seat selection - got ousted by a service dog

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scheps

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So i was going for 4a and 4b as it was empty. Then the booking engine couldn't handle it so i called and they said a service dog was in 4b with empty seats on 4a and 4c. didnt want the dog to sit in between us so opted for row 5 instead. The other side was already all gone, maybe there are 4 dogs in row 4? I will find out soon :p

Anyone had this before? does it take a P1 bump the service dog or the dog aint movin for nobody!!
 
So i was going for 4a and 4b as it was empty. Then the booking engine couldn't handle it so i called and they said a service dog was in 4b with empty seats on 4a and 4c. didnt want the dog to sit in between us so opted for row 5 instead. The other side was already all gone, maybe there are 4 dogs in row 4? I will find out soon :p

Anyone had this before? does it take a P1 bump the service dog or the dog aint movin for nobody!!

I think the dog trumps P1!?....
 
We have been bumped by a guide dog in Y in Sept 2011. BNE-SYD, 1xWP, 1xSG on a 767. I had the bulkhead selected for us, the two aisles, hoping for WP shadow in the middle seat. If no shadow, then no big deal, one of us swaps with the middle seat or suck it in for a short flight and sit apart.
Get to our seats, and two gentlemen are there in the aisle seats. One tells us "Sorry, we were meant to be here because of the dog, our seats are the row behind". The timid part of me sits in the next row, while seething on the inside - this being my first trip with Mr Katie since achieving the lofty heights of WP. About halfway through the flight the other gentlman gets up and I realise he's blind and that the dog, which I hadn't seen, was a guide dog. I stop seething, but then question how they're travelling with the dog and can bump a WP - how could I select that seat if it needed to be given to a guide dog?? - and also wonder just how much space a labrador needs (curiosity, not sookiness). I get over it, but Mr Katie continues seething apparently.
 
Well, seething is never a useful or positive state of mind. Blind people or others with medical equipment or bassinets or whatever need to travel as much as any of we able-bodied, and the best response would be to accept that the good seat has been given to someone with a better need.

I think we've all been there, where our carefully-selected seat, after research in Expertflyer and Seatguru, has been swapped or vanished in an equipment change or some other calamity. I remember my Y+ seat on one of the last QF flights out of SFO turning into Y. Four of us had enjoyed the wide seats on the way over, but when it was me going home alone, it was a different configuration, and the big seat had turned into a small one.

I sucked it up and squeezed in.

A blind person traveling with a dog, or a baby in a bassinet or whatever, really needs to work out seats ahead of time. The computer seating algorithmn doesn't necessarily know their specific needs, and turning up at the last moment expecting that someone is going to be turfed out and a good seat made available is a bit rich. That someone could have been another blind person with a dog who had thoughtfully prebooked. They could set their dogs on one another, I guess, and wouldn't that liven boarding up!

Nowadays, with paid seat selection and exit rows for a surcharge, there may be an actual loss of money or points if we don't get the seat we paid for. And of course, if one suspects that someone is sitting in your seat who really shouldn't be, then a FA could be called to sort out who should be where. Meek or not, it is a blessing on the FA to help, to be the angel of righteousness and possibly wield the enforcement devices I always expect they keep in a special locker.
 
There have been a fair few posts on FT regarding people taking on board 'guide dogs/pets' to avoid the fee for checking them in, when they should be checked in.
 
I guess row 4 with increased space is the logical place for a service dog. exit rows are obviously out and I imagine the space in an ordinary row would be too squeezy.
 
There is a good thread here somewhere about travelling with a service dog and the entitlements but I don't think bulkhead seats were mentioned. I wonder what the situation would have been if the bassinets were all needed. Do service dogs fit in regular Y?
 
Guide dogs have always been welcome on board, other pets are to be checked (in Aust)




As it should be if you ask me, if someone is dependent on a service dog to help with every day living I would gladly give up my seat and let them sit there, i really have nothing to complain about if I have to sit down the back a bit further. Its not like anyone is being bumped out of J to accommodate this. People should try put themselves in these people's shoes (those who require a service dog) and see how their thoughts change, i dont think its people trying to avoid a fee for their service dogs, jees 1st world problems or what !
 
I think it might be people taking along their family pet, claiming it as a "service dog" and avoiding the freight charge.
 
That's a US thing, doesn't happen in Australia.

+1. This simply doesn't happen in Australia.

I have been bumped twice for 23 A/B or J/K for a service dog. If you have an issue with being moved from a seat in any cabin, regardless of status, for someone who needs assistance then you may want to revisit your moral compass.

I was extremely impressed by how well behaved and calm the dogs were flying. I imagine for an animal it must be quite a strange experience.
 
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I was extremely impressed by how well behaved and calm the dogs were flying. I imagine for an animal it must be quite a strange experience.
Some dogs would take it bad.

As a cabbie, I'd occasionally have blind people get in with their dog. The dog would curl up at their feet, good as gold, never any trouble. Obviously it would be hard to find room in a standard economy seat row, but a bulkhead would suit them fine.

That was one of the good parts of the job. I felt like I was actually doing something useful and productive, instead of just being paid to drive and have a lazy time.

Some cabbies would reject passengers with dogs on religious grounds. Must be a funny religion to make life difficult for other people.
 
There is a good thread here somewhere about travelling with a service dog and the entitlements but I don't think bulkhead seats were mentioned. I wonder what the situation would have been if the bassinets were all needed. Do service dogs fit in regular Y?

Maybe this is the thread you are thinking of - see #10 onwards
 
Yes, I think that was the one I was thinking of - I found it very interesting. Thanks for the link.
 
Back before you could select seats online at Qantas.com, I would call to get my "row 4" allocation.

Regularly I would be informed they were reserved for "service" animals, FWIW I never saw one.
 
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