They Threatened to Throw Me Out of the Plane Because My Cat Was Meowing

Traveling with animals is sometimes easier than traveling with children. Many of us have been on flights where crying babies would not stop making a fuss. But that’s just how it is with toddlers, and all anyone can do is be patient. You would suppose that the same goes for pets, but a flight attendant thought otherwise and caused great distress to a passenger carrying a cat.

Janelle Rupkalvis, a travel influencer, was flying from Seattle to Salt Lake City with her cat when a flight attendant approached her.

We get on the plane. We got to get our stuff put away, all that stuff, and I’m not kidding you, we sit down, and within like 30 seconds, a minute, maybe two minutes, a flight attendant comes up to us, and I think that they’re going to remind us that, “Oh, you have a cat, they have to stay in the carrier the whole time.” Like, that’s a pretty common reminder that we get when we’re traveling with pets.

But no, instead, she goes, “If your cat doesn’t stop meowing, we’re gonna have to ask you to get off the plane.”

I was like, “Are you serious?” I’ve never heard this before. We fly with him a lot, and she’s like, “If you can’t get him to stop, we’ll have to ask you to deplane.” The first thought, I didn’t say this, but I was like, “So if parents have kids that are crying, do we make them deplane? Like, how is this any different?” But I did not say that. I did not go there. I was just like, “Um, okay.”

So now we’re panicked. No one said anything to this flight attendant, we’ve been on the plane for that little amount of time. This flight attendant just, I don’t know if they don’t like cats or what, but I could not believe how quickly this all happened, and I’m shocked again.

It’s five in the morning. We barely got any sleep, so now we’re panicked, trying to get Gus to be quiet while everyone’s boarding and making noise around us so we don’t get kicked off this flight. But I also, I’m like, “There’s no way that this is a rule.” I’ve never heard this before.

Rupkalvis was aware of the airline's pet policy and decided to confirm it with customer service.

So I text Delta, and I ask them to clarify what the actual policy is, so I’m prepared in case the situation escalates. They said, “I don’t believe that you can be removed only because your cat is meowing. However, let me check the pet policies to be 100% certain.” They come back, and they say the requirements are that the customer is responsible for keeping the pet passive and in the kennel for the duration of the flight.

And two, the pet must be in a clean kennel that does not create discomfort for other customers. Well, we have a clean kennel. There’s no discomfort there, and the requirement is for the pet to be passive, not silent. Like, that is a huge distinction. I was happy to have this information in case the situation escalated. It didn’t.

But before I let the agent go, I asked if there was any compensation that we could get because of the incorrect information that we were told on the plane, and how that caused a really anxiety- and stress-induced situation, because now we’re worried about our cat meowing. He’s a cat. The customer service agent came back and offered us either a $150 voucher per person, or 15,000 miles each for my partner and I.

So we took the miles, so we got 30,000 miles out of the situation. I feel like that compensation is fair. That helps smooth over the situation.

Many passengers have had unforgettable flights that are a great story every time they meet someone new. However, not all cases are happy situations and sometimes people are left with great discomfort and bitterness.