7/8/10: Don't trust American Airlines with your dog!

If you were wondering about last night's tweets from @hippojuicefilm and @hjuicemarie, it was because we were quite worried about this little girl:

She's safe now, thank goodness, but American Airlines gave us quite the 9 hour scare yesterday as we sent her off to be with her new family in Arkansas.

As you all know, it's been an unusually hot summer. This makes it very difficult for people who need to have their pets fly, because airlines don't allow pets on board if it's too hot. So we had been trying to find the earliest flight we could, and we found one from Ft. Lauderdale that connected in Dallas and landed in Little Rock leaving at 4pm EST.

We dropped Diamond off right before yesterday's podcast, and as we were leaving, American Airlines calls us to let us know they're not sending her and they will have to board her because it's too hot. We triple checked all three cities and saw it wasn't too hot and called back. Then American Airlines admitted their flight was delayed and were worried she wouldn't make her connecting flight. But after insisting that they just MAKE IT HAPPEN because we paid a lot of money for her flight, they put a rush on her to make sure she gets home. They also promised they'd call us to make sure we know she makes her flight, and if not she'd be boarded in Dallas overnight. Fine. As long as she's safe.

The time of the connecting flight had come and gone and we didn't get a call, so we call them around 10:30pm. We speak to several American Airlines staff, all of whom could not verify exactly where the dog was. They called the kennel and she wasn't there, but they also couldn't tell us if she was on the plane. Where is she? How can you lose a dog?? Who was responsible for putting her in the plane? Call that person and ask if they did it! Nothing. Over an hour of arguing, and all they could tell us was to accept it and wait for the plane to land to see if she was on it.

We still haven't heard back from American Airlines. Luckily, the family did find her at the airport and called us at 1am to let her know she was safe, although after being in her crate for NINE HOURS, she was covered in her own pee and poop. Obviously she was terrified from her experience.

I will never send another dog on American Airlines. We flew another puppy out on Continental and they were wonderful with her. I guess some airlines care and some don't.

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