Woman with dog allergy has person with guide dog removed from flight.
It's hard to have an allergy, but it's more difficult when your allergy gets in the way of your daily life. That said, what if you are on a flight and your allergy disrupts someone else's flight? Is that ever okay? When this woman with a dog allergy does just that she takes to the popular Reddit forum to ask:
'AITA for refusing to give up my seat on a flight due to a person who has a guide dog and is visiting a family member in hospital due to the fact that I have a dog allergy?'
additionalplan423 writes:
I won't be going into specifics, since I'd rather avoid being identified.
I have a severe dog allergy. I can have varying disease of severity when it comes to my reactions when I'm exposed to dogs. In short, being in a closed environment with a dog is out of the question.
Earlier today, I was boarding my flight with my friends, since we're all going on vacation together. As I'm boarding, I find that one of the passengers is boarding with a Golden Retriever, with a guide dog vest on it. I want to make it clear that I'm not questioning whether this was a guide dog or not.
This was also a fairly small plane, since the flight would only take around an hour. As mentioned, I cannot be in a confined space with a dog. I told one of the flight attendants my concerns, since I could have potentially ended up in hospital if I had to fly with this dog.
The flight attendant informed the woman with the dog, who goes into hysterics, saying that she is visiting a sick family member, and can't afford to miss her flight. I'm not sure how sick the family member in question was/is. The flight attendant asked if I'd be willing to miss this flight and catch the next one that would be leaving in around 2 hours.
I was offered a seat in first class if I was willing to do this. I said that unfortunately I wouldn't be able to do this, since I'd paid for my vacation. Due to the size of the plane, the dog would not be able to go in the hold. The woman started insulting my character, saying that I was 'heartless' for putting my vacation over her sick family member.
I got on the plane and sat with my friends. As I did this, a woman in a nearby seat told me that she wanted to inform that I 'am the biggest bitch that she's ever met.' I didn't respond since I didn't want to cause a confrontation. My friends haven't said I'm in the wrong, but have kept making sarcastic jokes about the situation. AITA?
Well, let's find out. This was VERY controversial for the folks on Reddit.
baltimorebadger23 writes:
YTA: 1. Both you and the woman paid for your spot on the flight, so you are no more entitled to your seat than she is to hers. 2. The airline offered you a perfectly reasonable accommodation for the 2 hour delay.
3. Assuming the woman is sincere, her need to be on the flight was greater than yours. 4. When you have an allergy of that severity you should be informing the airline. It would have been so easy to be nice here and cost you almost nothing.
khanover writes:
YTA, you paid for your vacation, great, I’m sure the other lady paid for her flight as well. Why couldn’t you wait the 2 hours to start your vacation? That was an incredibly selfish move on your part, I’m guessing this will come back to bite you at some point.
jadedcartographer writes:
NTA. But what's up with the airline. They should have clear policies about what to do in a case like this (it is certainly not the first time). It shouldn't be the responsibility of the passengers to negotiate a solution.
Exactly, I'm surprised that this was so far down the comment section. The passangers had an incompatibility, that's the airlines problem to figure out.
Why couldn't they seat them at extreme opposites of the plane? I have a loved one who suffers from extreme dog allergy, but with a mask and a whole plane between them, plus factoring in that aircrafts have an air cleaning system that does not create a current between passangers, it probably would be fine.
Even if OP didn't think this was ok, I'm surprised no one even mentioned that option. Plus, since pets under 10kg are now allowed on cabin, most airlines ask if you have a allergy beforehand. I'm surprised that everyone is blaming OP, when this was clearly a managment issue.