Guy Sneaks A Fat Cat On Board An Airplane, Gets Punished By The Airline After Landing
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Flying with pets is both tough and expensive. Things get even worse when you can’t keep them in the cabin with you and your four-legged companions are put in the cargo hold. Frustrated owners, who want to make sure their pets are safe and comfortable during the flight, try to avoid cargo hold like a plague. Some even go as far as trying to deceive airlines. Recently, Mikhail Galin, a man from Russia, went viral for doing exactly that – he smuggled his cat who didn’t meet the weight requirement onboard. However, his actions didn’t come without consequences, as Aeroflot’s airline decided to remove him from the frequent flyer program for disobeying the rules.
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Galin was traveling back to his hometown Vladivostok after a stay in Riga. The trip was disrupted when airport employees refused to let his adorable tubby tabby, named Viktor, fly in the cabin. They said that his rather chubby cat who weighs 22lbs is 5lbs over the allowed weight limit. According to Aeroflot’s policies, Viktor had to be placed in the cargo hold. However, Galin refused to let it happen.
Viktor’s owner told Bored Panda that his 4-year-old cat usually feels really bad during flights. Since it was not the first time Viktor flew on the plane, his owner already knew how he is affected by the changing air pressure and unfamiliar surroundings.
So the man came up with an elaborate plan to help his buddy stay close to him, by tricking airport employees into thinking that his cat is actually not that fat. And he did that in a rather simple way.
Galin posted a help request on his social media asking people if they could lend him a cat similar to Viktor. He managed to find an extremely similar cat who weighs much less than Victor. Then Galin swapped cats at the check-in and returned the borrowed cat to the friend successfully boarding the plane with Viktor in his hands.
The surveillance footage confirmed that Galin broke airline rules by switching Viktor for a similar cat. The airline made a decision to kick the man out from the frequent flyer program and take away the 400,000 miles from his account.
Here’s how people reacted
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Downvote me all you like, but I would do exactly the same, no virtual currency in any amount is worth the wellbeing of my gatto :D
Well. If the well-being of your cat is so important, which I agree with, you probably wouldn't have a chonk for a cat ;) Kitty needs a diet and some exercise!
My cat is on medication (steroids) because of her food allergies (no, they cannot be controlled by diet, we tried) and she's a chonker of a cat. It cannot be helped with some medications and what we're doing is actually the best for her, otherwise she suffers a lot of pain from sores on her skin. What would you suggest we do to not have a fat cat? Put her down? Fat shaming animals is very similar to fat shaming humans - you don't know their history, you don't know their health situation. Not to mention Mikhail's cat doesn't look obese, he just looks like a large cat.
OMG. How is there such a ridiculously strict weight limit for cats, but not Fat A@@ Humans!!! I would rather fly in a plane full of chonky tabbies than fat humans any day!!!!
Actually, airlines often make people over a certain weight purchase two seats. So, human or feline, still fat-shaming. And, yes, I understand about weight and flight. What I don’t like is why the issue can’t be handled with sensitivity instead of shaming.
it's not fat shaming to simply expect people to be able to fit in their chair.
fat shaming? On my flight to Spain last week there was a pretty large guy sitting on the aisle seat. I was at the window seat, but the girl sitting in the middle seat was almost pushed on my lap. She was pressed against me the whole 2 hrs. I decided to not really bother, but I really dont wanna fly like that on a long distance flight. And yeah I'm not the skinniest person myself, but I do fit in my chair.
It is to maintain weight balance during the flight, not for fat-shaming...
Having had a *very* overweight person sitting in my seat (on top of me) as well as her own, personally, I'll take the overweight tabby any day.
It all about the physics. Weight from ANY and ALL items on plane make a difference. They dictate how much fuel will be needed and how the plane will perform under certain conditions. Think of the difference between a fully loaded 18 wheeler and one not pulling anything, going the same speed, and both slam on their brakes, all other things being equal. The fully loaded one is gonna need more distance to stop because of the difference in weight. Its not so much this one cat as it needing to know the weight of everything all together. It's why they weigh your baggage, why you can only have a specific size carry on, why you big people need to buy two seats. Was it an actual risk for this one cat? No. But the REASONS for those rules are there to make sure the plan doesn't crash. You don't obey the rules, you might crash the plane. Period.
Well I weigh like 105 and there's no way a 15 or 20 lb cat will make a difference when I'm already way below. If i can weigh 200 lbs, I should be allowed to weigh 125 pounds with a cat.
So would I.
If it's that or putting him in the cargo hold, I think breaking the rule was 100% the way to go. I've heard too many stories about bad outcomes when pets are shipped like luggage.
I agree, animals are sentient beings, they do not belong to cargo hold; the airlines should find solution to this problem - provide an designated area for passengers with pets, get rid off the first class if necessary.
Downvote me all you like, but I would do exactly the same, no virtual currency in any amount is worth the wellbeing of my gatto :D
Well. If the well-being of your cat is so important, which I agree with, you probably wouldn't have a chonk for a cat ;) Kitty needs a diet and some exercise!
My cat is on medication (steroids) because of her food allergies (no, they cannot be controlled by diet, we tried) and she's a chonker of a cat. It cannot be helped with some medications and what we're doing is actually the best for her, otherwise she suffers a lot of pain from sores on her skin. What would you suggest we do to not have a fat cat? Put her down? Fat shaming animals is very similar to fat shaming humans - you don't know their history, you don't know their health situation. Not to mention Mikhail's cat doesn't look obese, he just looks like a large cat.
OMG. How is there such a ridiculously strict weight limit for cats, but not Fat A@@ Humans!!! I would rather fly in a plane full of chonky tabbies than fat humans any day!!!!
Actually, airlines often make people over a certain weight purchase two seats. So, human or feline, still fat-shaming. And, yes, I understand about weight and flight. What I don’t like is why the issue can’t be handled with sensitivity instead of shaming.
it's not fat shaming to simply expect people to be able to fit in their chair.
fat shaming? On my flight to Spain last week there was a pretty large guy sitting on the aisle seat. I was at the window seat, but the girl sitting in the middle seat was almost pushed on my lap. She was pressed against me the whole 2 hrs. I decided to not really bother, but I really dont wanna fly like that on a long distance flight. And yeah I'm not the skinniest person myself, but I do fit in my chair.
It is to maintain weight balance during the flight, not for fat-shaming...
Having had a *very* overweight person sitting in my seat (on top of me) as well as her own, personally, I'll take the overweight tabby any day.
It all about the physics. Weight from ANY and ALL items on plane make a difference. They dictate how much fuel will be needed and how the plane will perform under certain conditions. Think of the difference between a fully loaded 18 wheeler and one not pulling anything, going the same speed, and both slam on their brakes, all other things being equal. The fully loaded one is gonna need more distance to stop because of the difference in weight. Its not so much this one cat as it needing to know the weight of everything all together. It's why they weigh your baggage, why you can only have a specific size carry on, why you big people need to buy two seats. Was it an actual risk for this one cat? No. But the REASONS for those rules are there to make sure the plan doesn't crash. You don't obey the rules, you might crash the plane. Period.
Well I weigh like 105 and there's no way a 15 or 20 lb cat will make a difference when I'm already way below. If i can weigh 200 lbs, I should be allowed to weigh 125 pounds with a cat.
So would I.
If it's that or putting him in the cargo hold, I think breaking the rule was 100% the way to go. I've heard too many stories about bad outcomes when pets are shipped like luggage.
I agree, animals are sentient beings, they do not belong to cargo hold; the airlines should find solution to this problem - provide an designated area for passengers with pets, get rid off the first class if necessary.