by Lacey Pfalz
Last updated: 11:03 AM ET, Mon March 22, 2021
Earlier this year, several airlines banned labeling emotional support animals as service animals, which means that they might have to be flown in the cargo hold.
ValuePenguin surveyed 1,550 Americans aged 18-75, revealing their sentiments about the ban, their experiences with emotional support animals on flights and more.
Americans are overall unsure of whether or not animals should be allowed on board. 34% say they support the emotional animal travel ban, 30% do not, 20% believe that they should be allowed for those who truly need them, while 16% didn't care either way.
No matter what, 80% of Americans with pets said they'd rather pay extra to keep their pets out of the cargo hold during the flight. The majority of those would pay up to $200 to do so, with only 1 in 5 individuals willing to pay more than $300.
Forty-eight percent of Americans feel happy when they see an animal on board because they love animals. Almost 60% of Americans surveyed said they'd rather sit next to an emotional support animal than an infant or toddler. However, almost 2 in 5 travelers have had a negative incident relating to an emotional support animal on board a flight.
Delta's senior vice president of corporate safety and security mentioned an 85% increase in animal incidents since 2016, due largely in part to the rising trend of registering animals as emotional support animals and allowing them onboard.
1 in 5 Americans, or 19%, who own pets have attempted to register them as emotional support animals, and 90% have succeeded. Millennials were the largest generation group which did so primarily to allow their pet onboard a flight, while Gen X-ers were the second-highest group to do so, with over double the amount of those who registered their animals saying they did so because they wanted to bring them on their flights with them.
Gen Z individuals were the third-largest group to register their pets, but flying with them was not the main reason why they chose to register them.
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