Three Airlines Wouldn’t Accommodate Wheelchair User’s Service Dog

Jacquie Kelley, 21, is Vermont-native studying abroad who uses a wheelchair. Her service dog, Moose, travels with her as he is trained to help her stand up from her seat.

Kelley needs Moose to travel, but on May 2nd, three different airlines denied Kelley and her service dog on flights and stranded her in Lisbon for two days.

Kelley is studying abroad and was flying from Lisbon to Dublin on May 2 on a Ryanair flight when the airline canceled her reservation because they would not accommodate Moose, even though she had flown to and from Dublin on the airline with her service dog previously without any issue.

“On top of that, they cancelled my reservation without me knowing. The Ryan Air representatives in the airport worked diligently to get me on the Air Lingus flight tonight,” Kelley wrote in a Facebook post.

“However, about two hours later after going back and forth between the airlines, Air Lingus said that they also would not be able to accommodate me and my service dog,” she said.

After Air Lingus wouldn’t accommodate Kelley, she tried TAP Portugal and just like Ryanair and Air Lingus, they, too, denied Kelley and Moose.

“I then went to TAP Portugal which I flew from Dublin to Lisbon. Yet, they said that they did not have jurisdiction to bring any dog into Ireland. There is no airline in the Lisbon airport that is willing to accommodate me,” she wrote.

It was only after contacting the American Embassy for help that Kelley and Moose were able to get on a TAP flight. Unfortunately, with a 48-hour notice policy for service dogs, Kelley had to be scheduled for a May 5th flight. In an update on Facebook, Kelley shared good news and wrote that the airline was able to put her on an earlier flight on Saturday, May 4th.

The experience on May 2 was Kelley’s “hardest day” of her study abroad trip and she had “never cried so many tears in one day.”

Kelley told USA Today that the experience isn’t something she’s going to forget.

“When I landed in Ireland, I expected myself to be happy because I was finally back, but I wasn’t. Everything dawned on me, and I did not know how to process it,” Kelley said. “I think that it is one thing for one airline to tell me no, but it is another for three airlines to do it.”

She explained how Moose is an important part of her ability to travel and study abroad. “He also makes me feel protected even though he is not trained to do do,” Kelley said. “As a person who uses a wheelchair, I am very vulnerable and cannot defend myself but I am rarely worried that something will happen when I am with him because he is a 90-pound golden retriever.”

Air Lingus, TAP Portugal and Ryanair didn’t reply to USA Today’s request for comment.

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