An airline traveler was shocked when they were reportedly asked to give up their seat to make room for a dog.

The unhappy passenger shared their experience on Reddit, expressing frustration with the situation they encountered. They claimed that a service dog was ‘too large to fit on the floor’ and therefore was permitted to occupy their seat during a United Airlines flight from San Diego to Denver.

“I boarded a flight from SAN to DEN and an enormous ‘service’ dog was sitting on my seat,” the passenger stated.

“He was way too big to fit on the floor. The flight attendant was a few rows away and when asked if she saw the dog, she just shrugged.

“My husband and I tried to resolve it with the passenger but there was no way that dog could fit under his legs in his window seat. Since we were told that it was a completely full flight, and the dog was taking my seat, I thought I was going to get bumped off the flight by this dog.”

The passenger recounted that eventually a flight attendant managed to find them another seat, while the dog remained on their original seat, which they found ‘absurd’.

“A United staff member came onboard and spoke to the passenger but the dog remained,” they added.

“Finally, somehow they located another seat for me. The dog stayed on my seat for the whole flight. Totally absurd that an oversized dog can displace a paying passenger from their seat. United needs to crack down on passengers abusing the ‘service’ animal allowance.”

“How can someone be allowed onboard with a dog that big without buying an extra seat?

“United’s policy is that service dogs ‘can’t be in the aisle or the floor space of the travelers next to you’. Also it is nasty to have a dog outside of a carrier sitting on passengers’ seats with his butt on the armrests.

“The gate agents carefully check the size my carry-on, but apparently they don’t monitor the size of people’s ‘service’ dogs! WTH?!”

The incident sparked a lot of debate, with many people sharing their views in the comments.

One person remarked: “Service dogs are required to sit on the floor at the passenger’s feet. Not on a seat. This is for the animal’s safety since it can’t wear a proper seatbelt.”

Another individual commented: “As a disability lawyer, you need to start making mass complaints to the airline. They know that an SD has to be either: in the floor space and or under the seat in front of its handler, or the handler has to purchase a second seat. If the dog encroaches on another passenger’s foot space (or seat), the handler has to buy a second seat, and the dog can be IN the FOOT space of the their seat, and the 2nd seat. A non-lap dog can NOT be in the seat for takeoff & landing.”

A third commenter noted that the dog ‘should have been removed from the seat’ regardless of whether the passenger was relocated or not.

According to the United Airlines website: “Your dog should sit in the floor space in front of your seat. They can’t be in the aisle or the floor space of the travelers next to you.”