On a recent flight home to Minnesota out of JFK airport, passenger Kristin Haraldsdottir was traveling with her new puppy (named Monkey, to complicate things). The small, mixed-breed puppy was small enough to fly as a carry-on in an approved crate, and Delta charged its standard $125 pet fee (each way) to transport the pup.
On the same flight, another traveler was transporting a live animal as well, one that weighed the same as Monkey and traveled in an identical carry-on crate. The owner of that animal, however, paid no extra transport fee whatsoever.
The difference? The second animal was a live lobster, which the traveler said he intended to eat at his destination. Apparently if you are going to feed your live seat companion, you must pay the extra, but if you are going to eat it, no fee is required.
Martha says ~ This is a great story from MSNBC, and a prefect example of the absurdities we face as airline customers, and working crew (enforcing absurdities).
This pet fee really gets my goat. Well, not literally. I don’t have a goat. Anyway, the fee’s are too high. With all the super travel deals, it’s now possible to pay more for the ‘non-service’ of hand carrying your little doggy (stuffed under the seat), than the amount paid for renting the passenger seat on the same flight. How absurd is that?
Why such a large fee anyway? What service, or extra’s, are you receiving for this fee? I’ll tell you what the airline gets, about $125 each way!
You fed up with Fido fee’s? Post a comment………
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$FEE$
Adding insult to injury, at least on Continental, the in-cabin pet still counts toward your carry-on limit (1 bag and 1 personal item) even though you pay an extra $125 each way to allow you to carry your pet in cabin.