Vivi's breeder Bo Bengtson wrote this editorial for the June 2006 issue of Dogs In Review, for which he is editor-at-large. It is posted here with permission from the magazine.
Obligatory disclaimer: It reflects his opinion, and not that of Dogs in Review. Obligatory language alert: It contains the "B" word, a common noun used among dog folk to describe the female of the species, irrespective of how she is acting that day.
<<FLYING HIGH… OR STAYING GROUNDED?
Most dog people are dependent on the airlines to some degree. We ship puppies across the country and abroad, send our best bitches to be bred to a stud dog far away, hop on a plane to go to a show and take the dog along. If it’s too big to fit under the seat in the cabin, the dog has to be checked as excess baggage. Flying has become a part of life; something we don’t necessarily enjoy but have gotten used to. Dog shows and breeding would perhaps not cease to exist without air transportation, but they would certainly be a lot different.
How risky is it to fly your dog? Is it just my imagination, or are things getting worse than they used to be? Everyone I know has a horror story to tell, but I wanted to find some hard figures.
To begin with, I consulted the Air Travel Consumer Report, which includes an enormous amount of data regarding flight delays, denied boardings, complaints, etc. Flipping quickly to “Consumer Complaints” I was surprised to find that no airline had a single complaint listed in the “Animals” category for the month of February, 2006. Since a dog that is near and dear to me was lost by Delta Air Lines at JFK Airport in New York on Feb. 15, 2006, that seemed odd until I realized that only complaints filed with the U.S. Department of Transportation were included. If you only report the loss to the airline it doesn’t show up in the Consumer Report.
Apparently dogs lost as excess baggage are included, but not specified, among the 265,610 pieces of luggage that were “mishandled” during February this year. Is it too much to expect that a dog should be treated a little differently than a suitcase? For one thing, it’s a living being; for another, we pay a lot of money to ship our dogs.
TRANSPORT SECURITY REGULATIONS Asking the major airlines’ customer representatives directly did not prove informative either. You would think press credentials and an offer to present the airlines’ views to thousands of active dog fanciers would meet with more than an automated reply, but that was not the case. (Delta’s only response was the following: “This is an automatically generated message. Please do not reply.” According to the Los Angeles Times and other media outlets, Delta filed for bankruptcy protection last September, but admits that the potential pilots’ strike that has been brewing recently could put the airline out of business. Obviously they have bigger problems than a lost dog.)
Useful information was provided by Rudolph H. Auslander of the Japan Airlines Management Corporation, a 37-year veteran of the airline industry, a dog lover and a volunteer with an English Springer Spaniel Rescue group. He writes that since 9/11 and the implementation of the Transportation Security Regulations, unaccompanied baggage is carefully screened behind the scenes after you give it to the airline for check in. That could involve a security official taking a dog out of its crate to screen it once you have left, and this, of course, increases the risk for disasters of the type we experienced. It also means that it doesn’t matter how well you secure the crate: the door may still be opened when you’re not there.
STILL AT LARGE According to the Department of Transportation, “Over two million pets and other live animals are transported by air every year in the United States. Federal and state governments impose restrictions on transporting live animals. In addition, each airline establishes its own company policy for the proper handling of the animals they transport.” In other words, you need to compare the regulations before deciding which airline to use. The problems we are experiencing in flying with dogs may be part of a bigger concern: lower standards in the airline industry across the board. Data released by the USDT indicate that service deteriorated in all major categories in 2005. Bill McGee writes in USA Today (April 19) that “there’s little question that contracting out more and more tasks to lower-paid and less-skilled workers is affecting all aspects of airline customer service,” none more so than baggage handling, where complaints rose more sharply than in any other area. What I want to tell you is that once an accident happens, you will probably be on your own. Perhaps other airlines act differently, but Delta’s behavior was such that our lawyer issued a statement saying, in part, that “Delta’s actions are contemptible. Delta negligently lost [the] dog Vivi, then was further negligent in failing to properly help find her.” The lawyer did not receive a written response from Delta; their Customer Claims Manager advised her that “legal will not respond until a lawsuit is commenced.”
So what’s the solution? Get a small dog which fits in the cabin? Stay at home? Return to the days when dog people leased a cargo plane to fly together from the West Coast to Westminster, as apparently happened in the ’50s? I wish I had an answer, but I don’t.
So should you fly with your dogs? Should you ship dogs at all, knowing what we do about the treatment dogs may be subjected to by the airlines? It’s up to you, of course. I was lucky for years, but that doesn’t help when calamity strikes.
Meanwhile, Vivi is still at large, more than two months after someone let her out of her crate while in Delta’s care at JFK. She has braved New York winter and traffic, hunted live game, fended for herself and stayed alive. She has been sighted regularly but remains as elusive as a ghost and obviously far from her old, trusting self.
It’s even more frustrating than I thought was possible, but we still hope there will be a happy ending and are deeply grateful for all the support and kindness shown from throughout the dog fraternity.
Thank you!
Bo Bengtson, Editor-at-Large
P.S. Since the above editorial was written in early May, Delta Air Lines provided a slightly more extensive response than that quoted above. It did not include any information that was not already available, but at least Delta was not any less cooperative than the other airlines.>>
Comments (10)
Well said. The main problem is that our animals are still considered "excess baggage". That's disgusting! Changes in how animals are treated in times of emergency are now proposed throughout the country. It's time the airlines get on board and change how they view our non human family members. Maybe I'm being naive, but that's how I feel.
Lois T
As many know, I recently flew a greyhound up from Florida to NY. The person shipping tried to contact Delta first but they kept hanging up on her so she called Continental. Yes, she had to fly from Tampa to Houston - 2 hour layover and then on to NY. I have never met such loving and caring airline personnel as I did when I picked up my Greyhound. I can't tell you home many different people assured me she was fine and offered to give her some water. She was flown with a baby parrot and a boxer pup and they received equal loving care by Continental personnel. I guess I was just lucky.
I just found out my son and his girlfriend are getting a bulldog puppy from Oklahoma. They won't let her fly until the weather is alright for her and my son assured me that it won't be on Delta. I will hope it is Continental.
I cannot say nice enough stuff about Continental. Because it is so expensive to fly out of Memphis, I often drive to Little Rock, AR and fly from there. It is also a much smaller airport and easier on me with my arthritis.
One of my trips I was booked on Continental (first time I had ever used their airlines). I was backed up in traffic and was a bit late getting to the airport. They paged me and another person for the flight just as I got stopped in security because of all the medal in this right arm from the shattered elbow surgery.
I got through security and ran as much as I could to the last gate on the right where my plane was. The flight attendant met me and was so nice. I had the single seat right by her cabin, and she made sure I was taken care of and insisted on giving me water to cool me off. She was so concerned because my face was so red. She and the pilot would not take off until they were sure I was okay.
My luggage got separated with the flight, but Continental made sure they got it there the same night with my medications. They knew EXACTLY where my luggage was and EXACTLY when it would be there.
I talked to the flight attendant about how pleased I was with Continental. She told me several years ago they almost went under, and then they retrained people and put into force their policies about taking care of their customers. I was impressed - Delta needs to do the same thing.
Tinkerbell would never fly excess baggage, if not under my seat then we will drive. Might give Continental a chance though. I sure liked their human treatment.
Hello
I have twice within the last year and a half shipped a puppy from Ohio to CA.
Continental is excellent in shipping dogs. Minimum stop over time/ Dog crates and dogs are examined before the crate is secured with inspection seal.,Furthermore, a plastic tie is attached that would have to be clipped off to open the crate. This is done before the dog is taken by special van to the plane/ At the end of the trip the dog and crate are taken off first and put in special vans and taken to receiving area immediately.
Continental quick pak. is great, but I still do not want to fly my dog to go to our National show in PA. If I were to go I would have to drive.
Diana CA
Bo and others -
This may sound like a very odd post, but please bear with me.
While obtaining my degree in Management of Information Systems, I had a marketing class (a very difficult class required for my degree) in which we were divided into teams of about 4 people. It was called an Airline Simulation project. It lasted the entire semester. We were given special books with budget pages, plan pages, etc. The goal was to see which groups could plan, set up and predict the greatest growth in an airline. We had to name the airline, produce logos and advertising criteria (of course, I did that part since I love art so much), pick the regions we wished to fly into, plan our budgets and how many and what types of planes we would purchase, WHAT WE WOULD SPECIALIZE IN, etc.
One of my partners and I argued strongly for including cargo as one of our extra arms. In the end, it was this emphasize on cargo as well as warm bodies in the seat that won us a high honor in this project. Each week we would submit information to be put into a computer system that would analyze our information and give us our results for the week. We had to produce PR releases and give these in class reporting on our airline.
My point is, maybe the answer is not as much trying to change EVERY airline to work with these creatures we love, but trying to push the emphasize and detail to one, two or maybe three airlines that fly all over the US. Go to their top PR people, show the needs and what has happened in the past, and emphasize the numbers and money involved in transporting these creatures safely. Show them they could boost their airline profits by specializing in this area and being responsible for the top quality care of these animals. While shipping many of these creatures with this new level of guaranteed safety, it would be a two for one deal as well often (more warm human bodies flying their airline). Maybe even offer them guaranteed fliers in exchange for this level of care for these animals through prepaid airline fares. They could openly advertise through TV, dog shows, etc. their process of shipping our valuable little creatures and be held highly accountable for their guarantees in this area through contracts with customers that raise the level of these animals from the excess luggage category. Make them legally responsible for these animals, but give the financial incentive to hire the top quality personnel needed and implement the measures needed to hold to this guarantee.
Bo, could your dog show officials and planners approach some of these airllines about this. You might start with Continental since they are doing a good job already it seems. They could head off with some of their already happy customers (you have one and maybe two here already) in their ads, and build from there. The dog show people (and others) could be involved in committees that help them realize what is needed in order to give the BEST POSSIBLE CARE to our beloved animals.
Sorry this was so long, but I hope this helps. I could also get the information about this Airline Simulation project (book) and the teacher's name who taught it as well if you need it. He is a very well educated and published professor in marketing, and I bet he would be happy to advise on the best marketing approaches to do this. He mentioned numerous times in class that his income came more from marketing advising than from teaching. I'm sure he could run with the information and give you some very real statistics to present to these airline management and PR people.
Kathleen Stephenson in Memphis, TN
(I hope Bo is reading this posting. If not, would someone mail this to him for me please. Thanks.)
I too have experienced the improvement in Continental's customer service but in areas where they contract their baggage service - not all the contract personnel are on board with the better ways - they left a young puppy on the tarmac on an open vehicle in really cold weather and I was livid! Had to put the puppy down my shirt to get it warmed up again as it was on the verge of hypothermia. They just thought I was being a wierdo...hmpffff. Used to love Alaska until they contracted out as well. I hate flying anyway and have been known to drive many a mile to get where I need to go!
I am thinking about moving to portugal i have a 45pd lab my child --- i am learning about the pet shceme (no 6month qu) but how do i safely get her there ----by plane(who) by boat
help please
c. pate
I am thinking about moving to Portugal I have a 45pd lab--my child---and want to take her(dog) with me---but do not know what is the best (safe) way
help
I've actually had the opposite experience with Continental from some of the posts above. I sent both my basset hounds via Continental from Boston, MA to Austin, TX. I decided to go with Continental because of the good reviews and especially because I could track my girls online and see when they got onto/off planes.
They had about an hour layover in Houston, and I watched the web site, refreshing every 2 or 3 minutes until I saw that they had been taken off the Boston flight and put on the Austin flight, and that the Austin flight had departed. I was completely satisfied, until I got the call from my father who was supposed to pick them up in Austin. Not only were my girls not on the flight that the computer said they were on, the Continental cargo folks in Austin had no idea where the girls were.
After an hour of complete panic and talking to three or four Continental "customer service" reps, each of whom told me something different, we finally found out that they had been put on a later flight out of Houston. They arrived in Austin two hours later than they were supposed to, but what really frustrated me about the experience is that to this day Continental claims that they were on the original flight. My father was standing in their cargo pickup area and I was on the phone begging for information for two hours, and Continental refuses to admit they made a mistake.
I have lost all trust in Continental. I was paying for the peace of mind that I was getting from their online tracking and the supposed care they were going to take of my bassets, and instead their tracking just shows what they want it to, and they lie to hide any mistakes they make.