my airline story......
i bought angus on december 11th, 2004. he was 5 weeks. cody was 3 years. my family hadn't seeen cody in over a year and a half, since i moved here....and my mom didn't even know i bought angus (cuz i didn't want to hear her yell lmao).
4 weeks before christmas, i decided i was taking off two weeks of work (only having to take off a total of 4 days), and go home and see my momma and family. i book a flight for myself and cody on american. then, i go and buy a puppy one night cuz i wanted one, yes, bad and good choice. i called them, and they said i could bring angus upfront with me for an additional 80 bucks. we book it. all in all, the flight for myself and the two dogs, was 500 each way. i show up at the airport christmas morning at 4 am to catch my 7 oclock flight to fly to st louis and surprise my whole family.....i take 30 minutes to check in, fill out papers, make sure they know everything about cody and know hes nice and to talk to him and love him.....then we walk around the airport a little to stretch his legs and show off his pretty christmas bow....then i take it off, he gets in the crate....and i said ARE YOU SURE HE WILL GET ON THE PLANE? yes. ARE YOU SURE. yes. the temp was questionable, but they said he would make it.
me and 3 pound angus take a trip through the airport, walking and getting lotsa attention...th en we find our little B24, and we get a seat and play in it for like 2 hours. we board, i ask the flight attendants if my dog is on, they say yes....me and angus find our cramped little seat, i take him out of the carrier, we play and he falls asleep for the rest of the flight. lol.
i get to the st louis airport, get off and go to get my bags. my aunt, uncle, and two cousins pick me up and see me for the first time in over a year, were SOOO happy. they see the puppy and are SOOOO happy. the kids take him out and are playing with him while we wait for cody to come out. he doesn't come, he doesn't come...we ask and they say he's on the way. FINALLY someone listened to me and went to check it.....
ma'am, he didn't make the flight. WHAT! i'm sorry, he didn't make the flight! I WAS TOLD HE WAS ON IT! sorry ma'am, he isn't here. WELL WHERE IS HE! we do not know. WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT YOU DONT KNOW.....YOU HAVE THOSE SCANNER THINGS ON HIS CRATE, FIND HIM. im sorry ma'am, we can't track those.....ther e is nothing we can do. WHAT THE F ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT! FIND MY DOG! the only thing you can do is go home and when we find him, we will put him on the first plane here, and then have him driven to your home tonight.
lot more was said, but finally a crying, swollen nicki left the airport with only a puppy in tow.
we spend christmas day (what was supposed to be a great surprise), crying because they lost my dog, and i can only imagine the fear he feels, IF he is OK.
finally, 11 oclock at night, they call and say he is there. and that the shuttle cant drive him to our house, so we drive there which takes an hour, and in the parking lot i see him, jump out of the moving vehicle, and run to him. the kid let me take him out and hug him without a word, which kinda threw me.
we fought, and after the girl told us we should be happy our planes landed on the ground, they sent us on their way without a promise they would be more careful next time.
needless to say, two weeks later, the last thing i wanted to do was get on a plane...but we had to.
i would never fly a dog again, unless he was in first class with me. i fly coach by the way.
sorry lol. and p.s. i know this didn't help....im just sharing my nightmare