Does Delta Prioritize Animals over Passengers?

Real World Aviation
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A family is calling out Delta Airlines for allegedly prioritizing cats over a passenger with a severe allergy.

Reckline’s husband reportedly has a severe cat allergy, so she alerted the flight attendants to the situation.

Jackie Reckline was flying with her husband and daughter from Atlanta to Oklahoma City when they saw two pet carriers on board. The carriers apparently didn’t fit under the seats, so Delta crew members made space for them in the front storage closet, which Reckline said was close to where they were sitting.

When her husband notified the flight attendants that he wouldn’t be able to fly with the animals on board, Reckline claims they made a joke about it over the intercom.

Reckline and her daughter remained on the flight, but her husband had to wait for a different one. While the airline couldn’t get him a flight out that night, they booked one for him the next morning and paid for his hotel accommodations.

Who should prioritized first? The animals or the passengers?

Comment below of your opinion. Have a nice day

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This is quite debatable. While I understand that animals should not be put in the cargo hold due to several incidents, I think they could have just been rearranged. There is storage space in the back of the aircraft that could fit the animals. Or luggage could have been moved to put the cats in a different overhead bin. The family could have also switched out with other passengers if needed. I think it is very debatable.

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I just wonder why they bring pets while flying? Why not stay them at home and have a care taker or just leave them to a family relatives?

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Did they inform the airline before departure? If not then I don’t think Delta is responsible at all.

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Another incident very similar to this happened on a Southwest Flight. Which you can read about here.

In this incident, the woman was forced to
de-board the plane after complaint about a dog allergy.
Just something to think about.

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She informed a flight attendant

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Ye would not want to know what Some airlines did long ago to animals aeroflot for example

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Well I do think that you have to understand that the cats, cats or not were part of the package for another paying costomer, so do you kick off the cat people, or him? I dont think there is a right awnser

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Kick off the guy or the cats, both mean you face back lash. I think they did the right thing by leaving the man. What are you gonna do, leave the cats behind and book them for another flight? He’s the one with allergies, hes the one who can’t fly.

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They could be taking a long trip, or moving. Just providing perspective.

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I can’t tell if this is satire or a scary amount of bias towards cats 😅

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In my opinion if you have a bad enough allergy like that you should be prepared. Unless they told the airline prior to flying how could they know? Peanuts, pet dander, etc. I have friends who are along those lines and they carry their pen with them for emergencies. If you are that sensitive to throw out the anaphylactic shock term then you should have an epi-pen on you at all times.

The world cannot cater to every person and planes are no exception. I have an allergy to certain types of dog fur but I am not about to call the news that Home Depot didnt kick a dog out because of me. C’mon.

I do agree about kicking off someone who brings fish tacos on board. Really… Fish tacos…

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Kind of a lose-lose situation here. Leave the cats-family complains and it turns into a PR frenzy. Leave the guy-family complains and it turns into a PR frenzy. Cats in cargo-something will probably go wrong and it turns into a PR frenzy. I don’t think there’s a way out of it that involves removing. The best solution IMO would be to re arrange the seating of the people.

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It’s kind of an American thing. They love their pets like people.

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That’s a fairly hastey generalization. Not all animals that travel are there because the owner can’t live without them. Some animals are on their way to be delivered to their owners (yes, one of my dogs came to me via airplane), some owners may be moving somewhere and instead of driving cross-country, decide to fly with their pet with them.

I will say this, though. Keeping them in the main cabin is something I’ve never seen or heard of before. They’re usually kept in the cargo hold (I think).

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Am I wrong?

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We all know how the cargo hold goes :(

But point taken, but I still stand by the fact that a lot of people love their pets like people.

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So it’s wrong for people to love their pets? You had a ruff childhood.

Sorry, I couldn’t help it😃

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I don’t know where you got the fact that I said it was wrong but…

yeah ig i’m not the biggest fan of pets because of various experiences with them in my childhood.

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True. In this day and age, someone will always get mad about something.

I’d have to respectfully disagree here. There were other options that could have been taken like giving him a seat not as close to the cats, etc. Even as a last resort I think they should have put the cats on another flight as they’re animals and not people with a schedule. I love animals, but not that much ;)

Honestly, I’m sure the last thing he was thinking about when he booked his ticket was “Gee, I’m allergic to cats, so I better make sure there’s none on this flight or Atleast notify the airline of my cat allergy.” The point is, he shouldn’t be inconvenienced by a few cats who don’t have a care in the world what plane they’re on or whether they get to sit by their family. Just my $0.02

So no, you’re not necessarily wrong, it just depends on opinion and perspective.

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