This was published 8 years ago
Traveller letters: Has American Airlines gone to the dogs?
GONE TO THE DOGS
I recently flew with American Airlines from Paris to New York. On a very full flight, with a bank of three seats (economy), I was in the middle with my husband on one side and a young girl and her dog on the other.The dog (not cute at all) was very smelly but lovingly wrapped in a passenger blanket and given a pillow to lay on, on the girl's lap. Early in the flight, the girl was asked if it was a "support dog". She replied with a rude "yes" and no further questions were asked. On a toilet stop, I asked staff about the issue, pointing out that I was never asked if I minded the dog being there. They said that, under American law, they could do nothing. During the flight the dog constantly invaded my space and at one stage jumped on my lap. Meal time was just awful – the dog shared the meal off the girl's tray, the girl and dog drank from the same glass and the final blow came when the dog was allowed to lick the tray table clean. I arrived in New York angry and very smelly. How can an airline allow this?
Sue Caldwell, Frenchs Forest, NSW
LETTER OF THE WEEK
On the last afternoon of a wonderful month-long European holiday, I put my Aussie cash and cards back in my wallet and went out for some last-minute shopping. My wallet was promptly stolen. I cancelled the cards, reported the incident to the police and boarded the flight home. On arrival in Sydney, there was an email from a guy who had found my wallet (minus cash of course). He stated that as we had already left Copenhagen, he would post my wallet to me. Two weeks later, it arrived in the mail, all cards and licence still inside. We loved Copenhagen and now we can rave about one very caring and helpful Dane.
Sue Richards, Cronulla
PIRATES AHOY
My husband and I have just had an amazing nine days and nights in Indonesia sailing on a 37-metre, two-masted traditional Pinisi boat, the Al Likai. Very comfortable cabins, plenty of shady day beds, amazing sunrises and sunsets, yummy food and sometimes a barbecue at night on an uninhabited island under starry skies. I also have to mention snorkelling over some very beautiful coral gardens. Nothing was too much trouble for the crew, even down to baking special gluten-free bread for me. We are still pinching ourselves that we had this amazing experience on a modern day pirate boat.
Flora Dunne, Currumbin, Queensland
CLEANING UP
What a difference age makes! Lee Tulloch (Luxe Nomad, July 4) as a younger person loves baths and obviously has no difficulty climbing in and out of them. For someone who is elderly it can be a real performance. Consequently, we request a walk-in shower when booking a hotel. Full marks to the hotel we stayed in recently with the shower over the bath; a card was left in the bathroom saying a shower mat was available on request.
Jona Goldman, Caulfield, Vic
HOT SEATS
This week I booked business class return flights to Iceland, via Heathrow, on British Airways. When the travel agent tried to book seats for me, the seat plan for the Sydney-Heathrow and return legs wasn't visible; he instead saw a message informing him that the cost to reserve seats was $155.70 per leg, but we could book seats on the flights between Heathrow and Iceland at no cost. Is this price gouging, targeting Australians and others who are already paying more to see the rest of the world? The alternative, which I have chosen, is to wait until online check-in opens 24 hours before the flight.
Lucie Loane, Glebe NSW
HIGH PRAISE
My experience with altitude sickness while travelling in Peru (Rants & Raves May 30-31) has a postscript worth noting by all travellers. Cover-More, the insurance company recommended by Flight Centre, refunded entirely the unused, prepaid portion of my tour plus the expense of changed flights after I elected not to visit Lake Titicaca and Bolivia because of the high altitude.
Des Sullivan, Sunshine Beach, Queensland
AUTOMATIC FAILURE
We are just back from a lovely trip in France, however our experience was dampened by a cheeky trick run by the car hire companies. Like everyone, we are used to the usual extra fees for comprehensive insurance, but this was something new we would like to warn people about. We booked a small class C car from Avis (online) and requested an automatic because we knew driving on the right would be challenge enough. However, on collection in Bordeaux, we were advised that there were no Class C automatic cars available to hire at Avis – only manual ones. To get the automatic we would have to upgrade to Class A at double the cost. Apparently this is standard in France! None of this ever came to light while booking. We have written to Avis in France and completed a negative feedback form. No reply as yet.
Gwyn Denton, Artarmon, NSW
PASSPORT DELAYED
After researching cash options for our cruise to Alaska we chose to load up a Mastercard Cash Passport with US and Canadian currencies. We ran into difficulties when we used the card as pre-authorisation for our cruise and car hire. Even though both accounts were paid in full, the authorisations weren't cancelled and we were unable to access $1400 for 30 days. Customer service explained this was standard practice and we could contact the companies to discharge the authorisations – easier said than done! Luckily this wasn't our only source of cash or credit. We won't use Cash Passport for future travel and want to make sure others aren't caught out as we were.
Lyn Eadie, Shepparton,Victoria
WE WELCOME YOUR TRAVEL-RELATED OPINIONS AND EXPERIENCES
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