Well, we are in Lawton, OK now. Got in yesterday. That was in interesting flight. Flew straight from Frankfurt to Dallas, then to Lawton. Apparently I was possibly going to get arrested in the Dallas airport. We go through customs and they take our dog (5th time that someone has to inspect him) and tell us he will be on the plane. They switched our gates at the last minute and put us on a new plane, but left the dog sitting in the other plane in the cargo hold (over 90 degrees down there). I didnt know that, but asked if they dog was ok in our plane cuz it had to stop and sit while they fixed the engine, twice. They tell me they dont have a dog on board. I tell them they should, he has a ticket. The pilot pretty much tells me to **** off, the dog will come later. Meanwhile he is about to die from the heat. Kept going back and forth, and finally I lost it and blew up at him, many bad names, I was halfway in the cockpit, then I just got off the plane, cussed out the gate people, got a free ticket for the next flight and found the dog. But it took so long to fix the engine that I was able to take the same flight. So I guess it all worked out ok.

 

Karma, or teh Christian (I'm assuming you're a Christian, being from OK, and all) equavilant Glad you're pooch came through it OK. Scratch his furry l'il head for me, willya? And tell 'em I said, "Woof! woof, ruff, rrrrrrrrrrrrowlf, woof-woof, grrrr, ruff!"

 

What airline? how is it the pilots fault that the dog was missing? Usually its the ground handling companies that screw **** up. The pilot wont even come in contact with the dog.

 

it wasn't necessarily the pilots fault but he should've done a little more to help, or at least ACTED like he was trying to find the dog...non dog owners dont understand that it's not just some animal, it's a pet, and to a lot of people its a member of your family. what if, god forbid, the dog wasn't attended to, and died of heat stroke? i guess i know how it is because i've owned a lot of dogs and i can understand his frustration...glad it worked out though!

 

Sure theres frustration, understandable. but dont have it against the pilot. he cant do anything. its not his job. he has no contact with anything that gets put in the belly, unless hes a cargo pilot.

its the damn ground handling people. ramp rats

 

well, at least everything worked out ok and you saved the dog... id be pissed if my dog was about to die and getting left behind too

 

I more than agree with you that it was not his fault. But at the same time all I was asking him to do was have someone check on him, after all we were sitting there delayed for almost 2 hours cuz of engine problems. How much effort would that have taken? He pretty much told me tough ****. And I also realize it is not his job, but his job is to get passengers, luggage, and all other belongings that you pay the airline to move (including pets) to their destination safely. Letting the dog sit in the belly of the plane in a cage with no outside air in that heat (sure you have jumped into a car on a hot day) simply cuz he would rather flirt with the flight attendants is what pissed me off. If it would have been just a bag that was missing, no problem.

 

More importantly:

Didja pass on my words (barks?) of encouragement?

 

How long are you in Oklahoma for? I'm up at Enid and man, I can not wait to get out of here.

 

He's prolly been sentenced to about 3 years... standard, but he says he's FROM there, so maybe it won't suck, for him.