack, but I’m no vet so what do I know?
What I do know is this for certain, there is no way in hell that I would ever, ever, put one of my dogs in an overhead bin. I won’t even fly them in cargo I’m that concerned for their well being. Overhead is out of the question. I also know that there is nothing on this planet that would have me sitting in my seat and allowing a flight attendant to force me to do so. I would have insisted on speaking with the superior flight attendant, there is one on every flight, should that person share the same POV as their co-worker then I would insist on speaking to somebody from the company at the airport who was a superior to all of them. Should an agreement not be made then I would get off the plane and wreck havoc. That simple. No way in hell a dog of mine would be put in a dark, cramped, limited air cupboard like a luggage bin. Not in this lifetime.
It doesn’t help that in this particular instance the woman didn’t have a full grasp of the English language, and yes, she may not have been very confident in her own understanding of whether or not the dog was allowed in the cabin, but somebody else on the plane surely must have been able to step in. I totally would have. Her daughter who did speak English was only eleven, so there was no way she was going to disrespect an adult. Even if she had, they probably would have kicked them off the plane anyway. It’s an awful tragedy that could have been avoided. Avoided if the flight attendant hadn’t been a raging lunatic bitch, and if another passenger who spoke the woman’s language would have stepped in to handled the dumb ass flight attendant so the little girl didn’t have to. I know if I had been on that plane and spoke Spanish, or French, or whatever language it is the mother spoke I would have helped them.
I sort of feel like everybody anywhere near this mother and her children played a part in the situation, especially once the dog was barking, is culpable. And if it were me and I had been on that plane and done nothing I would be playing over the “woulda/coulda/shoulda” blame game with myself right now. A barking dog needs something. They don’t often bark incessantly for no good reason. It would have led me to believe that the animal was in distress and I would have opened the bin at that time to get the dog out.
My favourite bit is how the flight attendant is saying she didn’t know that there was a live animal in the bag.
Really? Really? You expect the world, who are all watching now, to buy this for FIVE SECONDS. I’ve seen the exact bag that dog was in, it has mesh sides, you can absolutely see inside them. If she closed the bin on the dog like the little girl is claiming she did, she saw a dog. If she didn’t see the dog, because perhaps she is a blind flight attendant, then she sure as hell heard the dog once it started barking, and it was her duty, since the United airlines mouth piece has stated it is NOT their policy to put dogs in overhead bins, should have taken the dog out of the bin and admitted her mistake to the family BEFORE THE PUP DIED.
This whole thing stinks, and nothing will bring the dog back to his family, but United needs to do more than offer their condolences. Sadly judging by the way United has conducted themselves in all their past passenger conflicts I’ve read about, I’d say their condolences is all this family is going to be receiving.
