United Airlines faces criticism over seating arrangement for large service dog

They further commented on what they perceived as an inconsistency in airline policies: "Your dog should sit in the floor space in front of your seat... It is nasty to have a dog outside of a carrier sitting on passengers’ seats with his butt on the armrests."

United Airlines responded to an inquiry from Simple Flying regarding their policy: "Our policy calls for service animals to sit either in the floor space in front of a customer or in the customer’s lap... Occasionally, we may ask other customers to consider changing seats to accommodate a larger service animal."

This is not an isolated incident; last month, a similar situation occurred on a Delta Air Lines flight when a first-class passenger had to move back to economy class due to a service dog's presence.

Service dogs are trained to assist individuals with disabilities and are generally allowed by airlines under specific guidelines. While smaller dogs can be accommodated more easily, larger ones require additional consideration.