American Airlines Airbus narrowbody aircraft make up a majority of their domestic fleet. The airline has nearly 400 Airbus A319s, 320s, and 321s which is more than all of their 737s, 757s in domestic/Hawaii configuration, MD80s, and Embraer 190s combined. The domestic 757s and MD80s are being rapidly replaced.
And American Airlines does not allow pets to be checked as cargo on their Airbus narrowbodies. They are growing this fleet with A321neos that begin delivering at the start of 2019.
Airlines are cracking down on emotional support animals. Small pets can travel in the cabin for a fee, but larger pets need to be checked. Owners of larger animals then may be caught between Scylla and Charybdis unable to bring their animal on board as an emotional support animal, unable to bring them in cabin for a fee, and unable to check them when traveling on half the domestic fleet — and many destinations are served exclusively by these aircraft.
I knew this was the policy, but wasn’t aware of the reason. Legacy US Airways planes do not all have the heating and ventilation necessary to carry live animals as cargo.
- American won’t spend the money to upgrade their planes for this
- American’s IT is incapable of distinguishing between legacy US Airways and legacy American aircraft. American’s Airbus narrowbodies that were with the airline prior to the US Airways merger can support pets as cargo, but the airline’s systems can’t tell which planes those are.
American Airlines A319
American Airlines is “looking at system changes that would make it possible to distinguish between the two types of aircraft” and if they decide to move forward and implement this then it would be possible to check pets on legacy American Airbus narrowbodies, and not on legacy US Airways Airbus narrowbodies.
Of course since American Airlines once sent the wrong Airbus plane to Hawaii, a plane that wasn’t ETOPS-certified, even though their systems are supposed to be able to tell the difference I’m not sure I’d trust Fido to this IT upgrade.
As much as I find it unacceptable that their IT cannot distinguish one aircraft type from the next I think it far better they deny all for two reasons:
1. Can you imgaine the difficulty in showing up with your pet and finding out equipment was swapped and your pet cannot fly?.
2. Finding out your pet is dead or severely injured because there was an equipment swap and those in charge didn’t notice or were made aware
Stop traveling with your pets. Problem solved. Why airlines got into the pet transportation business, I will never understand.
Multi-Multi Billion dollar, highly regulated operation relying on taxpayer funded airports cannot make these simple mistakes. If they sell a passenger ticket and charge for pet cargo, but don’t know if they can honor it at the time of flight, then quickly re-book the pet carrying passenger and their travelling companions (people and pets) onto a real airline such as Delta, United, Southwest, etc., avoid the negative publicity, and keep the customer happy. Do not make the customer suffer for your logistics error, and pretend you are not a logistical operation that safely and efficiently transports people from point A to point B.
Personally, I have no affinity for travelling with pets, but if I did, I would avoid AA at every opportunity, travelling with or without a pet, even if it meant paying a higher fare. I would not be able to conscientiously support an ‘airline’ that has no empathy for an entire class of customers, and the only way for an airline to hear this is to actually have fewer customers, while other airlines have more customers.
For all of the illiberal and intolerant people telling others not to travel with their pets, consider for a moment the fact that many pet owners consider their dogs to be part of their families and would no sooner move or travel without them anymore than you would without your spouse, partner, or children. It’s not my business to define your family (and we have all had to rethink this concept radically over the past decade or so) and this tolerance should apply no less to families with pets. When I was transferred for my work there was no way I (much less my wife or kids) were moving anywhere without the dog, and I don’t appreciate anybody telling me we should have abandoned him because the airlines can’t get their acts together to accommodate them or because others are too delicate to be near them.
The owners of airlines in the USA have been granted a cozy oligopoly where they operate in a largely command economy completely protected from any foreign competition for domestic routes, and most competition for international routes, and further enjoy massive government subsidies paid for by the US taxpayer. That they are unable or unwilling to deliver an important service such as the transport of animals while those able and willing are barred from the industry, is an unacceptable situation.
If you love your pet, never, ever, check the pet as cargo.
I agree with David. Stop traveling with your pets. Leave your pets at home. We all know that traveling with your “emotional” animal is just a cheap way to get them from here to there, to the inconvenience and discomfort of everybody else. My husband is allergic to pet dander and we were confronted in first class with a woman who not only had one but two large dogs in the first row of first class. I was so affronted by this and afraid for my husband who has serious allergies. I have a fear of dogs based on a childhood experience. I believe that large animals are dangerous on planes as you don’t know how they are going to react. There have been incidences where dogs have attacked passengers. My husband immediately started to have a reaction to the two dogs and had to take a pill which did not completely take care of the problem. The flight attendant (on American) moved the woman to the last seat in first class. I am ready for all of this to be done with.
I plan on relocation to Germany… I’ve had my ..pug. since she was 3 months old,now turning 7.! Are you suggesting I give up my dog,? She is healthy ,but restricted in cabin on flight.!size-weight. My only alternative is same..nonstop flight cargo for her. Airlines need to be more responsive to the needs of their Passengers! !