Delta is under fire for repeatedly flying a puppy to the wrong city
Yet another dog has suffered at the hands of a major airline — but this time United is off the hook.
United has experienced a recent string of customer service scandals involving pets — a French bulldog died after being stowed in an overhead bin, a flight was diverted because a dog was mistakenly loaded on board, and a German shepherd was shipped to Japan instead of Kansas. Now Delta is taking the blame for the latest mix-up.
As KTVB reports, the airline left an Idaho man, Josh Schlaich, scrambling when his 8-week-old puppy was sent to two different cities by mistake. The puppy’s breeder had placed the dog, along with another pup, on a flight from Richmond, Va., to Boise, Idaho. The puppies were reportedly meant to have a layover in Minneapolis before landing in Boise but flew to Detroit instead.
CNN reports that both dogs spent the evening of March 17 in a Detroit kennel but at some point got separated. One puppy ended up in Boise on Sunday, but the one belonging to Schlaich was reportedly flown to Minneapolis and then misrouted to Las Vegas.
The dog eventually made it back home Sunday night, after being flown from Las Vegas to Boise via a connection in Salt Lake City. Delta claims that the puppy was given food and water and regularly let out of its crate.
“It’s a culmination of uncaring customer service and bad logistics,” Schlaich told KTVB of the error, though he has since deleted his original Facebook post calling out the airline. He now says Delta is issuing a refund.
The airline has also offered an apology for the situation.
“We know pets are important members of the family and apologize for the delayed shipment of a dog, which is in the hands of its owner, after it was routed through incorrect connecting points on its way to Boise,” Delta said in a statement to Time.
“Delta teams worked quickly to reunite the dog and his owner, while remaining in constant contact with the customer throughout the process to update him on the status of his pet. We have fully refunded the shipping costs and have initiated an immediate review [of] procedures to understand what happened.”
Read more from Yahoo Lifestyle:
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