Fighting The Evil Giant

For years I made an effort to use NW Airlines only when I had no other options for flying or shipping dogs. In addition to gouging the locals for flights to anywhere, we fought many a battle with the cargo and VIP people over crate size. A Dalmatian bitch should be able to travel in a 400 sized Vari Kennel, and they always could with every other airline, and from every other place NW flew. Here, they often insisted that the dog was "too tall" and needed a larger crate - so they could bleed us for more money. One cargo office employee confided that the "animal rights" folks would come down and check things out - but I ask you, how would "they" get through the locked cargo area door to do that? And what police powers did "they" have?

We anticipated that when NW was eaten up by Delta that the policies might change and we would be able to ship dogs just as they could/can from other airports. Yesterday we tried to ship 44 pound Penny in her 400 Vari Kennel. She was to fly Delta Dash to Richmond, Virginia because the only direct flight was on Delta, and because the cargo office would be closed by the time she arrived, Penny had to fly Delta Dash. Laurie made arrangements and was quoted a price of $400.00 or more - which is ridiculous to begin with as she should have been able to get a seat for that price.

So, we set off for the Delta Dash office which used to be the NW VIP Small Package office, and stood around waiting for half an hour (and only two people ahead of us). When it was finally our turn the woman at the desk decided that Penny was "too tall" for the crate. She pointed to the drawing of a dog in a crate, where the dog is rocking back on its front legs and standing with its neck extended and told us that Penny had to be able to stand with her head straight up like the dog in the picture. Excuse me, but the dog in the picture does NOT have her head straight up, and Penny would be able to stand just like that in her crate. The real argument of course is that dogs should NOT stand up in their crates anyway. I finally lost my temper and went back to the car leaving Jess to fight the battle I have fought all too often. The woman actually followed Jess out to the car, arguing her point. Yeah, right. Like we will be coming back with a 500 size crate to ship with Delta. So they can bleed us for $600.00 or so for shipping, a 2 1/2 hour flight.

Regulations exist for animal safety, but when they applied too rigidly it becomes a joke - except of course to the people who are trying to ship. When we shipped NW air cargo things were bad for awhile because of one particular employee at the cargo office. Once I figured out when she worked and avoided those times for shipping we had no more trouble. Before we learned that, I took Coral out to be shipped to Southern California to be bred. A nice direct flight, but I was told she needed a taller crate. So I shipped her American the next day in the same crate. We've had bitches come in for breeding, accepted in their crates at some other freight office, but been unable to send them home on NW in that sized crate. Why all the hassles at MSP???

So now we know that Delta is just as difficult to deal with as NW was, but of course it's the same employees. Should have canned them all. We will NOT be flying this Evil Giant either. Hope they go bankrupt. It's a very good thing that we are able to ship chilled semen nowadays, rather than having to ship bitches via Delta/NW . . .