My 45lb Aussie service dog Allie has traveled over 60 flights with SWA. She is calm, quiet, and stays in my floorspace on full flights. She does not encroach on the aisle or neighboring passenger space. We do not utilize bulkhead as she prefers partially tucking into the front seat bottom further back in the plane.
When traveling with my husband (we are A-list Preferred and Companion Pass), he takes the aisle as he has an injured knee and needs to stretch/walk during the flight. I take the same row window and if the flight is not full, the middle seat usually remains open, allowing additional floorspace for my service dog across the three seat foot space.
On this flight, the plane was full and a kind young girl sat with us. I gave her the window seat and my dog shared the floorspace with my husband and me (aisle/middle). The attendant told us our dog could not be on the floor for take-off/landing as it would block the exit path of the window passenger (similar to a bag rule). I have never been told this and do not believe bag rules apply to a service dog (?)
I believe the flight attendant was misinformed. She said I would have to switch to the window seat. I cannot find anything in writing on any site that mandates an ADA passenger with a mid-size service dog only travel in bulkhead or window. An ADA forum for owners of service dogs indicated 98% (32 comments) that the flight attendant was wrong.
Please help me understand the SWA rules as I want to respect them on future flights and avoid this embarassment. The flight attendant eventually agreed to switch our dog for the window passenger's bag...which breaks the rule of encroachment except the window passenger agreed to 'host' my dog. What if she refused?
For landing, I had my dog mostly tucked under the middle seat in front of me, but she again insisted that was not allowed, chastised me, and I had to put the dog in to the neighbor's window floorspace.
If I am correct, this attendant needs to be re-trained on behalf of future ADA passengers. If she is correct, I will gladly remain a window seat passenger. I seriously LUV Southwest Airlines!
Thank you for your help, I always book SWA when available.
NOTE: I have read ALL of the service dog links. They do NOT address my specific question. She is not in the aisle or exit row. Where is it mandated she be in window floorspace only? I have a case number but no formal response.
