This from a friend of mine who had plans to go to Israel for Pesach who's wife has allergies to pets. The whole family was removed from the flight and El Al has yet to even issue a refund. I know these people and the husband is a close friend who is the nicest guy and never over reacts. They were treated horribly and lost their trip to Osrael for Pesach.
Anyone know how this is allowed or what can be done to help them? Thanks so much.
Here is his wife's Facebook post about the incident.
UPDATED: Please read this entire post before commenting:
Today, I began to have an allergic reaction on an EL AL Israel Airlines USA flight from LAX to Tel Aviv due to dogs that were on the plane. While I have allergic asthma and am allergic to everything from nuts, shellfish and household pets, I have never had any on any flight EVER in 37 years of life. And I have been flying internationally since I was an infant as all my family lives in the Dominican Republic and I was born and raised in NYC.
As I tried to make sense of what to do when I discovered there were so many dogs on the flight (as they started barking), my husband and family asked if the dogs could be further away or if there were other seats for us or just me. I was not paying attention to this because I had been helping my 2-year-old son get settled and was distracted. He had not napped and was in a foul mood.
While my husband, his sister and her husband were talking calmly to a handful of flight attendants, one particularly aggressive Israeli flight attendant, Dan Idy, started screaming at us in Hebrew and English: "The dogs are a priority, we cannot move the dogs. You need to get off the plane!"
Dan repeated "Get off the plane! Get off the plane NOW!" several times and when my husband asked "Why should we get off the plane? Can't the dog(s) be moved further back?" Dan repeated "We cannot move the dogs, YOU need to get off the plane now. YOU get off NOW!" My husband said something like "I don't understand." Dan said "It doesn't matter if you understand" and then switched to Hebrew yelling and gesticulating wildly a foot from my husband's face.
The situation escalated very quickly and we were mistreated in front of all the other passengers and our son who would celebrate his 2nd birthday on the flight. Dan finally concluded by taking a paper out of his pocket and writing his name and telling us sarcastically that we were welcome to lodge a complaint with El Al and walking away leaving the other flight attendants to clean up his mess as many other passengers were now agitated.
I truly wished that I had taped it all because I am still in disbelief. Several of the other passengers cried out during the situation asking why a dog was more important than a person. While all the screaming back and forth was taking place, I began to wheezing, coughing and gasping for breath and was forced to deplane anyway. No apologies were issued for our mistreatment. No one helped us deplane. I have another invisibly disability, Ehlers Danlos Syndrome, and I was helping my husband deplane as I struggled to breathe and was coughing profusely until I was forced to sit down on the floor just outside the gate with my son.
At no point did anyone ask as I was having trouble breathing on the plane if I needed medical assistance. Once we were removed from the flight, one kind flight attendant mentioned he was a former medic and asked if I was carrying Benadryl and an inhaler. I was. I was still very much in shock by our mistreatment and my rapidly escalating reaction and wheezing and sobbing as I searched for both. All of our stuff from the plane had been jumbled up as we scrambled to deplane and had to shove it all in any available bag.
If I understand it correctly, it was later clarified that a dog company frequently books flights for their dogs on El Al and so we could not be switched over to any of the next outgoing flights that would arrive before or in time for Passover. The one flight available would have put us in danger of breaking our religious observance and they still could not promise there wouldn't be any dogs. Because of this, we had to cancel our entire vacation. It would have been the first time we saw Israel in over 11 years and the first time we visited my husband's brother and his family since they made aliyah.
While some of the flight attendants were kind during this situation, particularly the former medic, this particular one named Dan Idy continued to commit a Chillul Hashem (a desecration of G-d's name) and with their silence they condoned his words and deeds. Dan even laughed when my husband, a rabbi, asked gently how he could speak to anyone like this and offered words of Torah.
I have NEVER had such a severe or quick reaction to animals on a plane. I have flown on very short flights with animals and had no reaction or experienced a delayed sinus infection.
This was my first time ever flying El Al and it will also be my last. I have not been in Israel since I flew Israir in 2006 where I explained to security that I had a disability, Elhers Danlos Syndrome and fibromyalgia, and required help with my carry-on luggage and I was treated like a terrorist on Israir. My health, nor my finances because of it, have not been well enough to visit since.
Please note again: I was not offered any formal medical treatment by El Al representatives until we were moved from our gate all the way back to check-in over a span of 20-30 minutes. The El Al flight attendant who was formerly a medic was the only person who cared if I was okay physically and sat with me. I went to the ER by myself for medical treatment and received steroids and a nebulizer treatment.
I stupidly and thankfully not fatally did not use an Epi Pen. I did have one---I now carry two for the first time in my life-- but I was still waiting to hear back from Nuclear Medicine at Kaiser Permanente after the one and only time I have had to use an Epi Pen during an asthma attack just this Purim due to cross contamination with hazelnuts. The adrenalin caused irregularities in my heart and doctors were very concerned.
Given the choice between a heart attack and breathing...well, it's not a choice at all that anyone should have to make. As I said, I was in shock. I had not slept in 30 hours preparing for this flight at great cost to my overall health in hopes to be part of this family reunion. Later, I was advised in the ER and by my allergist on how to proceed in the future. I truly had no idea how to react in this situation because it is not one I have been in before.
We worked for over 24 hours afterwards with the airline, travel agents and family friends to get back on another flight and could not do so. I am still trying to process having yet another medical condition so severe that it will affect my ability to visit my family, all of which live across the country or in another country. My allergist says he cannot make sense of this suddenly severe reaction other than my system was overloaded by allergens present on the plane.
We have called and spoken to EL AL Israel Airlines USA representatives and told that we need to write a letter or email to receive a refund. The voices on the other line cannot process it as they are not customer service. We found this all very confusing. We have also yet to receive the refund for our excessive baggage we were promised by an El Al representative in Los Angeles named Linda.
The next day after the incident, we called JetBlue to discuss this new medical situation as we are meant to see family in NYC in May that we have not seen in four years due to my various illnesses. It was such a different experience. The customer service was amazing.
The JetBlue representative set up a medical alert on my reservation, checked to see if any pets were booked on the flight and are having someone from the DISABILITY DEPARTMENT contact me to make sure there are no service animals or emotional support animals booked. If there are, I will be moved to another flight or prioritized depending on who booked first. They even refunded the money I paid for Even More space seats for two of us because as a disabled person, myself and my companion get an upgrade for free.
The representative said that she knows for a fact that people are taking advantage and pretending to have legitimate emotional support animals so they don't have to pay for their pets to fly. There are several news stories anyone can find online regarding this.
http://nypost.com/…/why-pigs-have-started-to-fly-the-emoti…/
http://www.today.com/health/pig-plane-era-emotional-support-animals-flights-may-be-ending-t103065http://www.today.com/pets/emotional-support-animals-are-making-flying-beastly-experts-say-t70756Note: Anyone who thinks I am against animals: service, support or pets is deluded and does not know me very well. Until I developed allergic asthma, I had THREE cats. One I had gotten from someone who was rehoming theirs due to allergies and TWO who were rescues, the latter one which I personally rescued myself off the street.
I think we live in a world where one person's disability doesn't have to kill another. This isn't the OPPRESSION OLYMPICS. Even hotels offer pet-free and smoke-free options, both which I take advantage of whenever I can.
While JetBlue has an entire department dedicated to helping their disabled clients with any and all disabilities, EL AL Israel Airlines is backward in more ways than one regarding their customer service. Even their own representatives cannot issue refunds regarding the simplest things and you are given the run around whenever you can and must repeatedly call in hopes of getting a voice on the other end who can help.
I am looking for is a refund for our flights and our baggage and I hope that EL AL אל על will learn to provide better service to customers like me with invisible disabilities.
We were on Flight LY 006 on 4/4/17 schedule to depart at 1:15pm.
This is the flight attendant, Dan Idy, who verbally abused us. Apparently, he lives quite close to me. Please let me know if you have had similar interactions with him:
https://www.facebook.com/dan.idy.777?ref=br_rs&hc_location=ufi