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Three Waikato families are facing a bill of $33,000 after three dogs being brought to New Zealand to help autistic patients were banned from a Qantas flight in Los Angeles.
The families had spent two years raising funds to bring the dogs to New Zealand.
Sonya Ewens, whose six-year-old son Sloan got one of the dogs to help with his autism, said they were "devastated", the Waikato Times reported today.
She said they were still raising the last $6000 for the original fare and the thought of another two years fundraising "is really too much."
The three trained dogs from the 4 Paws For Ability centre in Ohio, had already flown with their handlers on two American Airlines flights until Qantas staff refused to allow them board a flight to Auckland in Los Angeles on July 13.
Centre executive Karen Shirk said when she bought the original $10,000 American Airlines tickets online the airline confirmed service dogs were allowed in the cabin with passengers.
However, she said the Auckland flight was code-shared with Qantas who did not know anything about the dogs and insisted on proof the animals were service dogs.
She said she had to upgrade to business class and transport the dogs in the cargo hold to avoid flight delays and that cost nearly $30,000.
She said she had to ask the three Waikato families to fundraise the extra $33,000 because the money was needed to help other families, the Waikato Times reported.
Qantas said service dogs could travel in the cabin if the passenger had proof when they checked in. However, she said although Qantas operated the flight, the passengers were customers of American Airlines and that airlines was responsible for booking, ticketing and giving passengers information.
- NZPA
