To say RaeLynn did not have a positive experience aboard an American Airlines flight this past Sunday would be an understatement.
RaeLynn has Type 1 Diabetes and was actually headed here to Maryland to speak at a diabetes convention with her 85 pound German Shepard Jazz.
RaeLynn tells the Taste of Country, "Jazz is my therapy dog, and for years he has been by my side and traveling all over the country," she explains. “In terms of my diabetes, he is there to detect when my sugar levels aren’t right. He goes everywhere with me."
She went on to explain how she was continually harrassed by the flight attendant who kept claiming RaeLynn was being noncompliant with her therapy dog.
“I’ve never had a minute of trouble. Jazz is trained to know how to lay under the seat of an airplane," she explains, "But this airplane was a small regional plane, and before we even took off, the attendant came up to me and told me that I needed to get the dog completely under the seat for take off. Jazz immediately started crying as I tried to fit him completely under the seat. I mean, if there had been turbulence, he would have been hurt."
RaeLynn also claims the flight attendant went as far to say the small, regional plane wouldn't be able to land until Jazz was completely under the seat.
Fox News reached out to the airline for a statement in which they responded, “We’re sorry that RaeLynn had a bad travel experience with us. Our team is working to gather more information and facts, and our customer relations team has reached out to her directly."
RaeLynn ends with "This sort of stuff bothers me so much. If I was a flight attendant, I certainly would not have made as big of a scene as she did. It could have been something that was discussed once we landed. It was no way to treat a dog, much less a service dog, and it certainly wasn’t right to treat a passenger like that either."