Maria Fraterrigo was held at SEAT 4A on a flight from San Juan to Kennedy International Airport on Saturday night. But when she arrived at the gate for her return flight to New York, she said, a Frontier Airlines representative stopped her.
Her partner, an African gray parrot called Plucky, whom Ms. Fraterrigo claimed as an emotional support animal and can say the names of her grandchildren, was in a list without sting.
Although it is allowed to bring Plucky to its outgoing flight without an incident in January, the agent said, the agent told her that the parrots were among many types of birds and other animals banned by the airline. He said that the rule essentially left her latent.
“This guy off the bench shouts and says to me,” You’re not going to make this flight, “” Mrs Fraterrigo, 81, recalled a telephone interview on Wednesday. “” Give it to someone. Get rid of it. “I said,” There is no way, I’m not going to get rid of my baby. “
For four days, her travel plans were glued to the vacuum, until Frontier appeared to have been sent, her tickets to another flight scheduled for Wednesday night. Plucky was expected to be towed when Ms. Fraterrigo, completing her first trip since she lost her husband in 2019, eventually took the boat.
Its condition depicted the tension between airlines and passengers on the types of animals allowed on commercial flights, which could occasionally be confused with a zoo until the federal government tightens the rules for service animals. Miniature horses, pigs and other unusual pets found their way to airplanes, but an emotional peacock support did not.
Ms. Fraterrigo’s test widely caught the attention of news media – ABC 7 Eyewitness News in New York was the first to mention it – and members of the New York Congress delegation exercised pressure on her review with her par.
Jennifer F. de la Cruz, a Frontier spokesman, said in a statement on Wednesday that the airline was investigating how the parrot had been allowed on Ms Fraterrigo’s previous flight. “Parrots are not characterized as emotional support animals under our policies nor those of any other US airline we know,” he said.
The airline also acknowledged that the inconsistencies had created difficulties for Ms. Fraterrigo.
“We are pleased to allow Plucky to return to New York,” said Ms de la Cruz. “We apologize for any confusion that may have happened to our policies.”
From the death of her husband, Richard Fraterrigo, a former New York police officer and retired by the federal bishop, who took cancer while working in Kato Manhattan after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, Mrs Fraterrigo said that Plucky had said.
“My dick is the only thing that holds me,” he said. “This is my company.”
Mrs Fraterrigo, who was born in Puerto Rico and was interrupted there with her husband over the years, would not think of traveling without relentlessly, said her son Robert Fraterrigo.
In December, he began to consider whether his mother could be clumsy on a flight, he said. While Frontier’s website mentions parrots, macaws, cockatoos, hunting birds as examples of large birds forbidden, says small household birds can be transported to domestic flights. In an online conversation with a customer service agent, Mr Fraterrigo said, he asked if his mother could bring her bird on a flight and said he had a letter of a doctor to describe it as an emotional support animal.
The agent replied, “Okay, that’s awesome,” adding that the letter was all he had to bring to the airport, according to snapshots of the exchanges provided by Mr Fraterrigo, a retired federal agent.
Plucky is 24 years old. It weighs less than 10 ounces and is about eight inches tall, according to its owner, who bought a bird-carrot backpack so that it can place the parrot under the seat in front of it.
“They let her go there with it,” Mr Fraterrigo said. “Bring her home. She’s on an island.”
Mr Fraterrigo said the frontier did not fall initially, returning the cost of the ticket (about $ 190) and giving his mother a $ 250 coupon. He said his mother was hysterical when he called him from the airport that night.
“The lights proved to be,” he said. “He was just staying there in a wheelchair.”
A few days later, he said, the Frontier appeared to be detached, asking if his mother had a veterinary inspection certificate for Plucky and the documentation that showed that he had been purchased in the United States. Mr Fraterrigo said the store where his mother had bought Plucky was able to find the files. It now had a new ticket: seat 3a.
As she prepared to return on Wednesday, Mrs Fraterrigo said she felt anxious. And so he was usually the companion of the trip.
“Plucky talks,” he said, “but Plucky doesn’t talk when he flies because he is nervous.”
