Southwest Airlines flyer claims co-passenger was deplaned for petting puppy in carrier
A Southwest Airlines flyer has shared videos showing a co-passenger with a puppy in a soft carrier being kicked off a flight from Colorado Springs Airport.
Sara Price said she met the co-passenger, only identified as Susan, in the boarding line. Susan had picked up a new puppy, Sitka, and was flying to Los Angeles.
Price said that, in the boarding line, the stressed puppy was whining. A Southwest Airlines flight attendant warned Susan that she may not be able to fly if Sitka continued to make noise. Susan stuck her hand in the carrier to pet and soothe the puppy, which calmed it down.
@_sara_price_/TikTok
Once aboard the plane, Susan continued to pet the puppy when the flight attendant warned her again, telling her the carrier must be zipped completely and placed under her plane seat at all times. The dog owner said she thought she could wait until everyone boarded and was told she had to comply immediately.
Price, seated with her husband and Susan in the same row, said Susan stopped, but Sitka began whining again.
The same attendant allegedly approached Susan and asked, “Are we going to have a problem here?” She said no.
As the plane began moving out of the gate, the puppy whined a little more, and Susan bent down to soothe it under her seat through the fully zipped carrier’s mesh top.
Price noticed that the plane was now moving back to the gate. She told her husband she suspected the dog owner would be deplaned — and that happened.
Susan was told to leave and asked Price’s husband to document the exit on film.
@_sara_price_ Met this lady in the boarding line today @Southwest Airlines She flew out to Colorado Springs to pick up her new little puppy and fly her back home to CA. The puppy was whining a little and the flight attendant boarding everyone walked up to her and said, if your dogs doesn’t be quiet, you may not be able to fly. She sticks her hand in the soft carrier and pets the puppy. It stopped whining. We board the plane and she has the carrier in her lap still petting the puppy when the same flight attendant came up and said the carrier needed to be zipped completely and put under the seat. Everyone around us was like, what’s going on here!? Another flight attendant, dressed as a cat comes up and says “are we going to have a problem here!?” The lady does as she is told and we start to taxi to the runway. The dog gave a very soft whine, so she leaned over and started petting it from the outside of the carrier but right at mesh. All the attendants got in a group at the front of the plane and decided we needed to return to the gate and that she should be removed from the flight. #southwestairlines #southwest #southwestair ♬ original sound – Sara Price
“You are rude, you are a mean person, and I will never fly Southwest again. Unbelievable.” Susan is heard saying to a flight attendant.
“This is ridiculous. It’s not like you had the dog out and you were petting it,” Price’s husband tells Susan. “You should be ashamed of yourself,” he tells the flight attendant.
“They did the same thing to me!” a commenter named Joyce Irene claimed under one of Price’s videos. “I was flying with my seven-month-old Frenchie. He had a certified pet carrier, and the flight attendant SCREAMED at me to zip.”
Price said she and her husband were also asked to leave later because of their attitude and ended up taking a United Airlines flight.
@_sara_price_ This is right after they kicked the lady & puppy off the flight. My husband said….and you can hear him in the first video…..this is ridiculous and he said…you should be ashamed of yourself. That’s when Tyler went to the pilot and they decided that because my husband said that, we had an “attitude” and they wanted us off the plane also. @Southwest Airlines @Marshall Carpenter #southwestairlines #southwest #southwestair #SouthwestHatesPuppies ♬ original sound – Sara Price
In another video, Price’s husband is heard asking for other flight attendants’ names and calling them “a piece of sh*t.”
@_sara_price_ I tried to get a video of the other attendants as we were being kicked off. As soon as they saw my phone, the ducked and ran away. Cowards! It is unbelievable to me that we as passengers cannot have the names of the flight crew. @Southwest Airlines #southwestairlines #southwest #southwestair #justiceforsitka ♬ original sound – Sara Price
Price posted several screenshots showing her conversation with Southwest Airlines, where she continued to defend Susan and stress that she had complied. In the messages, Southwest says it’s refunding Price and her husband’s tickets.
The TikTok poster has also stayed in touch with Susan, who thanked her over text messages and said Sitka was doing fine now.
“It was very difficult for me to stay composed because I have never been treated like that before and had no idea how I was going to get Sitka home,” Susan says in one message.
Daily Hive contacted Southwest, and a representative told us the airline was aware of the videos.
“Our initial reports indicate that the customer would not comply with keeping her dog’s kennel closed, which is our policy,” Southwest said.
“Our employees are trained to ensure customers are following protocol, and in this situation, after the customer repeatedly refused to comply with our crew’s instructions, the decision was made to deplane the disruptive passenger.”
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