There’s been plenty of turbulence recently in the airline industry, with United taking a PR beating first over its no-leggings dress policy for passengers flying on an employee pass, and then over the violent removal of a passenger who refused to “volunteer” to give up his seat.
Delta might have been the ones on the hot seat this weekend, but it turns about the public was more sympathetic to an adorable dog in a bow tie than to NBC News senior political analyst Mark Halperin, who tweeted this photo early Saturday morning.
Seriously, @delta??!? pic.twitter.com/j9pZlcDyAU
— Mark Halperin (@MarkHalperin) April 22, 2017
https://twitter.com/cxcope/status/855686356315521024
He's better dressed than most first class flyers these days!
— Unpresidented (@dialogician) April 22, 2017
How could you be upset with this? He is dashing in his bow tie + looks 100% more lovable than most passengers…
— Vivienne Gucwa (@travelinglens) April 22, 2017
Are you upset there is only one dog next to you?
— Brian Kibler (@bmkibler) April 22, 2017
I want that dog
— Greta Van Susteren (@greta) April 23, 2017
https://twitter.com/moirannikki/status/855674159359287297
I would pay double for this, Mark. And if it's service dog, have some compassion for that person in need.
— Jeremy Pond (@JeremyPond) April 23, 2017
Hold up … before you grab the pitchforks and torches, what Halperin meant to say was …
This dog is cute & service, companion & emotional support dogs= best souls on Earth.Point was,on long flt Delta sat dog apart from its owner pic.twitter.com/QnhzEm1WAz
— Mark Halperin (@MarkHalperin) April 22, 2017
Ah, so Halperin was shocked that Delta would let a service dog fly separated from its owner … or was he?
Halperin attempted to do some damage control by explaining that he’d tried to switch seats so that the dog and its owner, who can be seen in the photo, could fly together.
That's the owner briefly w/ his dog to try to get him settled in dog's own seat pre moving across aisle, where he was inexplicably assigned https://t.co/h701v8ZjK2
— Mark Halperin (@MarkHalperin) April 23, 2017
https://twitter.com/jesseberney/status/856112987924549632
That's what I did.But b/c of LAX traffic, TSA, redeye logistics & overhead bin issues, I got seated v late; stunned it hadn't been dealt w/ https://t.co/BGZ2NqLdPM
— Mark Halperin (@MarkHalperin) April 23, 2017
By the time I figured out situation, we were about to taxi, dog on its own, & no one trying to fix it. So of course I offered & switched https://t.co/dJ7PtRejsi
— Mark Halperin (@MarkHalperin) April 23, 2017
https://twitter.com/jesseberney/status/856114930088636420
We were abt to take off on redeye. Dog was cute. I was sharing pix & expressing surprise owner/dog hadn't been put 2gether.No time for essay https://t.co/gz4WYJvJGA
— Mark Halperin (@MarkHalperin) April 23, 2017
I didn't have time to do another photo shoot & dog was no longer posing after owner went to his own separate seat. https://t.co/Qp7JJ0cUgj
— Mark Halperin (@MarkHalperin) April 23, 2017
You are a good guy Mark … the cabin crew should have sorted that out b4 you were seated !!
— Anne Maloney (@scinti105) April 23, 2017
Yes, that was my original point. Reassign me or someone else so dog/owner could sit together. No need to wait until last minute. https://t.co/nnClTqJl80
— Mark Halperin (@MarkHalperin) April 23, 2017
And so ends the story, or Halperin’s side of it, at least. Charlie, his former neighbor on the flight, chimed in Sunday evening.
https://twitter.com/anthonylpisano/status/856283407730561025
Looks like the dog is taking the high road in this dust-up. Matthew Dessem writes at Slate:
… Halperin’s recollection of that fateful red-eye doesn’t jibe with that of Charlie’s owner, Anthony Pisano. Pisano, who works as a flight attendant for Delta, reached out via Twitter to say that, not only did Halperin not offer to trade seats but, rather than expressing concern that Delta was seating support animals apart from their owners, he told a flight attendant that he refused to sit next to a dog. What’s more, in Pisano’s telling, Halperin wouldn’t speak to him or even look at him while the situation was resolved.
https://twitter.com/anthonylpisano/status/856286647406784512
https://twitter.com/anthonylpisano/status/856651450516164610
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