Southwest passenger kicked off after petting dog in carrier, fellow flyer says
A woman was kicked off a Southwest Airlines flight for petting her new puppy following multiple run-ins with airline staff, according to a fellow passenger.
A TikTok user, whose name is listed as Sara Price, posted a series of videos detailing the incident. Price, who was sitting in the same row, said the woman named Susan had flown to Colorado Springs to get the eight-week-old dog and was on her way back to California.
During the boarding process, a flight attendant warned Susan she may not be able to fly if the puppy, Sitka, kept whining. She petted Sitka through the top of the carrier to keep her calm, and the flight attendant later told her to zip the carrier up and stow it under the seat in front of her, according to the posts.
Susan complied, but after the dog whined again and she leaned down to pet her through the mesh of the zipped carrier, the plane returned to the gate and the crew asked her to leave.
In a subsequent post, Price said Susan asked Price’s husband to film and that he “told the flight attendants that it was ridiculous and they should be ashamed of themselves.” The couple was also asked to leave because of their “attitude,” according to Price, and all three passengers rebooked with United Airlines. Price did not immediately respond to an interview request.
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One video Price shared over the weekend shows Susan being escorted off the plane by a Southwest employee. As she gathers her belongings, she can be heard saying, “No, I’m not going to have you touch a thing of mine. You are rude, you are a mean person, and I will never fly Southwest again.” The video has amassed around 2 million views as of Thursday.
“We're aware of the videos and our initial reports indicate that the customer would not comply with keeping her dog’s kennel closed, which is our policy,” Southwest spokesperson Alyssa Foster said in an emailed statement. “Our employees are trained to ensure customers are following protocol, and in this situation and after the customer repeatedly refused to comply with our crew’s instructions, the decision was made to deplane the disruptive passenger.”
Foster did not address Price’s claim that she and her husband were asked to leave.
Price later shared screenshots that appear to show a Southwest customer service representative apologizing to her for the disappointment the situation caused, logging a formal complaint and issuing a refund for the couple’s one-way tickets.
Nathan Diller is a consumer travel reporter for Paste BN based in Nashville. You can reach him at ndiller@usatoday.com.