Yahoo Lifestyle Woman Claims Delta Airlines Flight Attendant Told Her to Stop Cat from ‘Meowing’ or She Would Be Asked to ‘Get Off’ Plane
“One, he’s a cat. Two, he’s not screaming. He’s meowing because there’s a lot of commotion,” she recalled of her reaction
Janelle Rupkalvis/Tiktok
Janelle Rupkalvis and her catA Delta passenger says she was “in shock” following a Feb. 19 flight after a Delta flight attendant allegedly told her to quiet her cat or else she would be asked to deplane.
Janelle Rupkalvis shared in a TikTok video on Feb. 20 that she and her partner had been traveling on a Delta flight from from Seattle to Salt Lake City with her 4-year-old cat, Asparagus — a.k.a. “Gus” — and they had just taken their seats in first class when something surprising happened.
“We sit down and within like 30 seconds, a minute, maybe two minutes, a flight attendant comes up to us … She goes, ‘If your cat doesn’t stop meowing, we’re going to have to ask you to get off the plane,” Rupkalvis recalled in her video.
“I was like, ‘What?’ Like, one, he’s a cat. Two, he’s not screaming. He’s meowing because there’s a lot of commotion,” she added. “This is a scary thing for a little guy who’s sitting in a little carrier underneath the seat.”
Rupkalvis said she and her partner “panicked” and tried to make their pet “quiet” down while boarding was happening so they didn’t “get kicked off.” In the meantime, she said she texted a Delta agent and asked them to “clarify” their pet policy, just in case “the situation escalates.”
“They said that the requirements are that the customer is responsible for keeping the pet passive and in the kennel for the duration of the flight, and two, the pet must be in a clean kennel that doesn’t create discomfort for other customers,” she claimed.
She noted that the requirement asked for the pet to be “passive” not “silent” — which she said was “a huge distinction.”
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According to Delta’s pet policy, a pet must be placed in a pet kennel that is able to fit under the seat in front of a passenger with maximum dimensions of 18” x 11” x 11” and that the pet must be inside the kennel “while on board the aircraft.” However, the guidelines do not say anything about the demeanor of the pet.
In a statement to PEOPLE on March 1, Delta said, “We are aware of and are investigating the details of this event. Per Delta’s pet policy, pets must remain inside the kennel with the door secured while in a Delta boarding area, during boarding and deplaning, while in a Delta Sky Club and while on board the aircraft.”
Rupkalvis said she then asked the Delta agent if there was some kind of “compensation” they could get due to the “incorrect information” given to them, which caused an “anxiety-induced situation.” She said Delta offered her and her partner either a $150 voucher or 15,000 miles each — which they took.
“I was seriously in shock 😳 what do you think about this travel mishap?” she captioned the video.
In a statement to the New York Post, Rupkalvis said: “While the initial experience was frustrating, I really appreciated that level of customer service and the effort to acknowledge and address the situation."
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