As a dog lover, I can’t help but find this to be very cute, though admittedly it’s a bit controversial…
Traveler finds “hack” to avoid putting dog in carrier on plane
A self-proclaimed “dog content creator” on Instagram posted a video a couple of days ago, which has since gone viral, and has been viewed millions of times.
In the video, he can be seen flying United first class, with his dog in his lap. For what it’s worth, his dog, Piper, is 19 years old, and is blind and deaf. As a dog lover, huge credit to this guy in general, as he loves helping dogs, fosters them, etc. Anyway, I digress…
He can be seen cuddling with his dog and feeding him a goldfish snack, and the flight attendant takes drink orders. He orders a Diet Coke for himself, and a water for his dog. After taking the order, the flight attendant politely reminds him “your pet needs to be in its carrier at all times.” He responds by asking “the whole time?” The flight attendant responds “the whole time.”
The dog apparently doesn’t like being in the carrier, so he says “this is going to get ugly.” The video then moves on to what he claims is the second flight, where he writes “this is the second flight, and I came up with a dog travel hack.” The dog can be seen in what almost looks like a baby carrier, strapped to his chest, with a hat over his head.
Now, I’m not sure to what extent this was for social media rather than “real” (in terms of whether there were actually two separate flights, or whether he just filmed all of this on the same flight). Either way, you can see the video for yourself below.
As you’d expect, the internet is divided on this…
There are varying opinions regarding the “stunt” this guy pulled off. On the one hand, the policy is clear — if you have an in-cabin pet (and not a service animal), they need to be in the carrier for the entire flight. The flight attendant did nothing wrong here — he was simply enforcing the company’s policy.
At the same time, most dog lovers find this to be adorable, and see nothing wrong with what the guy did. As a dog lover, I absolutely fall in that camp, while of course acknowledging that it violates the rules.
This guy seems like a great “dog dad,” and it doesn’t look like Piper was bothering anyone. Then again, there are all kinds of dog parents with very poorly behaved four-legged friends, who also think their dogs are perfect little angels.
I’ve long thought that there need to be more humane ways to travel with pets. Admittedly traveling in a carrier in the cabin is actually one of the more humane ways to travel, as my biggest issue is with putting dogs in the cargo hold (since dogs of a certain size can’t travel as pets in the cabin).
What also makes this kind of silly is that if this guy had simply claimed his dog was a service animal (as all too many people do — not that I’m condoning it), he could’ve kept the dog in his lap the whole flight, and also wouldn’t have had to pay the fee for an in-cabin pet.
Bottom line
A traveler flew United first class with his adorable senior dog, and had him in his lap. The flight attendant told him he needed to place the dog in the carrier (fair enough), so he did that. However, on the next flight, he decided to try a new method, and placed the dog in a carrier around his chest, using a baseball cap to cover his head.
As someone who loves dogs, it put a smile on my face to see this senior dog living his best life with his favorite human. That’s not to say I agree with breaking the rules, but it still brought me joy.
What do you make of this United first class dog situation?